The Braves announced Wednesday that outfielder Cristian Pache has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. It’s the second time this year the top prospect has been sent to Gwinnett for further refinement, which isn’t a surprise given that the 22-year-old has batted just .111/.152/.206 in 68 plate appearances. Pache is considered an all-world defender with substantial upside at the plate, but his offensive game is nowhere near as polished as his defense at this point. With Pache down and Marcell Ozuna both injured and facing assault allegations, the Braves’ outfield mix is comprised by Ronald Acuna Jr., Ender Inciarte, Guillermo Heredia, Abraham Almonte and Ehire Adrianza. Top prospect Drew Waters is hitting reasonably well in Triple-A but is striking out at a rather unpalatable 28 percent clip there.
Some more news and notes out of Atlanta…
- Braves icon (and current assistant hitting coach) Chipper Jones weighed in on Freddie Freeman’s contractual situation in a chat with The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz. Jones stresses that he’s only offering his own opinion but wonders whether the Liberty Media-owned Braves are waiting to see what 2021 attendance numbers look like before making a market-value offer to Freeman. The Hall of Famer also calls Liberty Media an “absentee owner” that is “rooted in trying to make money off the franchise” more so than conventional ownership structures. Atlanta fans will want to check out the column for Jones’ full, lengthy quotes on the matter. Freeman, 31, didn’t start the 2021 season particularly well, but he’s hitting a much more characteristic .284/.411/.527 over his past 20 games (90 plate appearances). He’s scheduled to become a free agent for the first time this winter after the $135MM contract extension he signed eight years ago draws to a close.
- Right-hander Shane Greene’s most recent schedule appearance in Gwinnett was pushed a couple of days due to soreness in his back, manager Brian Snitker told reporters Monday (link via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). The veteran reliever was able to take the mound yesterday for his third appearance since re-signing with Atlanta, however. Thus far, Greene has rattled off 3 1/3 shutout innings with five strikeouts and one walk allowed. Snitker noted Monday that there’s still no timetable for when Greene is expected to join the Major League bullpen. After sitting out until early May, Greene is effectively going through a makeshift Spring Training in Gwinnett right now.
29% This!
versus AAA pitching…………………………………………..
I’m sure that K-rate will come down facing deGrom, Taijuan Walker, Stroman, the thought of Carlos Carrasco, Scherzer, Alcantara, Trevor Rogers, Pablo Lopez, Nola, Wheeler, and Eflin (not in that order).
To be fair drew waters may have a high strikeout rate but he’s cut it down by 10% already this year
Chipper on damage control
Chipper just said what the long term Braves fans already figured.
I’ve gotten so used to all the vanilla quotes by the Yankees that say absolutely nothing.
It’s refreshing to see an honest take.
Almost forgot what those sound like.
Hopefully Freddie stays where he is. I have no problem with Free Agency, but MLB should do something to keep icons where they are.
That wouldn’t be free agency. From the Braves’ side, Freeman will be 32 in September. If the icon wants more years than they’re willing to give an older player, then it might be time to part ways.
The mets will pay him. I mean the braves have to pay the wife beater and the only thing better than a mets win is a braves loss to the nationals triple A team..lmfao
Nats AAA team…??? They’ve got just about a healthy lineup, minus Stras. Soto is finally coming out of his shell. After June, we’ll finally know who NYM is playing SD (7 games), CHC (3 games — they swept NYM 3-0 earlier this year), etc — including 4 makeup games (PHI, WSH x2, ATL).
Haha ok. Like what?
“Sorry, you’re a fantastic player so you have to stay with this team.”
How about giving hall of fame bonus points to players who spend 90 percent of their careers with one team?
We have enough “good” players making the hall of fame.
10 and 5 Rights is what MLB does for its “icons”.
Bring back the Reserve Clause.
You probably comment facetiously, but baseball was more fun for fans when players didn’t move around so much. If there’s a way to change the current climate it’s not reinstating the reserve clause, which was rendered illegal anyway, if memory serves. Still, there is probably something MLB can do to incentivize players to stay with their original teams.
