Contrary to a report from last month, newly acquired Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips insisted Friday that he did not block Atlanta’s initial attempt to land him from the Reds in November.
“I didn’t say no to [the] trade,” Phillips told Mark Bowman of MLB.com. “I didn’t really know what was going on. When I heard about it, I was like, ’For real, why didn’t you guys make that happen?’ That’s why I didn’t want to say anything or to call anybody out. I never said I didn’t want to play for the Atlanta Braves. I’m here now, and I’m very happy.”
Regardless of the cause, the Braves temporarily abandoned their goal of trading for Phillips, which led to their signing of Sean Rodriguez in free agency at the end of November. That disappointed Phillips, who had his “head down a little bit” afterward, but the shoulder injury Rodriguez suffered in a car crash last month put Phillips back on Atlanta’s radar. The Braves ultimately picked up the 35-year-old Phillips last Sunday for two minor league pitchers who lack big league potential, and they’ll take on just $1MM of the remaining $14MM on his contract. While Bowman notes there are “some concerns” regarding the left hand injury Phillips suffered late last season, the Braves simply couldn’t pass on Phillips at such a minimal price.
For Phillips’ part, he was “jumping for joy” when the move became official. Phillips had to waive his 10-and-5 rights in order to make it happen, and it surely helped the Braves’ cause that he’s a Georgia native who owns a home near their new stadium, SunTrust Park. “It was like I signed my first check or something,” said the three-time All-Star.
“I wanted it to happen a long time ago, but things happen,” added Phillips, who had been a Red since 2006. “There are different sides. I never thought it would happen, but I told my agent, ’You’ve got to make this happen.’ I miss Cincinnati. That’s always home. But Atlanta is my home, home.”
If healthy, Phillips believes he “can be one of the best players in this game” – a level he hasn’t reached in several years. More realistically, Phillips should be a satisfactory stopgap in 2017 for an improving Atlanta club which is anticipating high-end prospect Ozzie Albies’ forthcoming major league debut. Albies, 20, reached the Triple-A level as a teenager last season and now ranks between 11th and 26th on the top 100 prospects lists of Baseball America, ESPN’s Keith Law and MLB.com.
Okay Phillips, lets start by helping the Braves win some games before calling yourself as a possible top player. Gotta love the optimism though i guess!
Good luck DatDude! Cincy will miss ya! #Milktruck #littledebbies
#BAMcleanupman
I’m trying to figure out where you see that he said he’s a top player. But to be honest right now with your squad he probably will be, if he has a season like last year.. can be injury prone at times though. So good luck with him.
“If healthy, Phillips believes he “can be one of the best players in this game” – a level he hasn’t reached in several years.”
wow…lol…i can c y u missed it..
A Braves lineup of Ender, Dansby, FF, Kemp, Kakes, BP, Garcia, Flowers is solid. If the Braves stay healthy they can compete, if they’re in it at the break who knows. Maybe they pull of that trade for an ace. I’m optimistic which is more than I was last year.
Unfortunately, Kemp is an enormous defensive liability. His Defensive runs saved was 21 runs below average last year, and he only had one positive season, way back in ’09. Though, granted, he was better than in ’14 and ’15, sooooo… progress? Good bat helps make up for some of it, but not enough.
Who knows how much that would play a factor, but he is much leaner and “in shape” than in previous years. Considering he is in left field, I don’t think it should take much for him to be at least average on defense!
Is he? After the Braves acquired him Copolella said on a radio show that Kemp was “not in shape.” As he hasn’t reported yet to camp it’s hard to know where he’s at with conditioning. And the real issue with Kemp anyway is his degenerative hips. Watching him with the Padres for that year and a half play defense, even in left field was painful.
He reported last week
WTF?
Oh did not know that. Hope he showed up with new hips.
Gotta love it when an internet guy thinks he knows more than the organization the player plays in!
Ah, the classic, appeal to authority argument. I’m just a normal baseball fan who had to watch Matt Kemp stumble his way through the Padres outfield for a couple years. He was also, by all accounts, a lousy teammate because he didn’t want to be in San Diego. He’s a one-dimensional player now, but hopefully Atlanta is happy with him. He runs like an old woman pushing a shopping cart full of bowling balls.
I remember Manny Ramirez patrolling left field for the Red Sox and Dodgers. His play was laughably bad for playoff teams. Kemp isn’t the hitter than Manny was, but DRS seems to be an overvalued stat. Especially for left field.
Left field in Fenway is the easiest left field in baseball to play. Not a lot of area to cover. The defensive stats for Fenway left-fielders are always skewed, and you’ll also notice left fielders in Fenway always have unusually high assist totals. You’ll notice that Manny finished in the top two in assists three times, leading the league once with 17, and all three years were in Boston.
