The Braves have come under quite a bit of fire, with many stating that the team is tanking in order to accelerate its rebuild in the wake of last week’s Andrelton Simmons trade. Freddie Freeman’s name has come up in frequent trade speculation over the past week, Braves GM John Coppolella adamantly denied to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that the Braves will even entertain the notion of trading their first baseman.
“I cannot make it any more clear: We are not trading Freddie Freeman,” Coppolella said. “We are not. I’d give my right arm before we trade Freddie Freeman. It is not happening.”
While Twitter skeptics will undoubtedly have their fun by responding to that quote saying Freeman will be traded by this coming weekend, that type of on-record, absolutist statement is rare for a top-ranking baseball ops exec to make. (For instance, there’s a misconception that A’s president Billy Beane said last offseason that he wouldn’t trade Josh Donaldson, but the comments pertaining to Donaldson were made by an anonymous team official.)
Of course, a team could still completely bowl the Braves over with a trade proposal for Freeman that would put Coppolella and president of baseball operations John Hart in a tough position, but the strong likelihood in light of a statement of this magnitude is that Freeman will indeed remain in Atlanta. The reason for hanging onto Freeman, Coppolella explains, is that the “tanking” crowd has a fundamental misunderstanding of the Braves’ intentions.
“If we truly were going to tank, we wouldn’t have had [Erick] Aybar come back in the [Simmons] trade,” said Coppolella. “If we were trying to tank, we wouldn’t have signed A.J. Pierzynski. If we were trying to tank, we would have traded [Cameron] Maybin at the deadline last year, and we had plenty of offers.”
Coppolella maintains that the Braves strongly want to win in the near future and urges critics not to judge the results of the trades immediately upon their completion but rather to wait a couple of years. The Atlanta GM acknowledges that his club won’t win 100-plus games in 2016 but voices a strong belief that the team can win more next season than it did in 2015.
While Coppolella is adamant that there’s a method to all of the Braves’ perceived madness and staunchly rejects the idea of trading Freeman, Nightengale does write that further trades from Atlanta could be on the horizon. The team still hopes to shed the contracts of Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn — two players acquired to accelerate the alleviation of the financial burden that Chris Johnson’s contract had presented — and a strong offer for Maybin could pry him away from Atlanta as well.
Likewise, Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi of FOX Sports reported tonight that the Diamondbacks and Braves had discussions about Shelby Miller, but the D-Backs balked at the asking price, which Rosenthal says would’ve come from Arizona’s big league roster and could have been standout center fielder A.J. Pollock (links to Rosenthal on Twitter).
Trade gardner for freeman, lol jk if that happend new york would need to pay like 100mill cash to the braves
Wouldn’t it be awesome if teams could buy players like they did back then.
Or trade players for broadcasters.
Teams still buy players from other teams.
I still can’t believe that Yankee fans actually think they can trade Gardner for something good.I saw a proposal Gardner for Zack Wheeler
I don’t believe Wheeler by himself would fetch anyone great, either.
That would be a fantastic get by the Mets. They don’t need Wheeler and at this point he is a risk. Gardner is an above average player on an affordable contract. Seems fair to me. The Mets aren’t getting anybody better for ~13MM a year.
They can get more for him
Rumors can sometimes be only rumors. It has been painful to endure but I support everything the Braves have done except for the H.O. trade, which still may be too early to judge, even though the dude is 30.
Who’s this ho they traded?
he talking about hector olivera
Ah. I see. Looked at his stats. He looks like he could be a 20 HR hitter who hits for average and gets on base at a high level. He is going to be 31 though next season already.
Which stats gave you this analysis? His month of MLB stats or his Cuban Career stats? I’m sorry, and I don’t like to troll on here, but if you had no clue who the dude was and you’ve only looked at his stat line, then in no way should you feel you can predict what his stats will be next season, especially given that he’s played almost entirely in a different league, and outside of September, hasn’t played in nearly two years. The internet doesn’t need littered by one more person giving their uneducated, hypothetical stat line predictions for 2016.
That’s funny, chicubbies1 prediction falls in line with just about every projection I’ve read about Olivera from people more informed and way smarter than you. Is his age a factor? Certainly. Could he be a total bust? Sure. That’s why he’s still considered a prospect.