Players already have no say in where they play throughout the minors and for six years in the majors. I see no reason to make it more likely for them to be stuck where they may not want to be any longer.
I know many people – not necessarily you – would say they’re rich and spoiled and should be grateful and loyal, but money doesn’t equal happiness. They might prefer to live elsewhere for whatever personal reasons they have.
Also, loyalty should go both ways, but usually a player gets dumped when he’s no longer useful, and fans complain that players like Chris Davis, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera won’t retire to save the franchise money.
Ya I admit that my comment was more “whishin’ and hopein’ than anything that can be legislated. But Freddie’s meant so much more to that team than just the numbers on the back of his baseball card, and to top it off, has always been a class act. It would be a shame to see him go. At least from my view.
Yes likewise if you are a good employee and another company comes head hunting you, you should be forced to decline that other company’s offer even if it’s more than your current company pays.
Sound stupid yet?
Braves sat out on every free agent bat ever asking for a long term deal – they made it part of their organizational strategy. Then Ozuna came along and reach his max potential for a second time in his career and Braves choked out a fortune to him (although still below market value for his performance).
The way Russell got booted out of the league even though he was never charged by any prosecutor shows it’s a hard road back to majors. Odds are Braves will be trying to get out of that contract !
Should have stated status quo and paid the asking price for kris Bryant
Charges by prosecutors have nothing to do with it. Companies are free to have their own domestic abuse policies. People are fired for violating those policies all the time without ever going to court. I have worked with multiple people who were rightfully canned because of it.
As for Kris Bryant, the point is moot since the Cubs are very much in a pennant race. The idea that they should be conducting some kind of fire sale has never made any sense.
Breaking the law should have a lot to do with it. If the victim or prosecutor can’t prove it – then why destroy someone’s career ?
Bryant was surely available this winter; as sure as he’s no longer available today. Cubs did well to stick to their asking price and better at building this roster on a budget. Kudos to them.
Because they violated company policy. Nobody has the right to play Major League Baseball. If you can’t follow the rules, then find a job doing something else.
I agree. Then again I’m biased and want Ozuna out. Never wanted him back never will.
Are you really asking why grown men are responsible for their actions?
That’s the crux of your argument here buddy
Or get better at getting away with breaking rules. 😉
Notice that he said, “if they can’t prove it.” I have no idea what happened because I wasn’t there but by your logic any fan can just make up lies to get a rival player suspended and give their own team a better chance. Do you see the point now?
The police witnessed a felony in-progress — pretty good witnesses. Don’t have to be Matlock on this one.
My comment was not specific to this incident. It was simply a response to whoever wrote…
“Breaking the law should have a lot to do with it. If the victim or prosecutor can’t prove it – then why destroy someone’s career?”
You know MLB does investigate these things right? You’re making up an absurd scenario here that isn’t reality (that a fan could make up domestic abuse allegations).
I’m pretty sure that domestic abuse is not the only thing listed under that policy. There are three different things listed there.
Don’t think the Braves will be able to get out of the contract. They will be stuck paying him for 4 years just like the Phillies had to do with Herrara.
Also, it’s hard to believe that a team wouldn’t do a little research to discern what kind of off-the-field temperament a player has before acquiring him. Especially nowadays when domestic violence will ruin a career faster than PEDs.
There were signs that they had an abusive relationship. He filed assault charges against her for throwing a soap dish at his face. How they still guaranteed that much to him after seeing signs that he had a troubled home life is puzzling to say the least.
Thank you Chipper for reenforcing my point that the team doesn’t care about winning.
Chipper was referring to Liberty Media and not the team as a whole.
Right and LM is the team. Of course, the players care…..I guess somewhat. Win or lose they still millionaires going back home to their mansions tho.
As for AA, he is making safe, cheap moves to keep his job. Why go for it during an open window when you can hoard prospects and pray they work out?
The important fact is whether Chipper thinks LM is the team. Saying Chipper is helping you prove your point is just making his words fit the narrative you prefer.
If AA is making safe, cheap moves it is because of the budget he is given. If the boss comes to you saying we can spend X and you come back a month later saying you spent X + $60 mil, you are gunna be out of job real quick.