Get out of here and get some facts before you make a comment that makes you look dumb. Kemp is in really good shape and it is evident when he came to Atlanta the offense took off. He may be on the back end of his prime but ender dansby Freddie kemp and Markakis are for sure a top 10 maybe a top 5 1-5. The braves will make some noise in the east this year. Worst to first is not out of the question. Especially if newcomb Blair and wisler come up and can pitch to what they are capable of this team will turn some heads this year. Everybody doubted the Falcons last year and they went to the super bowl. Atlanta is about to be back on top
the offseason really brings out the delusion in baseball fans
Actually, Freeman had his best offensive numbers of the season in the three weeks before Kemp showed up. Kemp hits homers, doesn’t run or field well anymore. And, really, Markakis? A starting outfielder with a 397 slugging percentage who also can’t run? Okay. That’s a nice fourth outfielder. There’s also the unknown about Taxpayer-Boondoggle ballpark (or whatever it’s called) and how it will play.
As far as Kemp being in “really good shape,” yes, he seems to be leaner now than last year, but Copolella did say, in a radio interview shortly after acquiring Kemp, that Kemp was “not in shape.” And I watched him with the Padres and it was quite apparent he was not.
Kemp reported to camp down 30 lbs and supposedly in the best shape of his career. I could see him easily having a huge year for the bravos! Im so excited about the braves future. Gonna be a NL powerhouse soon
I love the annual “best shape of his life” stories that come out this time of year. I think there’s even a website somewhere that tracks these stories. It generally doesn’t have any correlation with that season’s performance, unfortunately. The problem with Kemp wasn’t just the weight last year, it’s the fact that his hips aren’t going to get better.
This reminds me of an idea I’ve thought about for years. What if teams could sign say “two veterans” on each team. The veterans can only play a reduced number of games (argument here is that their bodies can’t take 162 games).
The vets would be able to suit up but the manager has to declare which games they are going in (maybe not).
This would give team:
1. Added depth of they are asking for
2. Unions get more members (not sure they care)
3. Fans get to see these legends a little longer
4. Players get to keep playing if they want to and not taken out to the back of the paddock and shot just because they are old
There are plenty of players who finished before they could have, they just needed someone to take them on but a team hears “age 40” and freaks. This is a low risk way for all teams to keep our guys around just a little longer.
Exactly Kemps weight isn’t the issue. Yes he hit 12 homeruns in 56 if i remember correctly but he also was a 0.5 WAR. Doesn’t sound like a cornerstone piece that will be on the next great braves teams.
A. Garcia and Flowers will need to be upgraded eventually. As a Braves fan for 2017 I am hoping for a solid year from Swanson, Folty, and possible emergence from Newcomb and Albies.
Go ahead and started the bidding on Lucroy & Moustakas.
I wouldn’t be interested in Lucroy
Really weird that you wouldn’t be interested in the second best catcher in baseball.
because shelf life for catchers is short. lucroy is on the wrong side of 30. Braves need the “2nd best catcher in baseball” from 2018-2023. not 2017.
A team with Phillips, kemp, markakis, dickey, Garcia, Colon and Jim Johnson would be World Series favourites in 2012.
A team with Phillips, Kemp, Markakis, Colon, RA.D, Garcia and Jim Johnson would be World Series candidates in 2012. Is Atlanta trying to steal San Fran’s title?
Not at all haha. They just want to be respectable and not lose 100 games.
Damnit mlbtr comment section! You never approve my RA comments and then the one time I bother to rewrite one you approve both!
I’m not sure what makes you think that.
Flowers, Phillips, Garcia, and Markakis are safe bets to be well below average. Inciarte is likely to be about averagish or slightly before, Kemp the opposite. Who knows with Dansby as a rookie, Freeman is the only guy that is likely to have a 110 wRC+ or better.
And they are likely to be below average baserunning team with Kemp/Markakis/Flower and only 1 clear plus baserunner
he has a great attitude, but dude just has no desire to win
I love this move. Phillips is the perfect guy to put behind Markakis. He doesn’t walk much, but he doesn’t strike our much either. He gets a lot of hits and hits a lot of doubles. With Inciarte and Swanson at the top of the lineup, Phillips is probably a better fit than Albies right now anyway, though Albies’ 70 grade bat should play well almost anywhere in the lineup once he’s ready.
While the Braves will need ALOT to go right, if they are to even sniff a wild-card, I still think, at the very least, they will field a pretty competitive team.
