The Braves exercised their 2011 options for Alex Gonzalez and Omar Infante, according to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (on Twitter). The team also signed reliever Scott Proctor to a one-year deal. MLB.com's Mark Bowman reported earlier today that the reliever will likely earn a base salary of $750K or so in 2011. Proctor, who was arbitration eligible, will likely have the chance to earn more through incentives.
The options for Gonzalez and Infante cost just $2.5MM each – a reasonable price to pay for two infielders who exceeded expectations in 2010. Gonzalez, who arrived in the Yunel Escobar trade, batted .250/.294/.447 with 23 hom runs in 2010. He hit most of his homers in Toronto, but added six in Atlanta. The 33-year-old is a good defender with some pop who has a sub-.300 on base percentage in his 12-year MLB career.
Infante, 28, batted .321/.359/.416 this year and made his first All-Star team. He finished third in the league in batting average and played second, third, short, left and right, so picking up his option was just a formality; the Braves weren't about to let him hit free agency.
Thanks for Yunel Escobar, Frank Wren!
Wait til Yunel has his first mental lapse. Then John Farrell benches him, Vernon Wells bashes him, and it’s Shea Hillenbrand all over again. GUARANTEE he’s a KC Royal by opening day 2013.
what exactly did he do in atlanta?? everyone mentions cancerous this, problematic that.. but no one actually says what he did if anything..
leads me to believe that braves fans are just lying to themselves so justify the awful, awful trade.
That’s just the thing, he didn’t do anything. He would flip his bat after getting a hit, and he would whistle while playing in the field. If he was with any other organization besides the Good Ol’ Boys Braves he wouldn’t have been traded. One occasion two seasons ago he flipped off an official scorer for giving him an error on a tough play, that was about it. Basically he is a pretty quiet guy, who was misunderstood in Atlanta. Watching him in Toronto he seems to be in a good place both mentally and physically. With Escobar, Hill, and someday Adeiny Hechavarria the Blue Jays are pretty much stacked in the infield…
Throughout the Braves history, we have had clubhouses full of good teammates. Not necessarily great people, just great team mates, and that was Bobby Cox’s forte as manager. Several players in the Braves organization even as early as spring training hinted that they would like to see Yunel gone, as he did not seem to fit in the clubhouse anymore. I was personally a big Escobar fan back in ’07 and ’08, but when Atlanta became a successful ballclub again it was evident he had no future here. With postseason play in clear view, team chemistry was key. Just taking a look at the Rangers and Giants, it is clear to see that teams play better when they are all comfortable with each other. If the Blue Jays ever begin to turn a corner and begin to realistically set their sighs towards the playoffs, Yunel will have to go. Escobar is an extremely talented player, but his attitude kills team chemistry and therefore playoff chances.
okay.. so again you’re going around in circles. . you haven’t told me one thing he’s done wrong. but you say such bold things like if the jays become a contender he has to go.. pretty hard to make a case when you have zero evidence, just a whole lot of words.
he became very lackadaisical, didnt follow through on throws-showed up teammates. in one game he almost caused glaus to get his arm broken because of a routine ground ball that yunel didnt hustle to get, double clutched then made a lollipop throw to 1st causing glaus to make contact with the runner. could have been real bad.thinking about it throughout his years here we overlooked a lot of things b/c he is such a talented player. stupid things like drawing pictures in the dirt before his at bats, or doing his “show off” leap before he came to the plate. (which he injured himself doing-15 day DL i believe) to more serious things like flicking off the scorer then not getting set at his position for the rest of the inning-and pouting in the dugout and not listening to his teammates and managers. talent doesnt always equal success. the braves grew impatient with him and he had to go. hes got the tools to be a great player defensively and an above average ss offensively. but his basket case head gets in the way; if that riddle is solved he should do well in toronto-if it doesnt it will only be another season or two before hes sent packing for a “change of scenery.”
Escobar was still pretty mediocre after the trade — .275/.340/.356 isn’t horrible, but it certainly isn’t good.
better then what gonzalez did in atlanta. so
True.
AL, Easy HR park for RH-hitters… Gonzo had better defense, but still didn’t preform to the point he was traded for. If Braves hadn’t traded away Tim Collins, i’d be a little happier about the trade. Pastornicky (sp?) seems to be doing well, so I think out of the many SS prospects we have, one will be good enough to take the job in ’12. At least that’s what I think Wren was thinking.
please compare gonzalez defensive second half to escobar’s and gt back to me. .. and as for your AL comment, pretty sure esco faced tougher pitching down the stretch..
this is not to say i’m not an alex gonzalez fan, i think he’s a great player.. but i still don’t like the trade from the braves pov.
not really the pitching that matters. Hitters have an advantage in the AL. I couldn’t really tell a difference in the defenses. They both seemed pretty solid. Gonzo with less mental lapses. Yunel with a better arm. Toronto really helps RH-power. FanGraphs had a great article about it at the time of the trade.
I really don’t see how hitters have the advantage in the AL.. I mean overall the offenses are better because theres a DH, but that doesn’t affect individual players all that much.
I’m a big fan of gonzalez, and i took Atlanta on as my adopted team moving down the stretch.. easiest thing to do considering all the braves games are telecasted on peachtree which is part of regular cable up in Toronto..
That being said, I remember when gonzalez first got traded, he was making errors that he’s never made before, really bad mental lapses.. I think he had like 7 errors down the stretch.. Great fielding SS though, he makes a lot of tough plays, but the whole point of this trade was to replace someone who’s struggling with someone having a career year for the purpose of winning the 2010 WS.
Similar to the Hanley trade, if the Red Sox didn’t win the world series, it probably would have sent the Sox fans in to hysteria.. Now obviously its not that extreme because the braves didnt give up hanley.. but Escobar is a pretty darn good shortstop. . I think if its not bobby cox’s last year, this trade isnt done.
Gonzalez stats with braves .974 fielding % (8 errors), 6 HR, 38 RBI
Escobar states with toronto .969 fielding % (9 errors), 4 HR, 16 RBI
Both With Braves, Escobar AVG: .238 Gonzalez AVG: .240
Rogers Center: 4th in HRs allowed 1.358
Turner Field: 13th in HRs allowed 1.023
No one really looks at counting stats or fielding % or BA on here. Pretty much every stat you used was useless in determining a players true value.
Gonzalez UZR/150 with Braves – 1.1
Escobar UZR/150 with Jays – -4.5 [-18.6 at home]
Gonzalez OPS with Braves – .676 [down .117 from time with Jays]
Escobar OPS with Jays – .696 [up .078 from time with Braves]
It’s pretty much a wash when it comes to the stats, but I’d give the edge to the Jays because Yunel is a long-term solution with a boatload of talent, while Gonzalez is coming out of typical prime years and is a stop-gap. You also don’t know what you’re getting out of the 2 prospects.
No brainers for the Braves.
Good both guys are affordable and needed to be back. Still scratching my head over the whole Scott Proctor thing though.
Now, let’s work on those extensions.
agree with the Infante part, we should have signed Jhonny Peralta thou, hits for more power
I like that you bring up Peralta, I think he would have been a better choice than Alex Gonzalez. To me anything would be better than Alex Gonzalez lol… I agree though, I think Peralta has more to offer than Alex currently does.
more power than gonzo
Happy to see Scott Proctor still pitching at the Major League level. I thought someone famous had ruined his arm..
I don’t see anything wrong with the Scott Proctor signing. He can still pitch. I say give this vet a chance to reform himself.