Although signing Ozuna, Morton, and Smyly doesn’t seem like he is being too throttled. Hate on the GM for how he is allocating money, not for the money he is allowed to allocate.
Liberty Media may be the new Chicago Tribune (former owner of the Cubs).
Ian Theodore Fanthemson
reenforcing my point that the team doesn’t care about winning.
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I always find it interesting when people complain about a team not caring about winning, even though it comes in 1st every year.
I hear from since oblivious RS fans all the time about Henry being cheap, even though the other 90% of the world complains about Henry spending too much.
So I guess your choice boils down to this. Watch a team that loves to win, but comes in last every year. Or root for a team that doesn’t care about winning, but comes in 1st every year.
@JoeBrady
I assure you they won’t be coming in first in 2021. The bullpen is horrific, and this is as a consequence of not re-signing Melancon and O’Day. Bullpen depth and strength is everything in this game, the Braves bullpen is woeful in 2021 without those two players, and yes, two players in a bullpen can make such a difference as to who you run out there everyday. The Braves also gave big money to Smyly, yet he’s no better than Teheran, in fact Teheran was a very competent .500 pitcher. The Braves also needed another bat behind Freeman and Ozuna, nothing was done about it, but that probably all comes down to AA and the restricted spending capacity he has access to.
Congrats on figuring that out in June even though it was apparent in April
MLB often partially finances the sale of their franchises. And they are franchises; as such; to some degree, you operate the team at the will of MLB. MLB has forced ownership changes (see Cinccy, TB) and has no doubt forced other operational parameters, just like your individually owned neighborhood McD’s marches to orders from Chicago. . Do you really think MLB would stand there if John Henry stripped the Red Sox down to Sandy Leon? Too much brand damage to ever let that happen.
So sure, there’s a certain unfairness to limiting Free Agency in special circumstances. Being “fair” isn’t required when it comes to matters of commerce.
Thankfully you’re not in charge. MLB would be on strike immediately.
Being fair IS legally required in a whole lot of cases when it comes to employment though.
Are we allowed to say the guy with a -3 OPS+ is a bust who AA shouldn’t have prospect hoarded yet, Braves fans?
No, because his career has barely started. Why are some fans so anxious to throw players away?
Who said throw him away Cey Hey? The chance to trade him at peak value has certainly gone by tho. Amazing how the guy who has a negative OPS+is getting the benefit of the doubt from people. I guess some people expect more than prospect hoarding and lowball offers to franchise players from a team with the 2nd longest division winning streak in the sport.
You are allowed to say it, but it makes you look like a complete moron. The dude is 22 and has 68 plate appearances. Most prospects are in AA at his age. Fans think everyone is Soto or Tatis. The stupidity is getting real damn annoying
OK Steve. When the Braves completely botch their window you can point to prospect hoarding as a big reason why. Keep fawning over the supposed #11 prospect in baseball who saying he looks outmatched in the bigs is a massive understatement. I’m sure flipping him for Arenado wouldn’t have helped the Braves….
Was an Arenado-for-Pache ever a viable option for Atlanta? I don’t recall reading that rumor here or anywhere else.
Why do you view things in a complete polarization? You either hate a prospect and think he is a bust or you are fawning over an unproven player. What if we just looked at a middle option: Pache has a future value that will be higher than Arenado’s when taking into account cost and age.
The only way the Braves could have gotten Arenado for just Pache anyway is if the Braves took all of the contract. The Cardinals are paying basically half of his remaining contract which is why they didn’t have to give a lot.
Why would you be longing for Arenado right now anyway? Austin Riley is raking.
Rrrrright, you keep thinking Pache was the hold-up in a Arenado-for-Pache trade and not the $150M bill ATL would’ve had to assume, as STL did.
Steve, that take is so bad. No, the guy who has looked completely lost in the bigs does not have a higher FV than Arenado the best defensive 3B in the sport who has an all star level bat every season. Your salary take is even worse. Just because a player is on their pre arb/arb team control doesn’t automatically make them more valuable than a proven star who got paid. And I hate to break this to you but Nolan’s luxury tax number is 16.126 million and you think that’s too much? What a joke. You could add 5 million to that number and still have a great deal.That’s a steal for the Cardinals who have him for the rest of his prime. That pretty much sums up how cheap the Braves are. Arenado for 150 is still almost 100 million less than what the Angels gave Rendon. Sounds like fair market value to me. And Riley could play LF and be fine.
