How did Atlanta Braves reliever Shane Greene become the villain?
What are the Options?
In all honesty, the idea of dumping Greene in the non-tender bin seems oddly stupid.
At $6.5 million, he does possess closer ‘stuff’… that much is clear from his 2019 stats, even if he didn’t show that consistently over the last couple of months. This day-and-age… that’s not a terrible number.
A non-tender decision would serve to turn the trade deal itself into a pricey mistake.
Wentz himself wasn’t bad at all for the Braves in the minors, but in his 25.2 innings on Detroit’s Erie Seawolves club, he was brilliant: 13K/9, 1.4 BB/9, 2.10 ERA, 0.935 WHIP.
It’s still a trek for him to reach the majors, but Wentz is not the kind of player you want to shed for a scant 2 months from a relief pitcher.
Tucker raised the point, though, because of the others now on the roster and in the bullpen, Greene’s coming arbitration contract is one that the Braves actually have a choice about.
Melancon has a no-trade clause – he waived it to come to Atlanta – but asking him to do so to go elsewhere now would be problematic… particularly since his contract is a bit unwieldy as it is.
The Braves might do well to even sell him at half price, never mind selling him to a team that he’d be willing to accept (and 2 relocations in 4 months? That might not go over well). So he’s probably all but locked in.
Beyond that, Atlanta clearly wanted Smith (having just inked him, duh) and the same goes for O’Day – though the latter’s contract is quite manageable.
Atlanta could attempt to trade Shane Greene… he should have good value… but would that be the right move? Unless he were sent back to the American league, there would be a decent chance that the deal could bite the Braves at some point in 2020.
Still – you kinda like that amount of quality bullpen depth – particularly when 2 of the 4 members noted will be 35+ years old by Opening Day.
Much Ado About Nothing?
This is the point where you’d have to wonder is this fretting over the payroll size is warranted.
Will Smith’s signing was a bit unusual in that there was something of a deadline imposed: his agent was making noises about taking the Qualifying Offer he was given if there were no acceptable multi-year offers on the table.
Yet Atlanta went above and beyond here despite having obvious, bona fide needs at other positions (catcher, third base, and starting pitching).
It’s kind of like buying a new leather couch for your already well-furnished living room when the refrigerator just gave out. Why would you do such a thing? Only if you know you’ve still got enough money for the fridge.
Perhaps we’ve been conditioned for disappointment in see the ways in which the Atlanta Braves spend their monies after seeing years in which the team had one of the highest payrolls in all of baseball only to see those numbers fall back into the 20’s overall.
Yes – admittedly, the recent financial reports have this author spooked a bit after early enthusiasm. But things have been trending up in recent years… and the logic of the process (more than the math) seems to suggest continued upticks.