Atlanta Braves Acquire First Baseman Matt Adams

The Atlanta Braves announced a trade no one expected this afternoon acquiring Matt Adams from the Cardinals for minor league infielder Juan Yepez.

I guess the Atlanta Braves were tired of showing Driven to start rain delays. When today’s game came back from commercial, Chip Caray and Joe Simpson told us that the Braves had just acquire Matt Adams and cash from the St Louis Cardinals for minor league infield Juan Yepez.

Atlanta Braves needed a first baseman St Louis had one to spare

According to

speaking from the Fox Sports South booth during the rain delay, the Braves had been in discussions with St Louis before the

came on board. The Loney deal was done on Friday so essentially as soon as they got confirmation

would be out for a prolonged period they contact the Cardinals.

Obviously the Cardinals assumed they had leverage. After all they had a power hitting first baseman they were  willing to move and the Braves badly needed one. Except the Braves refused to jump at the first ask. . .or the second, third. . Hart said the Cardinals went through a long list of  players they wanted but that the Braves would not discuss before agreeing on Yepez.

Even more interesting to me is that the Cardinals included cash.  Yepez is a good young player but he’s in A ball with a .275/.309/.387 line in 152 AB this year; they paid us to take Adams off their hands. The amounts haven’t been announced yet but Adams contract was only $2.8M contract this year and has about 1.85M still due. He’s also under control for 2018, his last arbitration year.

Why? Well they had no place to put him. Matheny decided in the spring to play Matt Carpenter at first base in order to keep Aledmys Diaz, Jedd Gyorko and or Jhonny Peralta in the lineup. They tried to make him a left fielder but for obvious reasons that didn’t work so they had an unhappy player on their bench. Still it’s surprising they are giving us any money.

What do we get with Adams

Adams is 28-years old (29 in August), 6’3”, 260 pound left hand hitting right hand throwing first baseman with considerable pop. His best season was 2014 when he played in 142 games posting a .288/321/.457/779 line that included 15 homers, 34 doubles and five triples. He also struck out 114 times and walked just 26. We saw his pop up close earlier this year.

For the sabermetrically inclined 2014 saw him post a .337 wOBA and 166 wRC+ both numbers down slight from 2013.

His missed three months of the 2015 season with a strained quad and played in only 60 games that year. In 2016 he had a series on minor injuries – lower back strain, should strain and wrist injury – that limited him to 118 games.  He still offered power, delivering 16 homers and 18 doubles while posting a .249/.309/.471/.780 line.

As you might expect he kills right-handed pitching with a career line .285/.332/.478/.810 including 47 homer, 75 doubles and four triples in 1162 AB. Left handers give him real problem however, restricting him to a .210/.240/.348/.589 line. The good news is that there aren’t many left hand starters around.

Defensively the metrics have him as a league average player and Baseball Prospectus said his 2016 performance was worth 9.3 FRAA. Other years looked about league average.

That’s A Wrap

Adams can’t replace Freeman; the way Freddie was playing that would be nearly impossible. He is however a real first baseman with power and a presence in the line that will make pitchers consider their work carefully.

Hart told Chip and Joe that the move was intended as a message to the fan that they were working hard to improve the team. He went onto say that it was also a message to the team that the way they were playing was appreciated.

Adams was unhappy with his playing situation in St Louis. He’s always been a first baseman but though he was lost in left field he tried valiantly to make the transition. It just wasn’t realistic.

Hart said Adams had slimmed down and looked extremely fit. I expect him to arrive raring to go and start off hot.

Next: Other moves you may have misssed

There remains one unanswered question – or two actually. The first is whose 25 man spot does he take? Will they go back to a seven man bullpen or stay with eight? If they stay with eight who goes down. Those decisions will determine who loses their 40 man spot.

They won’t make an announcement until after the game but considering the emphasis on the bullpen lately I suspect an everyday player goes down. Now, who should that be?

Update 12:08 CST: The MLBTR piece says the Braves designated Anthony Recker for assignment to clear a 40 man roster spot. That makes it unlikely Emilio Bonifacio or Danny Santana will be sent down as either player would have to be DFA. Unless of course something else is happening requiring a second roster spot which seem a long, long shot at best.

The most likely and in my view ill-advised is to send slick fielding utility player Johan Camargo or third baseman Rio Ruiz back to Gwinnett. Both players have more hits this season for Atlanta than Santana in fewer AB and are simply better players in every way than Bonifacio.