Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: rumors of pursuit of Realmuto pits employer against employee

Pursuing of Pollock for the Paddock?

This would be good to see.  Having another 800-level-OPS bat would be helpful.

This news sprung up almost immediately once the Braves learned that the Carter Stewart grievance had been decided in the favor of Atlanta, which meant that they now – as of this moment – will have 4 picks in the Top 100 for June’s amateur draft.

If you missed that saga, Stewart was the Braves #8 overall pick this Summer in the Rule 4 amateur draft, but the 2 sides failed to come to terms for the stated reason of a wrist injury that the Braves were unaware of. 

We had heard hearsay evidence back and forth about ‘what might have been known and when’, but an arbitrator has sided with the Braves’ version of events, so Atlanta gets their compensation pick (#9 in 2019) and Stewart will re-enter the draft after a Ju-Co season in Florida.

Terms and Conditions Apply

It is plausible to think that Atlanta would be willing to sacrifice one of these (it would be a second round pick somewhere in the vicinity of 60th overall) to sign A.J. Pollock despite his Qualifying Offer (QO) status.

In fact, the question has to be asked about what kind of contract Pollock might be willing to accept right now, given that stylish QO straitjacket that he’s wearing.

As noted earlier, catcher Yasmani Grandal signed a ‘pillow’ style contract for 1 year that will work off that condition from him in a year’s time.

Pollock may have to accept a similar deal – not necessarily only because of the QO, but because teams are a bit leery of his injury history to offer anything close to a 5-to-6 year pact.  A year without major pine (or hospital) time could go a long way toward allowing him to reenter the market after 2019 with momentum, as he cannot be saddled with the QO again.

The Braves could – and perhaps should – work to take advantage of that situation, though admittedly, the taste of losing a high draft pick might be more palatable if a 2nd year option were available on the contract.

As you can see, Olney didn’t name any other free agent outfielders that the Braves are supposedly speaking with, but frankly speaking, the answer would be “all of them”.

Of the more viable ones still on the free agent market (some more viable than others), we have these…

• Nick Markakis
• Derek Dietrich
• Marwin Gonzalez
• Adam Jones
• Gerardo Parra
• 2 different ‘CarGo’s
• Neil Walker (infielder who played a bit in RF for the Yankees last year)
• Avisail Garcia
• Denard Span

…hence the interest about Pollock – once you get past Dietrich or Marwin Gonzalez on that list, the options decline quickly.