I read this as “I don’t like to on here…but let me troll real quick.” His prediction is as good as yours because you haven’t seen a large enough sample size either. Why do you need to police the opinions of others?
The internet doesn’t need to be littered by one more person shouting from their glass house that their prediction may be wrong because it doesn’t fall in line with their own.
People act like a GM or Owner is willingly going to admit that they are trying to tank. That will never happen unless they are trying to pull a Costanza/Wilhelm.
a good way to show your tanking is just do what the sixers do.
Sixes have not tanked. They are just trying to field a starting lineup of five 7-footers.
In today’s nba, right…
He’s lying, sir! I’m tired of all your macho head games!
hope that Lou Gehrig disease isn’t contagious
“Pull a Costanza/Wilhelm” – AHAHA yes!!!
Going by all he recent trades the Braves have done, all a team has to do is offer a few pitching prospects and Freeman will be gone.
As far as Maybin, Aybar, and Pierzynski are concerned they’re place holders/stop gaps till something else comes along. Which I’m not too sure what that is because as far as I can tell the’re building a team for pitching only.
And an aging rookie in Olivera.
One that can’t hit, field or through.
Oh cool glad to see you’re his hitting coach so you have the inside track…. Oh wait no no that’s right you’re using an incredibly small sample size from when he was on the Braves…. But oh wait wait… You have no idea what you’re talking about…. There that’s better
Olivera will not amount to much but we didn’t give up anything to speak of to get him. Peraza womt be much or at least no more than Olivera and Woods was through as he showed in LA. We dumped dollars so whats the beef?
Also gave up Luis Avilan and Jim Johnson, two pretty solid bullpen arms.
got back paco
Yeah what a waste of a trade that was, personally I think Braves should trade him while they can still get something for him. I’ve seen comps to past prime version of B. Lawrie.
I am a Braves fan, and Freddie Freeman is my favorite player on the team. That being said. If the right offer came along. I wouldn’t mind if the front office traded Freddie Freeman. That would be some really good prospects though.
Freeman has been a very solid baseball player for The Atlanta Braves. Really good average, on base percentage, and hits really well with Runners In Scoring Position. I always worry when players have wrist injuries like Freddie Freeman suffered this past season. He has some pop, but it could effect that going forward. Teixeria had a wrist injury and just started to get some of his power back this season after looking really bad the past few seasons.
Freddie Freeman, Cameron Maybin, Nick Markakis, Shelby Miller. These are all of our tradeable assets. None are really what would be quantified as Super Star Players. If we are judging on this scale (Worst – Awful, Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Elite) Freeman and Miller would both be Very Good, Markakis would be between Good and Very Good, and Maybin would be Good. These Very Good players are ones that teams that already have good talent on their roster could supplement it and get these players to be pieces that a contender needs to turn into a champion.
I am all for trading Freeman and Miller, but only if we can get 1 or 2 prospects for each back that are rated by scouts who have the potential to become the Elite type of players that we want. So that is to say that you want at least 2 (Top 50 Prospects back in return for each).
When you know you are doing well on trading in a rebuild is when you are dealing a player that no fan of the team wants to deal. That means that player has value to the fan, but more importantly to other teams. I am all for loading up on these cheaper players with 6 years of control and trying to get as much value back in those arbitration and pre-arbitration years. If we could get back a 1st baseman who can project to hit at a good clip then their value over that 6 years when they are playing hard to score that huge pay day could be better than Freeman who will be getting $20 Million per season very soon.
With Shelby Miller, let some of these teams look at The David Price, Zack Grienke, Johnny Cueto price tags. Then dangle Miller and his 3 years of reasonable arbitration control.
If you’re a Braves fan, you know that rebuilds don’t generally last 6 years. Freeman will be a member of a contending Braves team, bet on it. They simply have too many pitching prospects not to end up with a couple winners.
Houston’s and Kansas city’s rebuilds beg to differ, and they are currently the trendy model.
