Atlanta Braves: My week as Braves GM

A deal to bring in an ace

The San Francisco Giants sent Brian Sabean to the meetings, and he was the one doing all of the talking, keeping their new GM at bay. Heck, if you didn’t know who she was, you’d never have caught her name!

He was at the hotel the first night, and at the side of the pool, he described a financial mess in San Francisco and the need to make an unpopular move because of it. I was interested, but I had my notes from Anthopoulos on who to give up for what, and what my budget could be.

The Giants needed to trim at least $15 million from their 2019 budget, and preferably at least $15 million from 2020 as well if possible. The first player mentioned was Buster Posey, but I said no to that.

I mentioned that the Braves would be willing to pursue Madison Bumgarner and include one of the pre-arbitration pitchers in the system as part of the deal. We spent 2 hours discussing his preferred pre-arbitration arm, but that was just $12 million.

I mentioned a reliever, and he quickly brought up Mark Melancon. I then countered with his lefty relievers. This went back and forth for another 2 hours.

Around 1 AM, Sabean and I sat down and drew out the prospects to fill out the deal and the finances involved.

In the end, here’s what we finalized…

Atlanta Braves receive: Madison Bumgarner, Mark Melancon (plus $4M in 2020 for his salary), and Will Smith

San Francisco Giants receive: Sean Newcomb, Alex Jackson, Drew Waters, and Jesse Biddle