Atlanta Braves have checked in with Marlins about Yelich

Yes, this is news.. but don’t get too excited about it.  Okay, at least not yet.

Earlier today, we wrapped up (for the moment) our series on how the off-seasons are going for the rest of the NL East.  The Atlanta Braves, of course, have kept things relatively quiet thus far.

So now this crops up:

Okay… no big surprise.  I outlined the reasons that this should happen earlier.

But then Morosi hit the gas pedal for us…

Figures.  Of all the teams he could have possibly named specifically, it had to be the Braves.  The Miami Herald went a bit further in its report tonight:

"St. Louis, Atlanta, San Diego and Arizona are among many teams that have reportedly shown interest in the 24-year-old Yelich, who hit .282 with 18 homers and 81 RBI last season and is a .290 career hitter. Yelich was on base the seventh-most times of any National League hitter last season."

Okay, there’s 3 other clubs at least.

Still, at this point, you can file this news in the Captain Obvious folder alongside things like “Water is Wet” and “Coffee is served hot”.

Having the Braves – or practically any other team you could think of – checking in with the Marlins about the Marlins’ remaining stars is just ‘good business’.  Yelich (and Realmuto – the Herald names him in this, too) are talents worth having and are certainly worth a ‘well, what did you have in mind?’ call.

The Herald article went on to suggest something that I had personally ruled out – that the Marlins might still want to ‘attach’ salary to such a deal in order to get their payroll even lower.  Until proven otherwise, I’m still thinking that they are bent on amassing prospects more than in trying to lower payroll much further.

There is one  aspect to this that the Marlins might have to consider, though:  if no team is willing to part with the best of their best prospects, then buying down payroll would be one way to still make it work for them – at the expense of rebuilding their farm system to the fullest.  but if Derek Jeter, et al, believes that the money is at least as important as a refilled farm system, then by golly, it will happen that way.

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos’ views on the offseason so far
• Braves News: Dansby goes to the Cubs, prospect rankings, more
• The Paradox of Dansby Swanson
• Report: Dansby Swanson to sign seven year deal with Chicago Cubs
• Braves News: Braves add multiple new players, Max Fried extension?, more

The Herald names these contracts:

• Brad Ziegler – $9 million
• Junichi Tazawa – $7 million
• Martin Prado – $28.5 million (2 years)

I’d throw in Starlin Castro’s name, too (roughly $22m over next 2 years, plus buyout), but he might actually have some value, and the Fish need to put somebody useful out on the field, right?

But while all of this is strictly hypothetical, there is something that might be very real:  with both of these players now on the market, their availability will probably serve to gum up the already molasses-slow free agent and trade process for a while longer.

That would impact the Braves and everybody else scratching about in search of team improvements.

Next: What's Freddie Up to Now?

Leaving out the Marlins, of course.