The Braves have agreed to re-sign catcher Tyler Flowers after paying a $2MM buyout on his $6MM club option, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports (on Twitter). Declining Flowers’ option was a purely on-paper move, as he’ll be brought back on a $4MM deal for the upcoming season. It’s a strange technicality, to be sure, particularly since the Braves don’t figure to approach the luxury tax threshold in 2020. But the restructuring of the deal now means that only $4MM of Flowers’ salary counts against the 2020 payroll — as opposed to the $6MM that would’ve counted had Atlanta simply exercised his option.
Flowers, 34 in January, didn’t have his best season at the plate but remains a highly regarded pitch framer. And while his .229/.319/.413 batting line checked in at 12 to 14 percent below that of a league-average hitter, per metrics like wRC+ (88) and OPS+ (86), it was still better than that of the league-average catcher (85 wRC+). The Atlanta organization will surely be on the lookout for catching help this offseason — their other catcher in 2019, Brian McCann, already announced his retirement — but having Flowers on hand as a quality, framing-oriented backup with some pop in his bat makes plenty of sense given the affordable nature of the contract.
Looking to other defensive components behind the plate, Flowers had his share of struggles. His 16 passed balls allowed led the league, so it’s no surprise to see that he rated near the bottom of the league in terms of pitch blocking over at Baseball Prospectus. His 19 percent caught-stealing rate was also a ways below the 26 percent league average. All that said, however, Flowers’ elite framing ranked fourth in the game, per Baseball Prospectus, who rated him as the game’s ninth-most-valuable defender in spite of those blocking and throwing woes. Flowers also drew a positive mark with four Defensive Runs Saved — his ninth straight season with a positive DRS rating.
AA does know the rules. Miguel Olivo is a prime example.
Chase Anderson and now this! Couple of blockbusters today…
I.. I can’t handle it
Some people come to the site for the rumours and transactions, I come for the witticisms that never get old or tired or repetitive.
Well the tax hit for the old contract would have been $5m (the AAV of 2/$10m) not $6m as this post seems to suggest.) Still, they cut $1m off their tax role which cannot hurt. Maybe they go big and trade for Betts and sign Donaldson and Bumgarner or something like that and this lets them creep under the tax.
The AAV rules are different for club options. Club options are viewed as new contracts, which is why they mentioned 6M mark. So really they shaved 2 M off.
Clever I suppose. Should have asked him to take a slightly smaller deal. Not sure he would have found 4 mil out on the market, but he might have. Idk
He would have, simply based on pitch framing.
The catching position is the weakest its been in years, notably for backup/platoon players. He would have snagged that easily elsewhere.
That’s the thing though… if he easily would have snagged this, then chances are he could have gotten more with a 1 year deal. So why wouldn’t he test the FA market if we decided to go this route? Simply a gentlemen agreement? He’s not paid insane money where an extra million isn’t significant in his career. So idk, just kinda me thinking out loud. Seems like we should have asked for less or he should have walked for more…
He’s a Georgia born player. Braves is HIS team. Braves are also post season team. Walk away for a possibility of a little more… I wouldn’t.
Yay…….
Might as well save money where you can without affecting the team… That extra $1M could be the difference in signing a big name later….
For all the years I’ve followed baseball off seasons it never ceases to blow my mind when we discuss a team being down to like $1-5M in their budget or when a team is at that limit but ownership “finds” $17M or $30M.
I’m not talking about contract dumps/bad contract swaps etc. though that also blows my mind-when a guy is signed to 4-6 years or longer and that player is being shipped out or written off immediately.
It’s just weird when a team signs Donaldson straight up to $23M but saves $1M on another guy in a convoluted fashion.
I’ll give people a guy like Happ or a Brandon Belt or a Marc Melancon- players overpaid by $3-5M a season. At least it’s not the extra $14M Boston pays Chris Sale and David Price fo simply be ‘good’.
Well they saved $1 million against the tax, yes, but they basically worked the deal into $4 million salary and a $2 million signing bonus in essence. They did him a favor and helped themselves at the same time.
Trilloniare sounds like the old AllOurGodsHave AbandonedUs…
He could be. I haven’t seen any of his other names in awhile. That’s okay with me though. I like the Trillionaire version much better. I actually enjoy reading his comments now. This article is an interesting development. Taking the time to do this contract only makes sense if the Braves get within a million dollars of the luxury tax next season. That would be huge. The Braves have never even come close to the salary tax so even if it doesn’t happen until sometime around next seasons July 31st trade deadline that would be a very pleasant surprise to a lot of Braves fans. This move at the very least implies that AA thinks it is actually possible the Braves may be within a million bucks of the luxury tax before next season is over. Big money moves could be on the Horizon. I already expected them to spend over $40 million on additions next season but this could mean that it ends up being a good bit more than that.
I hope you’re correct and they plan on flirting with the tax threshold. I honestly don’t see it happening though. I just see a GM “cooking” the books for his corporate conglomerate of a boss. This simply frees up $2m this year to spend toward whatever budgetary ceiling they give him.