What about Texas’s current rebuild on the fly? What about the Red Sox rebuild in 2013? There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Teams like Philadelphia and Atlanta don’t have to rebuild the same way as Kansas City, Pittsburgh, or Tampa because they have a much bigger payroll. Most fans don’t want to sit around watching 5-10 years of losing baseball before you get a contender.
Exactly
I do know that rebuilds don’t generally last 6 years. The 6 years number comes into effect when we are talking about years of control from our prospects we got. We have a lot of prospects that will be ready in 2017, some that will even be ready by the end of 2016 for a September call up.
I think with the type of prospects we have acquired, the draft picks we will have at the top of the heap. 3rd overall for 2016 in the MLB Draft and the Competitive Balance A pick that we got from Miami in the Alex Wood and Jose Peraza trade. Then The Braves by every major prognosticator and predictor have The Braves spending huge in the International Market this go around. These things will speed up that process quite quickly.
As for Freddie Freeman, and let me start off by saying I do remember the days of Casey Kotchman, Scott Thorman, a washed up Troy Glaus, a washed up Derek Lee. That being said 1st Base is the easiest defensive position to fill. Freeman like I said above is a very good player, but The Braves could possibly upgrade there by getting prospects back, and getting someone to handle the hot corner. There are some good bats out there who are limited defensively that can only really play first. Even Nick Swisher may could fill that role for the short term if given the whole season.
The Braves have Braxton Davidson. The Braves 2014 1st round draft pick. He has light tower power and a great hitters eye. However, he is in the Evan Gattis mold defensively. In fact, I went to a few Rome Braves games and Davidson made Gattis looked like a gold glover. Davidson is a 1B/DH type. So if we don’t trade Davidson because he is blocked if Freddie stays. We may wind up giving up a good quality cheap bat for peanuts since he is so limited defensively. Davidson is currently our 11th best prospect in what is becoming a very deep farm system. He could be ready in 2017, considering how big a season he has in 2016. Swisher being the stop gap on our way to the first overall pick in the MLB draft for 2017. Then the remainder of Freeman’s contract which isn’t an albatross by any means can be spent elsewhere like Catcher were we have no real prospects other than Bethancourt, or 3rd base were we have Riley and Ruiz but they are awhile away. In places we don’t have prospects at. At SS we had Albies for the future, and at 1B we have Davidson waiting in the wings. Then if we dealt Miller, we have arms galore so much that people are starting to complain.
Trading Freeman might get us a prospect to man a position that is harder to fill like 3B or Catcher or Outfield where the Braves are bone dry at now and looking into the future. Then have Davidson ready to take over. I honestly believe that would be the way to go. If you get traded Freddie. I’ll miss you, but as a Braves fan, I understand.
Kevin Matian should factor in there somewhere, no? Yes, he’s not signed, but if and when we are able to sign him, his development could be critical to our positional farm depth as he is at SS, but his body type suggests multiple positions with corner OF most likely.
Yay. Now I don’t care who goes aside from Freeman. But let’s get some young hitters how abouts? I get we’re building around pitching, fine. But ideally the only starters in place for 2017(remember Coppy? When we’re supposed to compete?) would be Markakis, Olivera, Freeman and very maybe Bethancourt.
Not only does that destroy the Schuerholtz model of keeping a strong core(C, 2B, SS, CF) but puts the Braves in an incredibly ominous position for the distant future with two core pieces entering their mid-30’s at that point.
I agree if they trade freeman they need to get some position players
Teheran should probably get an extension though.
Why would he want an extension with a team that is tanking, lol.
We are tanking and still better than the Phillies…lol? Love it.
He already has one
didn’t hart/copella say the same thing about Kimbrel?
Deal! Give the Dodgers your right arm, and you can have Carl Crawford!!
Riiiiiiight so he will be playing for someone else by Friday
This could turn into a bad situation quickly. The Braves said the same thing about Kimbrel but as soon as the Padres agreed to take Melvin Jr, Craig was gone. This year, they need to shed two players in the Upton mold and they blew their chance to send one away with Simmons. That means Shelby Miller and Freeman will most likely be the odd men out if a team agrees to take a salary dump, they’re the only players of decent value left on the major league roster. But logically with Freeman’s contract total, I can’t see a team being able to take Bourn or Swisher’s money too unless it turned into a 3/4 team deal. It all just looks ugly right now, as a lifelong Braves fan
There is a major problem with your assessment of the situation. You make the assumption that the Braves NEED to shed the contract of Bourn and Swisher. It’s simply not the case.
