Welcome to the first Hot Stove Report of this offseason, your semi-regular capsule of all of the off-season news, rumors, transactions, and winter league action for the Atlanta Braves!
Braves Move Quickly To Retain Veterans
Monday the 4th was the deadline for teams to issue qualifying offers to their free agents and exercise or decline options. The Braves ended up declining all four of the options they had on catcher Tyler Flowers, starting pitcher Julio Teheran, and outfielders Nick Markakis and Billy Hamilton. In a little bit of an accounting shell game however, they immediately re-signed Tyler Flowers and Nick Markakis to one-year deals for $4 million apiece; combined with the $2 million buy-out each player earned after their options were declined, they netted the same amount of salary as they would have gotten had their options had gotten picked up. This allowed the team to count those buy-outs (along with the $1 million buy-outs for both Teheran and Hamilton) to be applied to the 2019 budget rather than the 2020, freeing up just a little bit of payroll room for the new season.
In my post on the Braves 2020 offseason priorities, I speculated that the Braves payroll would be somewhere around $137 million. Still assuming they will hold back at least $8 million for mid-season acquisitions, not picking up Teheran’s option and the results of the shell game would give them approximately $40 million to spend in free agency, with approximately 14.7 WAR to make up in either new acquisitions or organic growth.
That $40 million figure already takes into account a signing. On Friday, the Braves announced that they were bringing back right-handed reliever Darren O’Day on a one-year, $2.3 million contract, with a club option for a 2021 contract for $3.5 million. O’Day was initially acquired in the 2018 trade that also brought Kevin Gausman from Baltimore, but he was recovering from a hamstring injury that the team knew would keep him off the mound for the rest of that season. Anticipating a recovered O’Day would help solidify the Braves bullpen for 2019, instead O’Day suffered a forearm strain in spring training. The new injury would keep him off the mound until September. After allowing 1 run in less than six innings, O’Day would end up making the Braves postseason roster, throwing two scoreless innings against the Cardinals.
O’Day has received accolades from players and coaches for helping work with younger pitchers in the bullpen and travelling with the team, even while injured.
The next big roster deadline is November 20, when teams have to decide which non-roster minor leaguers to add to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. Among the candidates to be added are prospects Cristian Pache and William Contreras.
Anthopoulos Talks to Media, Steps On a Landmine
As nearly every general manager did this week, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos talked to the media to lay out in very broad strokes what the Braves intended to do this offseason. There were no surprises in his remarks, which boiled down to the following:
- The Braves are very interested in re-signing third baseman Josh Donaldson
- The plan for Nick Markakis in 2020 is to platoon him with a right-handed hitter
- Top prospects outfielders Cristian Pache and Drew Waters are expected to start 2020 in AAA Gwinnett
- They are leaving the door open to re-sign Julio Teheran
He also made what seemed like an innocuous comment about what the front office has been doing since the end of the Braves’ season.
Every day you get more information. And we’ve had time to connect with 27 of the clubs – obviously the Astros and (Nationals) being in the World Series, they were tied up – but we had a chance to get a sense of what the other clubs are going to look to do in free agency, who might be available in trades. So, the three weeks have been productive for us, just getting more information. All that shaped some of the decisions that we made. But we know there’s going to be a lot more information to come, and things are certainly going to develop over the next few months, and there will be a chain reaction with certain signings — someone signs in a certain place, maybe another player that’s not available today becomes available at that time. So, it’s going to be pretty fluid, and I think we’re in a good position to start the offseason.
The comment that the Braves were talking with other teams about what they “are going to look to do in free agency” drew the attention of the player’s union. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams are not allowed to coordinate regarding setting players salaries. Major League Baseball Player’s Association Director Tony Clark went on the offensive on Wednesday, announcing that the MLBPA would be investigating team coordination. According to Clark, “the statements made by Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos call into question the integrity of the entire free-agent system. The clear description of club coordination is egregious, and we have launched an immediate investigation looking into the matter.”
Anthopoulos released a statement that said “in advance of the general managers meetings, I called around to clubs to explore the possibility of potential offseason trades. At no time during any of these calls was there discussion of individual free agents or the Braves’ intentions with respect to the free agent market. To the extent I indicated otherwise during my media availability on Monday, I misspoke and apologize for any confusion.”
