Atlanta Braves rumors: it’s Mid-January, so things are getting nutty

At some point, the free agent dam has to burst this Winter… but some rumors are just…odd and complicated.

Today’s offering from former GM Jim Bowden is similar to the last one – in that he’s still concerned about the Atlanta Braves‘ third base situation.

Now mind you – Fred just detailed the current situation as we know it, including the note straight from Alex Anthopoulos that while he’s looking for a stop-gap veteran, the third base position is looking like a competition between Rio Ruiz and Johan Camargo.

So with that as the backdrop, here’s the nugget from Jim:

There’s a lot of moving parts to this one, so I’m probably going to end up giving this more credibility than it deserves, but here goes…

1. I expect a lot of transactions to happen in these next 2 weeks – between now and the end of January.

There’s simply a lot of team building that needs to be done around the league and it really needs to start happening.  Whether that takes the form of teams deciding to pay up or free agents taking what they can… still hard to say.  Somebody will blink, though, and the ink will start flowing.

2. Milwaukee is one of those ‘cusp’ teams.

They were oh-so-close last year, and it makes sense that they’d feel the urge to make the one or two moves to try and best the Cubs and Cardinals – especially while each team is waiting on things to happen (more so the Cubs than the Cards).

Now what doesn’t make sense to me is why Milwaukee would want to add Moustakas and then trade away the player that had the highest fWAR for them during the 2017 season in the person of 3B Travis Shaw.

That’s the part of Bowden’s tweet that is the most odd – that with other holes (CF, maybe 2B), that they’d spend big to get Moose when Shaw is essentially the same player – and still pre-arbitration.

Heck, if I were to going to spend that money, I’d be going for Lorenzo Cain or perhaps Jon Jay if they wanted a shorter term budget option.

But for the moment, let’s assume that Bowden actually heard something legit about the Brewers and Moustakas.

3.  There are third-base-needy teams out there. 

The Braves are one of them.  So are the Yankees.  So are the Mets.  So are the Royals, for that matter.

It’s not unreasonable to think that Milwaukee has had a conversation with another team in which they agreed to the idea of a swap for Travis Shaw for _____ if they could land another player – like Moustakas.  Perhaps somebody who would help fill out their rotation.

The Braves probably wouldn’t mind having Shaw for the 4 years of control.  The Yankees wouldn’t mind either – he meets their payroll needs, for sure.  Ditto for the Mets, though I would wonder if they’d have to give up a major-league pitcher to do so.

In the case of the Braves and Yankees, Shaw could be flipped easily if another option became available… like Manny Machado for the Yankees (even if he does want to play SS) or Austin Riley for the Braves.

The Mets?  They’d keep Shaw for the duration.

Let’s Humor Him

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves Mailbag: New Year’s Edition
• Braves News: Atlanta makes a pair of trades, prospect debuts, more
• Atlanta Braves History: How the Red Stockings became the Braves
• Braves News: Atlanta Braves acquire Eli White from the Texas Rangers
• Atlanta Braves Swing Trade with the New York Yankees for Lucas Luetge

So what would you give up for Travis Shaw?  Here’s his credentials:

• Nearly 28 years old
• 3 ML seasons, 2 with Red Sox/1 Brewers
• .260 career average, .273 in 2017.  OBP was .349
• OPS in the .800 range (.862 in 2017)
• Average to above-average defense
• Arbitration eligible in 2019
• 60 ML homers – 31 of those in 2017… would certainly fill the Braves’ power gap.

Is he worth an ‘extra’ starting pitcher that the Braves have?  Probably.  But would they do it, given that Anthopoulos has been going out of his way to tell people that he’s reluctant to pull the trigger on anything big right now until he can figure out what he’s got?

Next: Nope - I Don't Know Either.

As I say, I think I’m giving this speculation from Bowden a lot more legs than it deserves, but hey – we’ve gottastart up this hot stove at some point, right?