Atlanta Braves Hot Stove Report – January 7, 2019

Welcome back to the Hot Stove Report, your semi-regular capsule of all of the off-season news, rumors, transactions, and winter league action for the Atlanta Braves. Check in with us every Monday through the start of spring training as we sift though everything Braves.

After a short break for the holidays, we’ll be back to carry you through this off-season. It’s been a quiet three weeks for the Braves, so it’s an abbreviated report. 

Rumors, News, and Innuendo

• • The Braves continue to have rumored interest in Yankees right-hander Sonny Gray, as first mentioned in the Hot Stove Report back in November. Last week, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reported that the Braves, Rangers, and Yankees had proceeded down the path of a three-way trade that would have sent Gray to the Braves, infielder Jurickson Profar to the Yankees, and prospects from both Atlanta and New York to the Rangers. That deal fell through, and the Rangers ended up trading Profar to Oakland instead. Gray remains with New York and the Yankees are clearly motivated sellers, but with both the Braves and the Yankees looking to add to and not subtract from their major league rosters, they may still require a third team to bridge a trade. Gray would be attractive to the Braves due to his short-term commitment (he is a free agent after 2019), his relatively low salary commitment (estimated at $9 million in arbitration), and track record outside of Yankee Stadium.  
     
  • It’s never seemed likely that the Braves would be a serious suitor for right-handed reliever and Braves fan favorite Craig Kimbrel, especially after rumors indicated that the 30-year-old was looking for a 6-year, $100 million deal. That goal appears to be getting increasingly unrealistic. Kimbrel’s most likely landing spot continues to be Boston, who seems content to wait him out as other teams fill their high-leverage reliever roles, as the Phillies did last week with the signing of David Robertson and the Yankees bring back left-hander Zach Britton. MLB.com Braves beat writer Mark Bowman speculates that if Kimbrel would agree to something around 3 years and $54 million, that could put the closer in range of the Braves.
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  • On a podcast that dropped last week discussing Braves prospects, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper and Kyle Glaser mentioned that according to their sources, of the Braves top prospects the organization seemed to be most open to moving outfielder Cristian Pache. Pache came in at #4 on the OFR Top 50 Prospects list, and was the #1 Braves prospects on Fangraphs.com in a list compiled by former Braves employee Kiley McDaniel, but Baseball America placed him at #8. This kind of disagreement perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise for a very young player with standout tools and already rates as an elite defensive outfielder, but still has considerable work to do to unlock his full offensive potential. If the Braves believe that Pache’s development will progress slower than their need for immediate impact in the outfield, it’s reasonable to see the Braves trying to use Pache as the centerpiece of a prospect package to address the outfield need.
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  • Speaking of that outfield need, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal posits this morning that Adam Duvall, already on the Braves roster and in line for an arbitration raise to around $3.1 million, may end up filling it. This would be a significant disappointment to most Braves fans, given Duvall’s poor performance in his limited time with the team after a deadline deal that brought him from the Cincinnati Reds. That said, Anthopoulos himself named outfield as an area of need (along with catcher, a need filled with the November signing of free agent Brian McCann) rather than want. There are still plenty of outfield options remaining in free agency and in trade, but the market may require free agent outfielder Bryce Harper to sign in order to start moving.
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  • Speaking of the catcher position, the J.T. Realmuto hostage watch has now entered it’s 57th week, with no end in sight. 

Carter Stewart Grievance Against Braves Still Pending 

After the Braves failed to reach an agreement with their 2018 first round draft pick right-hander Carter Stewart due to concerns about , Stewart and the player’s union filed a grievance to have Stewart declared a free agent. The Collective Bargaining Agreement states that the team has to offer at least 40% (just under $2 million in this case) of the designated slot value of the pick in order to receive compensation for the failure to sign the player. If the team fails to make that minimum offer, the team does not get draft pick compensation (in this case, the 9th overall pick in the 2019 draft) and the player is free to negotiate with any team.

This week Stewart enrolled at Eastern Florida State College in order to be eligible to enter the 2019 draft. There was some discussion that Stewart’s enrollment indicated that the grievance may have been settled, but that is not the case per AJC Braves beat writer Gabe Burns. 

Needless to say, the resolution of the grievance could be critical for the Braves. Simply forgoing a top draft pick that was earned by a painful 73-89 record in 2017 is bad enough, but it would be a blow to a team trying to maintain a very necessary pipeline of talent in the wake of MLB sanctions for violating international free agent rules that really fully kick in this season. 

Your Moment of Zen

Braves players haven’t had many big moments in the Winter Leagues since the end of the Arizona Fall League, but one player who has been having a good Winter season is Nicholas Shumpert, who is likely to start the 2019 season in Rome. 

Grand slam from @Braves prospect Nick Shumpert gives the @AdelaideBite a 21-1 lead!

(Yes, you read that right)#ABL pic.twitter.com/GA4Ux6H3AK

— Australian Baseball League (@ABL) January 6, 2019