Their starting 5 of Teheran, Colon, Foltynewicz, Jaime Garcia, and R.A.D should be pretty average. If any injuries should occur, they will have some guys available like Wisler, Collmenter, and Blair available early on. If any injuries occur during the middle of the season or later, some talented arms like Max Fried and Sean Newcomb could also become available..
One bright spot for the Braves “should” be their bullpen. The Braves should be able to count on some solid, talented arms returning from last season, but also they will have a full year of the 100-103 MPH flamethrower in Mauricio Cabrera, and then hopefully Paco Rodriguez can come in healthy along with Arodys Vizcaino..
Also, the Braves, at some point, will bring up one of the most talented relief prospects in AJ Minter, who should immediately become a lock-down, left-handed set-up man.
Then, the Braves will have SEVERAL other talented bullpen arms, coming in waves, fighting for a chance to make it to the show in Caleb Dirks, Akeel Morris, Jason Hursh, Luke Jackson, Bradley Roney, Evan Phillips, Phil Pfeiffer, Steve Janas, and Armando Rivero. Then there will be some extremely talented younger guys like Corbin Clouse, Devan Watts, Jacob Webb, Chase Mullins-Johnson, Chad Sobotka, Carlos Salazar, Taylor Lewis, and possibly a talented arm or two that gets pushed out from starting like Lucas Sims or Michael Mader…who might get a late look in the pen..
Bullpen depth is definitely a strength for the Braves, unlike most of their counterparts in the NL East. So taking all of that into consideration, along with a new and fairly intriguing rotation, while adding in a full year of Dansby and a revitalized, leaner Matt Kemp, plus then with the addition of BP…To say the least, things could certainly get interesting in Atlanta…
Absolutely no one will pick Atlanta for a wild-card spot, not even the most delusional Braves fans lol, but I am going on record to say I would not be at all suprised if this team can flirt hovering around the .500 mark, finishing about 5-7 games under…Still though, I would definitely consider that a successful season, and heading into 2018 that would put Atlanta on a pretty fast track to truly becoming competitive…
Consider me confused… You guys are excited about a Braves team being better but your basis for the improvement isn’t because you’ve cleared a path for several young players to gain valuable experience and make a run. You’ve signed washed up 40 year old starters , a 35 year old second baseman on the decline, traded for Matt Kemp who is absolutely awful defensively and offsets most of what he gains you at the plate.. Even if the stars align and all those players mesh with your young guys you do have up, does that really set you up to be that successful after that? You’ll still have the unknown of all the prospects development and a lot of unproven pieces.
Says the Reds fan
Washed up? Dickey maybe, not completely, but Colon? Hardly
That doesn’t make a lot of sense. He explained how people will “hopefully be healthier” and how young guys will be making their ways up. Redlegs needs to actually read. I’m not saying I agree with bravesfan88 but he did explain pretty well.
Was it really necessary to say that the two minor prospects in involved lack major league potential? Kind of like saying that Connor Byrne lacks Sports Illustrared writer potential.
Woah. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He was just reporting what every other baseball scout or analyst has confirmed – that a 27-year old with two TJs and a PED suspension and a 29 year-old Cuban veteran who hasn’t pitched above high-A are probably just organizational fodder. No need to be rude to the writer.
I wasn’t commenting solely on bravesfan post so perhaps a reply to his wasn’t the best choice. All I’m saying is it seems like the braves organization might actually be taking a step backwards as far as developing and actually getting ready for a run by depending on so many veterans this year to try and win a few more games in a new stadium. As far as being a reds not sure where that comes into play real gone. I was simply stating my opinion not knocking the braves but personally I don’t see where these moves help for the future
The Braves are in a bit of a tough spot. They bilked the taxpayers for a fancy new suburban stadium, even though their previous stadium was less than 20 years old. All those new season ticket-holders are going to be expecting a decent product on the field. Colon is still a useful major league pitcher and Dickey is at least replacement level. Kemp can do one thing but that one thing is important to casual baseball fans. Phillips looks like a good player but isn’t anymore, and all those guys are just stopgaps anyway. The Braves are going to be really good really soon, but right now they just don’t want to put a Padres-level product on the field in their first season in their new park.
this is not a good trade for the Reds. They’re treating Brandon Phillips to the Braves, for two pictures were not majorly ready, and may not be major-league ready.
I meant trading, and pictures.
The Reds dumped Phillips they are paying most of his salary too. They did it to free playing time for Pereza and hopefully Herrera
i’m surprised by this because Chase at least 38 in the veteran and what he did last year so he still has something. I’m shocked like I said already but you do have to understand that he/lime doesn’t mean anything. They should go with Franklin Gutierrez
sorry that was meant for another article.