The pace of last Winter’s baseball business was fitting for the weather: glacially paced. The Atlanta Braves are having none of that so far this year.
At this moment in time (Sunday evening), a quick look at all signed Free Agents will reveal something remarkable: of 11 signed players, six of them are now members of the Atlanta Braves.
One of those is Gerardo Parra, who signed in Japan, so you could argue that it’s actually 6 of 10 signing with MLB clubs.
- Nick Markakis – technically a free agent for about 20 seconds whilst he inked a replacement contract.
- Tyler Flowers – same thing, but it still counts
- Darren O’Day – don’t forget him: we haven’t seen much of the sidewinder, but that’s set to change in 2020
- Will Smith – ranked as the best relief option on the market
- Chris Martin – a top 5-ranked free agent reliever, and one that won’t have to get acclimated to the Atlanta area.
- Travis d’Arnaud – the newest, and the completion of the catching corps for 2020
Now comes… the hard part?
From here, there are 2 more pressing needs and everything after that is gravy: third base and a frontline starter.
What follows from here continues to be a recurring theme – the cost of a championship-caliber team… but there’s a pattern developing.
At this point, the Atlanta Braves have roughly a minimum payroll commitment of $120 million.
That may leave something between $20 and $30 million for those last 2 positions… and in truth, they need to be impact players.
Sure – we can project that the bullpen will improve on the 22 or 23 blown saves recorded in 2019 (depending on the source), but those arms are not going to win many games with their bats, nor insure that the rotation covers the 400 innings that Dallas Keuchel and Julio Teheran might have done).
Happy Anniversary?
The post date for this review is Monday, November 25, 2019. It was on Monday, November 26, 2018 that Josh Donaldson chose to become an Atlanta Brave.
A year ago, he cost $23 million to acquire – a premium amount for this ‘pillow’ contract.
Estimates on what Donaldson will receive in 2020 begin above the $20 million mark, depending on the term length… but one wonders how long Donaldson might wait this year for his market to come together.
That kind of contract wouldn’t leave much for a starter… unless there’s some real slight-of-hand is coming for an emerging starter that some team is willing to trade. If last year’s trade market for pitching is any indication, that’s gonna be a hard sell.
Even if Mike Moustakas were to end up as the target, that’s almost certainly still putting the Braves into tight quarters for cost of acquiring more pitching.
Yet Alex Anthopoulos continue to spend money as if that’s not a big concern… he’s not going after the bottom-feeder catchers who might cost $1-2 million. He’s not going after cheap relief help.
In fact, he’s shopping at the high end of the catalog: the most expensive reliever, another one who’s among the highest estimated, and now a catcher for a price above the MLB Trade Rumors estimated contract value.
This is not a man who is spending like his checking account is empty.
Braves Country has been begging Liberty Media to spend money. Perhaps this is that year.
Brother to Brother
The acquisition of Travis d’Arnaud will mean that both d’Arnaud brothers (Chase) will have been members of the Atlanta Braves for parts of their careers.
What’s also amusing is that this isn’t the first time Atlanta has hired a player who had a brother in the music business. In this case, Chase was a ball player first and a bandsman second.
Matt Diaz‘ brother Jonny ditched the baseball life track early on after getting a scholarship to play the sport at Florida State – just like big brother Matt. After that, he went full time in pursuit of what has been a successful Contemporary Christian music career.
Atlanta has employed brothers before… some of them at the same time:
- Hank and Tommie Aaron
- B.J. and Justin Upton
- J.D. and Tim Drew
- Rick and Mickey Mahler
- Phil and Joe Niekro
- Joe and Frank Torre
- Jimmy and Johnny Cooney (back in 1928)
- Joe and Red Shannon (1915)
All except those noted have happened since 1960 and put the Braves with as many brother-brother combinations as any team has ever had.
Of course that all depends on how you count the bizarre situation in 1963 where the Giants had three Alou brothers (Felipe, Matty, Jesus) all on their roster simultaneously… including this box score where all 3 were playing the outfield at the same time in a blowout over Pittsburgh.
I really love baseball!