House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves Might Have to Keep Freeman Regardless

By Alan Carpenter

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Feb 27, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; General aerial view of Fenway Park and the downtown Boston skyline. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

AL EAST

  • Yankees.  Mark Teixeira.  I have seen a suggestion that they could get Freeman and then flip Tex somewhere else.  That won’t happen (he’d have to approve a deal).  Besides… why (now that he’d more-or-less healthy)?
  • Boston.  Thanks to stupid signings from last year, they are stuck with having to play Hanley Ramirez at first base so that the Panda can occupy the third base zip code.
  • Tampa Bay.  See Pittsburgh.
  • Toronto.  They need pitching in the worst way and chewed up their farm system in the past year or so.  If they offered Max Pentecost for Julio Teheran, I’d help him pack his bags, but they won’t use him for Freeman since Justin Smoak and Edwin Encarnacion share time there.
  • Baltimore.  Have need with Chris Davis hitting free agency, but between ownership’s unwillingness to spend and Matt Wieters accepting his Qualifying Offer, this puts them in a real bind.  Their top pitching prospects are having health issues, but C Chance Sisco (AA) might be interesting.  Heck, give us him and Adam Jones and we’ll send Markakis back with Freeman.  Yeah… not gonna happen.

AL CENTRAL

AL WEST

  • Angels.  Some guy named Pujols.
  • HOUSTON.  Luis Valbuena, who is normally a third baseman, so that’s not a horrible fit.  They’d probably rather have Julio Teheran and I’d rather offer him. Also hand-cuffed a bit because I really don’t think they wanted Colby Rasmus to accept that Qualifying Offer.
  • Seattle.  Mark Trumbo… so they have a need and they could non-tender him.  But their payroll is bloated and their farm system is vastly under-performing.
  • Texas.  Prince Fielder.
  • Oakland.  Have need.  See Cleveland… though reducing the payroll number to $84 million.

Next: Is Coppy Really Shopping Everybody?

Summing Up

So of the 29 options, that comes down to the Cardinals or the Astros… and of those, I’d pin the odds as 20% and 5% respectively based on their individual scenarios.  I’ll throw in a 1% nod to Boston in case they were to get creative, but as with several clubs, I would expect more actual interest for Julio Teheran than in Freddie Freeman.  Maybe 2% for San Diego just… because.

So it’s the Cardinals or bust, really.

And with that, it might be time to simply let this one go and stop making plans to burn our Freddie Freeman shirts and jerseys.

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