It never would have happened straight up but I’m sure either Pache or Waters would have been part of the deal along with some pitching prospects and probably Riley (since Arenado would take the 3B spot). I like Arenado but the contract is too much for Atlanta.
I doubt Riley would have been a part of it. They’ve always had an idea of playing him as a COF – and if ATL assumed Arenado’s deal, they wouldn’t have brought back Ozuna, while Arenado would have assumed the 3 or 4-hole spot filled. Only way that would have happened is if COL paid another $40-50M, and even then, I don’t see it from both sides.
amk1920
Are we allowed to say the guy with a -3 OPS+ is a bust who AA shouldn’t have prospect hoarded yet, Braves fans?
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You, I remember when you guys were whining about Riley.
I never went too hard on Riley. Swanson and Pache are the Braves players who I feel AA botched the most. Riley is a typical modern player. Big pop and potential for Ks. There isn’t any missed opportunities with him.
You shouldn’t go hard on Swanson either. Estimated $/WAR in 2020 was 9.1 million, and for the last three year average it is 8.3 million.
Swanson’s Total WAR (using Baseball reference which uses one of FanGraphs methods).
Year – WAR – Salary – Estimated WAR cost – Profit (EWAR cost – salary)
2018 – 2.9 – $565k – $26.97m – $26m
2019 – 2.7 – $585 – $21.06m – $20m
*2020 – 3.1 – $1.16m – $28.21 – $27m
* – 2020 salary is pro-rated based on what he was actually paid due to the salary cuts from COVID
In essence, on a $/WAR value, Swanson has made/saved (however you want to look at it), $73 million over the last three years. I even rounded down the Profit to the next lowest million. If anything, we should be lauding the value of Swanson right now, not hating on him. I understand everyone was hoping for more, but the guy has been a huge value for the Braves.
Is he a top 5 shortstop? No. The thing is, when you overpay in $/WAR at other positions to fill legitimate holes, you have to have some spots filled by players who outperform that $/WAR metric at other positions. There isn’t a single team in baseball who doesn’t need Swanson type players in their starting lineup, including the teams that win the World Series.
Swanson is playing just fine for his value right now. When he becomes a true free agent and can ask for his value in $/WAR or more, then we can gripe if the Braves overpay. Even then, I think his non-metric impact on this team is significant.
I give Chipper credit, he tells the truth about ownership. It is about money first, second and often third.
Every organization runs for the benefit of the owners.
If the Braves aren’t willing to pay Freeman the Yankees probably are…
The problem with most free agents is they want to be paid for what they WERE not what they ARE. I’m not suggesting Freeman won’t be any good after he signs – just that in many cases by the time a guy makes it to FA, his best years are often behind him.
And why is that? It’s because players are not paid fairly early on. It creates this desire for free agents to milk it for every dollar they can and also the teams can afford it because they don’t pay the players early on in their careers. It’s a really lame system that needs to be fixed.
That’s why I hope the new CBA gets the younger players paid much more, much sooner. Raise the minimum to at least $1M, maybe start arbitration after two seasons, possibly free agency a year sooner. To help the small-market clubs keep their players, increase revenue sharing. Allow trading of draft picks.
Do you think paying the players more earlier will prevent them from wanting more later? Absolutely not. You will still hear collusion accusations and most of the fans will back the players.
I do agree with lowering the years to become Arb eligible though. I think it will force teams to promote young players earlier and the cost can be offset by making fringe veterans retire earlier. It keeps the game energized while still protecting the big names. It sucks for average value veterans, but I can tell you the average fan would much prefer to see a young prospect bat than see a .200 hitting vet that can barely field out there.
