After the departures of Brian McCann and Tim Hudson, the Braves have needs, and may not have much money available to meet them, David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes in a long essay about what to expect from the Braves in the coming weeks. They could try to trade for a pitcher like Jeff Samardzija, John Lackey or Kyle Lohse, or they could sign Bartolo Colon. Colon is an appealing option for the Braves, O'Brien says, because his age makes him unlikely to receive a huge contract. The Braves also hope to trade Dan Uggla to clear salary. Here are more notes from around the National League.
- Cuban shortstop Erisbel Barbaro Arruebarruena will put on a showcase for clubs this weekend and the Mets will be among the teams in attendance, sources tell Andy Martino of the New York Post. The 23-year-old, ranked as the tenth-best prospect in the World Baseball Classic not signed to an MLB club by Baseball America, defected from Cuba in November.
- It appears the Cubs will cede their top pick in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft to resolve a dispute involving former Rule 5 pick Lendy Castillo, Carrie Muskat of MLB.com reports. The Cubs picked Castillo from the Phillies in 2011, and Castillo missed 91 days of the following season due to injury, then spent the entire 2013 season in the minors. In case of injury, players selected in the Rule 5 Draft must stick on their new teams' active rosters for at least 90 days. The Phillies will receive the Cubs' pick after they filed a grievance regarding Castillo. The Cubs don't plan to select a player this year anyway. The Rule 5 Draft will be held next Thursday.
- A recent report listed a number of teams as possible landing spots for David Price, but it would be easy to overpay for Price, FanGraphs' Dave Cameron argues. Price is a great pitcher, but he's only under control for two more years, and will cost a total of about $30MM for those two seasons. Cameron's back-of-the-envelope math suggests Pirates top prospect Gregory Polanco, for example, could be worth about $91MM of surplus value over his six cost-controlled seasons, about three times as valuable as Price. The Royals' trade of Wil Myers and other youngsters for James Shields and Wade Davis was an overpay and should not determine the market for Price, Cameron argues.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
I would love for the Mets to get Arruebarruena. I think he has the ability to be what Ordonez could have been had he not bulked up. Considering this years shortstop crop is crappy, it might be worth a gamble to sign and use him until Cecchini is ready.
love this deal, anything to get that worthless jones off our books, and doyers could hope for new robot eyes for uggla, then hed be back hitting 30 bombs a year.
Maybe, but the OP was asking if the current stadium situation is hindering their spending, which I doubt. This idea seemingly popped up out of nowhere. Braves have had limited salary to work with for several years. So either this has been a plan in the making for quite a while or the new stadium and the salary restraints are unrelated. I believe in the latter.
Uggla could be billy beane’s 2014 version of Scott Hatteberg
Brewers should sign that guy with the really long name just so bob ueker could have fun with it
Arruebarruena loses to Saltalamacchia in number of letters, but does have one more syllable.
It’s raining in Atlanta?
Polanco isn’t going anywhere. IMO, the Bucs would sooner part with Marte than Polanco. The only reason Polanco might not reach $90M surplus is that he’d be playing RF, not CF. By all accounts he’ll be a legitimate 6+ WAR player. And you’re overestimating Price’s effect on ratings, attendance, merch, etc., which might’ve been true in 2011 but certainly isn’t in 2014 when people are going to show up anyway and have plenty of guys to root for – including, come this June, Polanco.
No, they shouldn’t go buy an ace at the cost of 2-3 top prospects. Polanco alone will be worth more WAR than Price in 2015 and that doesn’t include other top prospects that would need to be included in such a silly trade.
Cameron’s surplus value idea is an interesting take on trades. European soccer club’s dealing players for cash only transactions would be one corollary to this idea. If MLB teams could deal a player for what another team thought he was worth in $, the true value of a prospect or established star would be made bare. Of course, it also could be gamed by Charlie Finley types.
I’m not worried about McCann and Tim Hudson signing elsewhere because were still going to have a pretty good starting rotation. Because here is how I think the starting rotation will look like for next season.
1. Brandon Beachy
2. Mike Minor
3. Julio Teheran
4. Alex Wood
5. Kris Medlen
Then as for the everyday lineup were still going to have the Upton brothers covering the outfield along with Jason Heyward. I would like to see the Braves go after Brandon Phillips and have him hit leadoff and play second base. I think they will see how things play out in the spring because we will have Ramiro Pena back who I think is a better second baseman than Uggla ever thought about being. Plus Pena can hit leadoff then as far as the catching duties go I think Gattis will get the majority of the playing time behind the plate. So even though we lost McCann and Hudson I still think this is still going to be a very good team.
The Braves don’t need a “true ace”. They were one less hanging curve away from Freddy Garcia’s start being better than Kershaw’s and forcing a game five. Anything other than a depth signing to challenge Wood for the final spot is overkill. In time this rotation will have it’s ace.
As for Uggla, if Wren could move Lowe, he can move Uggla too. Hopefully there’s a taker and we can see TLS up there. The PastorT and Pena hopes are pipe dreams. They’re not going to hold up as an everyday starter.