Atlanta Braves’ big bats from the past and how they were acquired

As we wait to see what the Atlanta Braves will do for their lineup, let’s see how they did things in the past.

The elusive “big bat” is not something unique to the 2020 Atlanta Braves.  In fact, for this pitching-rich club, it’s been almost an annual event that some hitter needed to be added.  Here’s a run-down of the biggest such deals.

1991 – Terry Pendleton.  Won the MVP for the National League this year and finished 2nd in 1992 with the best seasons he ever had.  Was also a defensive standout, winning the Gold Glove (his third one) in 1992.

ACQUIRED:  Signed as a free agent to a 4-year, $10 million deal, which covered his age 30-33 seasons.

Atlanta also signed free agent Deion Sanders that same Winter after he was released by the Yankees.

1993 – Fred McGriff.  Acquired via trade from the San Diego Padres for 3 prospects.  To say that Atlanta won this trade is a strong understatement.  McGriff was an All-Star and generated 11.1 bWAR of production from 1993-97.

Really back in 1987, but arrived in 1995 – Javy Lopez.  Lopez was signed as an International free agent in 1987 and became established in the majors in 1994 as a 23-year-old.  He hit 214 homers as a Braves through 2003.

1995 – Marquis Grissom.  Not exactly a ‘big bat’, but won 2 Gold Gloves in his 2 Atlanta Braves seasons while also hitting 23 homers in 1996 and getting some MVP consideration.

ACQUIRED:  Traded from the Montreal Expos to Atlanta for Roberto Kelly, Tony Tarasco, and Esteban Yan.

Grissom was traded to Cleveland the next season for Kenny Lofton.  That worked… kinda… for Atlanta, though Lofton’s steal numbers dropped from 75 (1996 with Cleveland) to 27 (1997).  He returned to the Indians as a free agent the very next year… and stole 54 bases.

1998 – Andres Galarraga.  Was only able to muster two full seasons as a Brave (1998 and 2000), but hit .300+ both seasons with big production (100+ RBI, 72 total homers).  Was an All Star both years.

ACQUIRED:  Signed as a free agent once leaving the Rockies.  Roughly 3 years, $25 million.  Moved on to the Rangers after that.

1999 – Brian Jordan.  His best days were as a Cardinal, but still managed 9.9 bWAR from 1999-2001.

ACQUIRED:  Signed as a free agent from St. Louis for his age 32-34 seasons.  Made $21.3 million in those seasons.

2002 – Gary Sheffield.  A healthy 11.2 bWAR with 64 homers and 216 RBI in just two tomahawking seasons during his age 33 and 34 seasons.  One of the more feared hitters in baseball… third base coaches tended to wander away from their post when he came to the plate.

ACQUIRED:  Traded from the Dodgers to Atlanta for Andrew Brown, Brian Jordan, and Odalis Perez.

Winter of 2003:  J.D. Drew.  While he only was in Atlanta for one season, he made it count:  this was Drew’s career year, bar none.  An 8.3 bWAR was fueled by a 1.006 OPS, .305 average, 31 homers, and 93 RBI.

Yet with all that, he was only 6th in the MVP voting.  Oh yeah… there were guys named Bonds, Beltre, and Pujols above him (for starters).

ACQUIRED:  Traded with Eli Marrero from St. Louis to the Braves for Ray King, Jason Marquis, and … (sigh) Adam Wainwright.  That’s a blockbuster deal right there.

July 2007:  Mark Teixeira.  Overall, the Georgia Tech alum did his job… 6.1 bWAR over almost exactly one full season.  But at this point, The Streak was broken, and the attempt to get things back on track with his addition failed.

Along the way, there were two of the most notorious trades in stream history.

ACQUIRED:  via trade from Texas (with Ron Mahay) to the Braves for Beau Jones, Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia.  You might have heard of some of those guys.

DUMPED:  via trade 364 days later to the Angels for Stephen Marak and Casey Kotchman.

Nov 2010: Dan Uggla.  The Marlins were penny-pinching and refused to give Uggla what he wanted, so they sent him to the Braves, who did just that… a 4 year extension worth $52 million that started in the 2012 season.

This started promising, but ended poorly:  4.5 bWAR in 2011 and 2012 (with 55 homers), but disaster after that.

ACQUIRED:  from the Florida Marlins for Mike Dunn and Omar Infante.

Winter of 2012:  B.J. (Melvin) Upton Jr.  The hand-writing was on the wall for this one, and right away, Braves fans were kind of gritting their teeth in the hopes that this deal would work out in the end.  It didn’t.

Over 2 seasons of that contract (2013-14), Melvin produced a bWAR value of -1.8.  It wasn’t pretty.

ACQUIRED:  Signed as a free agent for a whopping 5 years and $75 million.  The Braves talked San Diego into taking him (and Craig Kimbrel) in April of 2015 for some spare parts and Carlos Quentin‘s contract.

About a month later:  Justin Upton.  B.J. wanted his brother to join him, so… that’s what happened.

Justin spent two seasons in Atlanta (2013-14), generating close to the kind of production that his brother should have done:  5.9 bWAR.  This came with 55 homers, and roughly .820 OPS.  He earned a Silver Slugger award in 2014 and made the All-Star team in 2015… as a Padre.

ACQUIRED:  via trade with Arizona with Chris Johnson for Nick Ahmed, Randall Delgado, Brandon Drury, Martin Prado, and Zeke Spruill.  An interesting deal for both sides.

TRADED to San Diego in December 2014 with Aaron Northcraft for Max Fried, Dustin Peterson, Jace Peterson, and Mallex Smith.  This officially began The Rebuild Years.

Nov. 2018:  Josh Donaldson.  This was risky due to recent injury history, but it paid off for the Braves in a big way.

Donaldson led the team with 6.0 bWAR and his best season wince 2016.  It was a “pillow” contract of one year to allow him to prove himself… though $23 million makes an awfully comfortable pillow.  37 homers, .900 OPS and some MVP votes.  Nice.

ACQUIRED:  free agent signing, $23 million for 1 year.

2020: Marcell Ozuna.  After waiting out for Donaldson’s final call… which landed him in Minnesota… the Braves decided to turn to Ozuna to see if the same 1-year technique would work.

It did… for at least the length of a 60 game season.  This was Ozuna’s best year … possibly ever, given pro-rated numbers (2.6 actual bWAR over the short year).  His 1.007 OPS was certainly tops of his career and showed what a healthy shoulder would allow him to do.

ACQUIRED:  free agent signing, $18 million for 1 year.

That’s the list so far:  most of these were free-agent acquisitions along with a few trades… some of those better than others.

The trick now is that the free-agent market is thin (Ozuna and Springer and few others), so the competition is likely to be fierce in January.  But time’s getting late for the Atlanta Braves to make a move.