First of all keep in mind that the Braves took on the contracts of Swisher and Bourn as a way to get rid of Chris Johnson’s contract and also as a way to free up more money long term. Chris Johnson was owed money over the course of 3 years and would have been a serious drag on us over the long term. Bourn and Swisher are only under contracts until the end of this year. Yes they have vesting options for 2017 but those options won’t vest. They are based on plate appearances and there is no way that Bourn and Swisher will reach their options. That means that 2017 we will start the year with an extra $20M off the books. The Braves specifically traded with Cleveland so that we could get the money off the books in a YEAR rather than 3 years. It makes no sense at all to “dump” their salary and get rid of valuable trade pieces when by the end of the year they will be gone. If they CAN shed the contracts then that’s great, but they won’t be foolish about it. When we got rid of Chris Johnson and Melvin Upton Jr. we had HUGE burdensome contracts that would have hurt the team for several years. These contracts, though hefty, won’t be a burden but for a year.
The other problem with your assessment is that Swisher and Bourn both have a little bit of value. Granted that value is no where NEAR what they are being paid, but it’s there. That value is experience. Swisher has long been known for his locker room leadership. He is highly respected and has a way of keeping moral up. For a young team in need of a veteran leadership he would be an ideal candidate for a trade… if we decided to trade him. Also the fact that he can play multiple positions, including backing up Freddie Freeman, gives him another reason to stick around. As for Bourn, keep in mind that Mallex Smith will be in the majors by the all star break at the latest. Michael Bourn being on the roster will give him a veteran that he can lean on for advice. Before his fall from grace the past 2 years, Bourn was considered one of the leagues best CFers.
Again, not saying that Bourn and Swisher aren’t being overpaid. Because they are. My point is that they can still have a purpose on the roster. We will have a LOT of new players on the roster this coming year so a few veterans who can keep things together does have value.
I’m pretty sure Bourne was never ever considered “one of the league’s best center fielders.”
What about 2010 when he won the Fielding Bible Award? Or the 2 consecutive Gold Gloves he won in 2009 and 2010? When he was with Houston he was arguable THE best CF in baseball, defensively anyway.
Maybe he was referring to Jason Bourne?
“The Braves said the same thing about Kimbrel” – quote a source on this please.
mlbtraderumors.com/2015/01/braves-will-not-trade-c…
Titled: “The Braves Will Not Trade Craig Kimbrel.” “We have never entertained trading (Kimbrel) and have had zero conversations with any clubs about Craig,”
Freeman to the Padres. Alonso, Amarista, Norris plus pitching prospect maybe Rea to the Braves.
Why would the Braves want Alonso or Amarista? If they trade Freeman it means they’re going into full teardown mode and as such they wouldn’t need two guys who are free agents in two years.
We are in no position to trade Colin Rea at this point.
ya just bringing it up, maybe the Braves would attach Swishers or Bourns contract to Freeman anyway
The Braves are no longer in a financial situation where they need to attach bloated contracts that can significantly hurt their potential return.
The truth of the matter is that the Padres have no one left that the Braves would want. So ANY trade that MAY happen (and barring an overwhelming offer it won’t) you can write it in stone that it won’t be with the Padres unless a 3rd team is involved.
I don’t know, Margot and Guerra is a pretty good starting point
Translation “We are not signing Chris Davis even though we badly need him”
This pretty much guarantees that they will trade Freddie Freeman. The Braves new front office has lost ALL credibility since taking over. They said the exact same thing with Kimbrel then dealt him a few days later. I understand the need for the Upton and Heyward trades considering they wouldn’t be able to afford them when their contracts expire, but they received middling talent as a return. Kimbrel, Simmons, Freeman, Teheran, and Gattis, and Wood were all young, cost controlled highly talented players that should have been a part of our future success, but now 2/3 of them are already gone and we haven’t even come close to receiving prospects to equal the level of talent that we lost. I guarantee Teheran will be traded before the season starts, and if they are able to unload Freeman and his contract, then they will do that as well. They’ve adopted the Marlins approach now and I don’t see them competing any time soon.
