The Braves announced on Thursday that former NL MVP and likely Hall of Famer Chipper Jones has joined the front office as a special assistant to GM John Coppolella and president of baseball operations John Hart. Jones, who retired in 2012, will serve as an instructor in Spring Training, assist Braves hitters during the regular season, assist in amateur scouting in advance of the June draft and evaluate/instruct minor leaguers throughout the organization in his new role. Said Coppolella of the addition (via press release): “[Jones] brings a wealth of experience – from being a number one overall draft pick, to having a highly-successful career as a World Series champion, a league MVP and a batting champion, to coming back from major injuries. Chipper spent his entire Hall-of-Fame caliber career in a Braves uniform and we look forward to his input with our staff and with our hitters.” Indeed, Chipper seems Cooperstown-bound after wrapping up his career with a lifetime .303/.401/.529 batting line, 468 homers, eight All-Star appearances, an MVP Award, two Silver Slugger Awards and 85 wins above replacement across a brilliant 19-year career.
Here’s more from the NL East…
- Joe Frisaro of MLB.com gets the sense that the Marlins don’t see the Dodgers as a fit for Jose Fernandez (Twitter link). Then again, he writes, Fernandez is highly unlikely to get traded anywhere. There’s been quite a bit of speculation connecting the Dodgers to the Marlins’ young ace recently, especially in light of the club’s acquisition of three new prospects in the three-team Todd Frazier deal.
- The Mets have checked in on Ryan Raburn, according to Matt Ehalt of The Bergen Record (on Twitter). Raburn would make a lot of sense for the Mets as a backup first baseman/outfielder, he adds, which makes sense given the left-on-left struggles we’ve seen from Curtis Granderson and, to a lesser extent, Lucas Duda (although Duda’s success against lefties in 2015 was heavily BABIP-driven). Raburn, 35 next April, batted .301/.393/.543 with eight home runs in 201 plate appearances. Despite those outstanding numbers (which were the result of extreme platooning), the Indians declined their $3MM option for him.
- Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com notes (on Twitter) that there should be some interesting bullpen competition brewing in Phillies camp thanks to the additions of non-roster vets James Russell, Ernesto Frieri, Andrew Bailey, and Edward Mujica. (Bailey and Mujica are the newest additions to that mix, having agreed to deals on Thursday.) The bullpen picture in Philadelphia does indeed appear to be very open following trades that have seen Jonathan Papelbon, Jake Diekman and Ken Giles depart over the past five months. As it currently stands, the only pitcher on the Phillies’ bullpen depth chart at MLB.com that have even thrown 100 career innings are David Hernandez, Jeanmar Gomez and Luis Garcia (who barely reaches that threshold, with 112 innings under his belt). That could indeed open the door for veterans to make the club — any of whom could ultimately pitch his way into status as a trade chip.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
LAD aren’t a fit for Fernandez, Friedman just refuses to pay the exorbitant amount which Hill and the ownership of the marlins are thinking they can get out of him. LA has exactly what they need.. Long term fix for a problem area (3b) which they have had since Jorge Cantu left half a dozen years ago. Another possible ace in the making in Urias. Multiple complimentary pieces Friedman might move, Alex Guerrero being one.
Major league ready piece, plus top prospects. LA and Boston both could go that way, should the Marlins get real on the asking price. LA isn’t going to give up both Seager and Urias and Boston isn’t going to give up (for a fact) Mookie Betts. They would be willing to include Eduardo Rodriquez and others am pretty sure.
I couldn’t agree more. This is why I believe the Dodgers don’t have to trade the players they got from the Sox. Sign the young Japanese pitcher… Meada I believe is his name and you trade Ethier, CC, and Alex for bullpen arms.
Dodgers can’t be the “desperate” ones out there. They have the $, no spend it. They won’t get anyone that can duplicate what Zack did last year but maybe they don’t have to.
Surprised that Cantu is still playing and hit 27 homeruns and batted in 123 runs last year.
No one wants Alex Guerrero. Don’t act like your spare parts are worth a cup of tea in China.
And Jose Fernandez makes less than 1Mil this season, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Alex Guerrero does have value!! He is an extremely versatile player, and has quite a bit of talent….
I wish the Dodgers would trade him, or play him on a daily basis, selfishly, just so I could see what he could do with regular at-bats and over the course of a full major league season…
Don’t get me wrong, he would not be the centerpiece of just about any deal for a starting pitcher. Although, to say he is solely just a “spare part” and he “isn’t worth a cup of tea in China,” well that is just flat out ignorant. I’m sure you were just over exaggerating….
And he was not referring to Fernandez’s salary, when mentioning “price,” he was simply talking about the Marlins demands, or “asking price,” for Fernandez, in terms of prospects, wpuld cost too much….
But back to Guerrero, I’m sure just about every World Series team would welcome a player like Guerrero onto their bench as a super utility guy….Flexible, versatile, and talented guys like Guerrero are becoming more and more valuable in today’s baseball market…With players becoming so one dimensional, defensively, guys like Guerrero, who can play all over the diamond, are quickly becoming valuable commodities, with Ben Zobrist being the golden standard…!!
.261 OBP negative defensive value 29 years old has strange clauses in his contract that team needs his permission to option him to the minors. Oh did I mention hes making close to 8 million the next two years? They’d be lucky to get that cup of tea.
I don’t know if that’s annoyance I am reading into your post but if it is, its misplaced. The Marlins had already stated Fernandez is off limits but the Dodgers pushed anyway so the Dodgers were given a price..an absolutely ridiculous one. This is what an off limits player costs. Of course LA shouldn’t send them Seager, Pederson and Urias, along with two other players. Anything short of that and the Marlins are happy to let Fernandez pitch for them.
But I bet they would give up that much for Sonny Gray
bringing chipper back into the fold of the braves organization is probably the best move they have done in the past two years.
He was already doing exactly what he would be doing, now it’s just official and now he’s on the payroll with a cubicle. Baseball’s in his blood and he lives at the batting cages. Hopefully this will be the starting point of him to get into coaching….
Could the Braves be so lucky to have him be the manager in 2017? I sure would like to see that!
Just go ahead and let chipper manage the team he is definitely smarter than fredi
Okay trade scenario…..
Dodgers trade Puig and Alex Guerrero to the Braves….
Braves trade Julio Teheran, Erick Aybar, and Williams Perez….
I consider this to be fair value for both sides…Braves get a possible dynamic, albeit troubled, player who needs a change of scenery, and a versatile ML player to help rotate in and out of their line-up…
Dodgers get a talented, cost-controlled SP with a ceiling of a #2 starter and the consistency of a solid #3, along with a quality, proven starting versatile infielder, and a quality controllable #5 starter/swing man who can eat up innings and who provides value to any pitching group he joins.
I don’t want Puig on our team…
Don’t want Puig
Yea, dont want Puig.
Braves don’t need Puig. He wouldn’t fit w/ our fan base either.
I’d like that trade too… If I were a braves fan.
No one wants Puig, which is why he’s still a Dodger.
Good move by the Braves–Chipper is the face of the franchise and seems to be a great guy. And he’s obviously a Hall of Famer. I knew nothing about John Hart before the launch of MLB Network but since then I have been seriously impressed.