Atlanta Braves reportedly now offering four years for Josh Donaldson

There’s More

Bowden’s information is that if Donaldson ends up signing elsewhere, the Braves ‘he’s been told’ will “pivot” to Marcel Ozuna or Nick Castellanos.

Both offer less production on the offensive side as Donaldson, and both have – let’s say ‘issues’ defensively – but Atlanta clearly needs a bat to support and lengthen their lineup for 2020 and perhaps beyond.

For his part, Bowden told listeners this morning that he’d want an MRI of Ozuna’s shoulder before committing to him because of throwing concerns, but that’s a side issue as this point – teams would undoubtedly do that kind of ‘due diligence’.

This revelation would certainly explain why neither of these players have signed yet – as clients of super-agent Scott Boras, part of their playbook is to leverage the most demand they can create, and thus they should be content to wait for Donaldson to sign… which could bring the Braves or others into the picture for these outfielders.

As a result – and again, based on everything we’ve already been seeing this Winter – these GMs are expecting both players to hit $20 million annually before they sign.

In this scenario, Atlanta could still explore the trade market for a third baseman or attempt to resolve the position internally – with Johan Camargo and/or Austin Riley. But if Donaldson’s bids are up in the stratosphere approaching $28 million per season, then other options start becoming more attractive.

But back to Donaldson… at what point would you have to say ‘he’s just too expensive’ and then try something else.  Well, we’ve got to be getting close right?