Fredi Gonzalez was on SiriusXM yesterday and I had to sit there and listen to him say that the Simmons trade was a good one because they acquired Aybar. He said, “Our offense was so bad last year that the acquisition of Aybar would help. We also got 2 pitchers in the deal, but Aybar will help this offense.”
I can’t stand Gonzalez. I’m aware that the team is going to suck so why change the manager now, but there is no reason to have this bumbling bafoon on national radio speaking.
The Braves front office is so behind the times. The people in charge are all cloak and dagger. The same way clubs ran in 1990. Since it is the new millennium now, there is just no reason to lie to the entire fan base. Just say we are rebuilding for the future and I’ll accept that. But to have Gonzalez say on national radio that the Simmons trade was a good deal because the offense in 2016 will better is absurd. I can’t stand the way this team is being run. I don’t care about the rebuilding process. That’s fine and probably needed to be done. But the whole we would never do anything like a rebuild. It’s a retool. Check out how good the offense is now with Aybar. Ugh.
Do you suggest that they be required to provide a list of players that MAY be traded to each season ticket buyer before they purchase? That would lower sales quite quickly, for any team. Check out the attendance of prior years for Houston and KC before they became contenders. Its all about sales.
“For instance, there’s a misconception that A’s president Billy Beane said last offseason that he wouldn’t trade Josh Donaldson, but the comments pertaining to Donaldson were made by an anonymous team official.”
I love you so much for ramming this point home. Beane did not say that, but he did say he’s definitely not shopping Sonny Gray or Josh Reddick.
Coppolella turns out to be an idiot. He doesn’t know what he wants, he doesn’t know what to do, he doesn’t know what to say. His standard is to win more games than last year and he thinks that is ok and what the fans want. What an idiot.
Um, some fans do want them to win more games than last year. Quite a lot actually.
That’s not what trademeister’s point was. Winning more games than last year isn’t exactly high expectations. We could win more games than last year and still be the worst team in MLB
I suspect that fans would not be happy with simply winning more games than last year. They want to win a LOT more games than last year. With 67 wins last year, 70 would be an improvement but would you (as a fan) be happy with that? They probably need to get to 92, maybe 95, to make the playoffs. You need to aim at 80 for next year, then 86 in 2017, and then be truly competitive in 2018. One would hope that they are targeting prospects and draft choices that would be MLB-ready by mid to late 2017 to make sure they are ready to compete 2018 through 2023.
because the Halos would’ve kept Aybar with Simmons, ok, you’re a contender
Neal Huntington should offer Josh Bell, Jameson Taillon, and Elias Diaz and see if that changes his mind.
And come up with $100 million extra in the budget of a small market team?
I’ll say it again, I did not have relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky …
How is that relevant or funny?
John, not going to fault you for this, but it is “clearer” and not “more clear”. I know you have a lot on your plate, but let’s not be lazy with our grammar.
Not to be a grammar Nazi, but John was in fact correct by saying “more clear.” Although ‘clearer’ is more commonly used, ‘more clear’ is also grammatically acceptable. Just saying.
You say that you are not going to “fault” John, but then do exactly that by insinuating that he is lazy with his grammar.
I really don’t understand the Braves’ front office approach. At this point, why not trade Freeman? I decided not attend a Braves game last year for the first time in two decades when they gave away Kimbrel. Now they give away Simba, but draw the line at Freeman? If you’re going to tear down Wren’s team, do it all the way. I hope “Coppy” isn’t holding on to Freeman to save face with the fans, because there’s not one fan that has his back at this point.
Trading Freeman … Who cares. You can replace at half the price. Trading Simmons, a once in a life time defender, in indefensable. The pitching staff took a big hit when Simmons left. Looks like Liberty is clearing the deck for a new owner.
The trades b4 the Simmons deal work for me. But dealing with shifty Cobb County officials and taking tax payer money and building a park at the busiest interchange in the south is just bad decision making. The Cobb County Braves will struggle to fill seats.
If freeman gets traded I’d be sad