There was very little reported interest in free agent Tyler Flowers over the winter. The Mets were linked to the veteran backstop last month, but his market has otherwise been quiet.
David O’Brien of the Athletic sheds some light on the situation, reporting that the 35-year-old has taken a non-playing position with the Braves, integrating analytics into in-game preparation. Flowers, however, has not retired as a player and continues to work out independently in case he decides to return to the field at some point, either in 2021 or in future seasons, O’Brien adds. It’s unclear if the Roswell, Georgia native remains open to all potential playing opportunities, or if his return to an MLB diamond would be contingent on doing so with the Braves. Given that Flowers lives with his wife and kids near the Braves stadium, this feels like a unique opportunity to keep a contingency plan in place for both Flowers and the Braves.
Alex Jackson is the current backup to Travis d’Arnaud, with William Contreras also on the 40-man roster. Veteran defensive specialist Jeff Mathis is also in the organization on the Triple-A roster. Both d’Arnaud and Jackson are off to relatively slow starts at the plate. As recently as last season Flowers made 80 trips to the dish across 22 games, slashing .217/.325/.348 in his fifth season in Atlanta. Flowers is a 12-year veteran who split his career between the Braves and White Sox. He owns a .237/.319/.391 line over 2,776 plate appearances for his career.
He’s an excellent defender and decent enough offensive contributor idk how no one signed him
Also think they just wanted to see what they had in Alex Jackson. Dude was drafted in 2014 and traded to the Braves in 2016. Been making sporadic appearances since 2019. At a certain point, you’ve got to see what you have with him. TDA is a free agent after this year and Contreras and Langliers are close. If he’s going to prove his worth as a backup in Atlanta, this is the window.
Jackson will probably be DFA’d once his options are up.
Why would that be? His metrics for pitch framing, blocking, and throwing base runners out were better than Flowers, and his big time power and over all offense will allow him be be a decent enough hitter to be a backup catcher.
Pitch framing…………meh, the art of fooling an umpire. C’mon electronic balls & strikes.
Looks to me like it’s Braves or nothing for him, because if he is open to taking a non-playing role with the Braves while still being an active player, then it kinds leads to that probably being true.
Consider reading the article.
Incorrect. He’s a good pitch framer, but he’s absolutely terrible at blocking pitches as he has no agility, and he’s below average at throwing guys out on the base paths.
He may well be those things. But he calls a great game and works well with the Pitchers……d’Arnaud does not…..plus d’Arnaud is not about to win a Gold Glove anytime soon.
The Braves pitching is currently abysmal. They’d better get someone in there that can call a game and handle Pitchers.
Perhaps he was not interested in the teams that showed interest or did not want a minor league contract. He’s played a long time, perhaps he was only to continue if it was right for him.
This. He is probably at a point where he might prefer to play closer to home and family. We really don’t know what his preference is. There’s nothing wrong with not wanting the most playing time, the most money or whatever else we make guesses on from the outside. If he’s good, he’s good. More power to him.
Catching is a tough position, and we all know this. Maybe he’s just holding off formally announcing in the event TDA goes down or something?
Given the propensity for catchers to remain of value to the game and eventually sometimes even make good managers, it makes sense for him to develop his “next stage” skills. In the meantime, if he gets another chance to help the Braves on the field, good for him.
I get that it’s a really small sample size, but a 30wRC+ is a “relatively slow start”? I’d hate to see what a run of the mill slow start looks like.
I wish the Mets would’ve signed Flowers to back up McCann
Reddick should be ready soon.
Alex Jackson can’t hit his way out of a paper bag and though it would be cool to see Jeff Mathis get a shot Flowers would make sense coming back to backup d’Arnaud
Tyler Flowers brings early showers