The incident is a clear illustration of the animosity between baseball and the union after two offseasons of declining free agent spending and slow-moving signings, with the player’s union unwilling to give clubs the benefit of the doubt. While there is certainly circumstantial evidence of club coordination the last two offseasons however, it seems unlikely that Anthopoulos was signalling that he was engaging in it in his comments.
Ironically, as of this writing the Braves have been the only team this offseason to sign a free agent to a contract of over $1 million.
Three Braves Take Silver
First baseman Freddie Freeman, second baseman Ozzie Albies, and outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. were awarded Silver Slugger Awards as the best offensive players at their respective positions. The Braves were the only National League team to have more than one honoree. In addition, Freddie Freeman was awarded a Wilson’s Award as the top National League defensive first baseman.
Interestingly, Freeman was not one of the finalists for the Gold Glove Award for first base, but Albies and third baseman Josh Donaldson were. Neither ended up taking the award however, losing out the the Cardinals’ Kolton Wong and the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado respectively.
Braves right-hander Mike Soroka was named as a finalist for the Rookie of the Year Award, and manager Brian Snitker received his second consecutive Manager of the Year Award nomination. Those awards will be handed out this week, with the Rookie of the Year being unveiled on Monday and Manager of the Year on Tuesday. Snikter won the award in 2018.
Bumgarner Rumors
In a post about the free agency of San Francisco left-hander Madison Bumgarner, NBC Sports California’s Alex Pavlovic intimated that “per league sources, the Braves have made Bumgarner a priority and planned to quickly communicate that to the left-hander. Atlanta sniffed around before the trade deadline and they are the clear favorite if Bumgarner does end up elsewhere.”
While this certainly may be true, color me a little skeptical. Certainly the Braves were asking about the World Series veteran at the trade deadline, and the Braves clear need to get pitching to back-fill the rotation now that Julio Teheran and Dallas Keuchel are free agents would seem to put Bumgarner firmly on the team’s radar. Bumgarner being a North Carolina native is also a consideration behind the speculation.
That said, there’s a difference between seeing if a quality arm is available at the deadline and committing to a multi-year contract. Bumgarner is a quality pitcher and last season breached 200 innings for the first time since 2016. However he has also shown signs of decline, with his production moving forward looking more like Keuchel or Teheran than the top-of-the-rotation arm that he may be looking to be paid like. Adding to that, San Francisco has given Bumgarner a qualifying offer; if he declines the offer and signs elsewhere, the team that signs him would be giving up a draft pick. That may be a non-starter for Atlanta.
Winter Baseball
Premier12 2019
Baseball will be returning to the Olympics in 2020, and one of the qualifying tournaments is the Premier12, taking place now. The United States has advanced to the Super Round (quarter-finals) with the help of Braves prospect Drew Waters. Waters got the tournament off with a bang, launching a first-game, first-pitch home run to set the tone of a 9-0 beatdown of the Netherlands. Waters went hitless in the next game, an 8-2 loss to Mexico, and did not play in a 10-8 win over the Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic
Cristian Pache has joined Estrellas Orientales, a team with a 5-18 record and already 10.5 games back in the standings. Las Estrallas just fired very popular manager Fernando Tatis, who guided las Estrallas to a league championship last year after a 51-year drought.
The firing prompted protests in the streets of the team’s home city of San Pedro de Macoris, and a demand from shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. to be traded. The team was 5-15 at the time of the firing, and have lost 3 more games under new manager Manny Acta.
Pache is 0-for-11 in 2 games.
Mexico
Rome right-hander Alan Rangel has been performing well for the first-place Naranjeros de Hermosillo of the Mexican Pacific League, allowing 2 earned in 8.1 innings over 6 relief outings. Rangel has mostly started the last two and a half seasons for Rome, but will likely be moving into a relief role in 2020.
Right-hander Elian Leyva has had a bit of a Jekyl-and-Hyde season for Charros de Jalisco. Working as a starter, Leyva has thrown in 5 games, allowing 0 runs in three of those outings, and 6 runs each in his other two starts. Leyva has a 4.21 ERA overall and a healthy 25 strikeouts in 25.2 innings. Leyva pitched a month with the Gwinnett Stripers to start the 2019 season before being loaned to Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League to work as a starter the rest of the summer.
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