I see what your saying but I kind of doubt Liberty Media is that stupid. They know they paid Tyler Flowers that $2 million after the season was over. I doubt they would have preferred to pay it all in a signing bonus when they could have spread it out over the entire season. It’s not beneficial in any way for ownership to pay it too him earlier unless luxury tax is a component and I highly doubt AA is trying to trick them into forgetting that they paid it. I don’t think that Liberty media preferred it be paid out at this time rather than later. I could be wrong about why the Braves/Liberty Media did this but there has to be some reason. The only one I can think of is avoiding potential luxury tax hits. If it is a known fact that it will never happen regardless I can’t find a reason to do this at all. My guess is that if they retain Markakis they will do the exact same thing with his contract. Maybe even with Teheran if they keep him too. That will be the telltale sign. If it happens again with Markakis and/or Teheran it will be pretty obvious that the only possible benefit is avoiding the luxury tax threshold. That is not necessary if a team already knows for a fact they won’t even come close to it.
Wow. I respond to replies through my email but I just checked the site updates. The Braves did the exact same thing with Markakis and only didn’t do it with Teheran because they turned down his option and made him a free agent which means he likely won’t be with the team next year anyway. The author of the post did mention what you said about keeping the 2020 payroll lower to fit a set price by Liberty Media. I just can’t figure out a reason Liberty would want to do that unless it has to do with quarterly earnings reports to share holders for next year. The thing is that it would hurt quarterly earnings for the last quarter of this year so I am not sure why they would be worried with future earnings reports at the cost if hurting their next earnings report. The good news is that between the Flowers and Markakis deals + declining Hamilton and Teheran, AA just saved $21.5 million off of next years team salary today alone. We all knew that they weren’t going to keep Hamilton at $6.5 most million though so it drops the unexpected added payroll space to $15 million or so. None of that matters though unless they come within that range of the luxury tax. They also offered Donaldson a QO which was expected as well.
Keeping Flowers is not necessarily a bad thing if you can again pair him with a guy. Maybe sign Jason Castro. As long as AA can improve other parts of the lineup having Flowers is not the worse thing in the world.
Being caught without him would leave the Braves in a very vulnerable position and almost have to overpay because of their desperate need.
I think a platoon partner or a time share type should be found. To go all in on Grandal we ours be a mistake unless they don’t want JD anymore. But I would much rather have JD especially with Contreras & Shea being on the come up.
Actually wouldn’t mind Posey if AA could get Farhan to eat some of his contract as and take back Teheran on top of what they eat.
Teheran has an option. a 1 mil buyout. So you’re proposing they pick up Julio’s option of 12 mil on the chance the Giants will take him in a trade for Posey? Hhaahha
No I am saying you pick up the option regardless
He has value but if the Giants would take him than I would put him in the deal.
Either way his innings and the fact he pitches every 5th day brings value to the pitching staff alone.
Giants could use a dependable innings eater that could be moved at the deadline if a deal were to happen.
Not for a contender. No thanks. Braves need some decent starting pitching. Not an innings eater who starts every 5th day.
Braves have a large supply of unproven pitching talent, Julio is proven. He can be a solid base at the back end, and if needed, he can be moved up into a more high leverage situation.
Just like the NLDS – with the same results, right? What a $12M trooper.
I know it’s just $1M difference in AAV, but if the Braves decide to trade him to a team near the threshold, it might make a slight difference.
Why would they trade him when he’s their only catcher? None of the young guys are close to being ready and signing 2 new catchers would be very expensive.
He’s their only catcher right now. If they sign Grandal or trade for a bona fide starting catcher, then Flowers is a trade possibility.
New Deal? FDR strikes again!
If the Braves can handle him striking out every third at bat they could give Alex Jackson a chance to platoon. 28 hr 65 rbi in only 85 games last year in AAA. Slightly below average defense though. Then they could try to re-sign Donaldson or go after an ace.
Jackson deserves a chance besides there are plenty of catchers who put up much worse numbers
Your defensive metrics need a major overhaul, because I watch the Braves, and Flowers SUCKS behind the plate.
He does seem to steal a fair amount of strikes but he’s definitely awful otherwise. I hate all of these metrics. You’re either good or you’re not. All it takes is watching a player to know the difference.
“Elite pitch framing”………LOL. What a joke. There’s nothing elite about Tyler Flowers, trust me.
Why should I trust you?? What are your credentials? Let’s see your research papers. Oh, you don’t have any. Big surprise. How about articles published in well-respected newspapers? Oh, you don’t have any? Big surprise. What about your BBWAA ID? Oh, I guess you don’t have that,either. What exactly do you have that qualifies you as an “expert”? Please enlighten me. Were you one of those “experts” who said the Phillies were going to run away with the division. Huh, funny, that didn’t happen, did it?
Hey, don’t offend the casuals. They don’t have to watch the game anymore because random metrics exist. So now they can sound sophisticated when asked if Flowers is a good catcher. Any real knowledgable person knows Flowers is terrible in both facets of the game.
As much as I was hoping his option will be declined, this decision makes sense.
JUST PLEASE DONT BRING BACK TEHERAN!