As you stated though, you would then have to offset earlier Arb or Free Agency with some sort of revenue offset for clubs that cannot compete financially. If it’s draft picks, you have to make it effective, but not over-rewarding (like the Rays getting 9 extra picks one offseason for crappy vets that walked away). They had 10 first round picks in 2011, including 6 supplemental for losing a bunch of middling players and aging vets past their prime. It was smart baseball for them, but it was just unreal how they turned getting prospects to take on bad contracts, that then rewarded them with more capital when they signed elsewhere. That’s nuts. Fortunately for baseball, the Rays draft picks didn’t fare well on the whole.
It’s a tough thing, because the MLBPA tries to protect vets first and always has, and owners certainly want the time to grow players and get some value back before they can walk away.
The players can ask for more later, and maybe they’ll get it, or maybe the owners will say, “We’re paying more to the young guys, so we have less for you.” It would be a better system than what they have now.
As far as fans backing the players, I see a greater number siding with the teams. They often see guys doing what they used to do as kids – though not nearly as well – and wonder how that can be worth $30M per year. Never mind that the owners get rich, too. They’re less visible.
I agree the MLBPA has generally protected the vets first and at the expense of the youngest players. With the current structure, owners get plenty of value from the young guys before they can walk away. Plenty.
Great as Freddie is, signing him to some mega deal starting in his age 32 year would be a massive error. Some hitters can hit into their late 30’s but it’s increasingly rare, and Freeman’s weird, handsy swing doesn’t strike me as being a good candidate.
I tend to agree. Certain swings just don’t look like they are built for longevity and his is one of them. Baez is another one. Once you get old that stuff doesn’t work the same.
Seems like the Braves are excellent at short term high $ deals; Donaldson, Ozuna, d’Arnould, Greene but terrible at long term high $ deals; Ozuna, Upton, Uggla, all the way back to Esasky and Sutter
Never forget Derek Lowe, and would Kawakami’s 3-year deal, which made him the highest-paid AA player until he was released also count as “long term”? Ozuna’s 4 years doesn’t really feel like “long term” unless he never plays again and ATL is on the hook for all of it. They won’t pay while he’s suspended (by MLB) and if he serves time — 2 most likely scenarios.
You nailed it. Braves, and well, most of MLB, get raked when giving out longer term contracts. It’s rare they work out. More common is they get expected play for about half the contract and the rest is wasted money. But most know that going in.
I cannot believe some teams think giving out a anything more than three years is a good idea. I don’t fault the Braves for trying to avoid it.
Nothing wrong with seeing attendance numbers before wanting to jump in bed with a hundred million dollar contract. Good gosh attendance helps pay their salary. Attendance in 2021 isn’t going to be good. I am kind of amazed guys got the contracts they did last offseason. People want to act like it’s up up up and that’s it but that’s simply not true.
He should be good for another 2-3 years. And it is fine to pay him good money to do so. But anything past 4 years is a serious risk.
Of course 4 years is long term and legal troubles aside he can’t hit this year.
I do not expect Freddie Freeman to return. My mind may be drawing a blank, but I can’t remember a true franchise-caliber player in their prime entering free agency and returning to that team.
Cano, Pujols, Rendon, Scherzer, Harper are the recent ones that I can recall.
Posey, Molina, Longoria and Arenado (even though they were eventually traded), Kershaw, Tatis, Trout and maybe a few more all got taken care of.
Goldy, Machado, and Lindor were all traded before they walked.
Maybe I’m missing one, but I can’t think of a true franchise icon that entered free agency and re-signed with their team.
It’s possible. Freddie loves playing for this organization and probably one of his best buddies (Chipper) took less to stay here his entire career, so it’s possible he follows suit.
I love how Chipper called out Liberty Media as an “absentee owner”! Atleast someone involved with the organization has the balls to call out Liberty for their horrible management style. They really need to sell the team to an ownership group that values winning over yearly profits. It’s a shame that a company that owns a sports team values making money more than winning when the point to playing sports is to win. The city of Atlanta and all their fans nationwide deserve so much better. Thanks Chipper for doing what snitker and AA and many others in the Organization should have done but haven’t. There are too many people involved in baseball that never wanna speak to and always wanna protect the product and their “good Ole boys” it’s why MLB hasn’t changed much over the years and has progressively become the worst run Major American pro sports league.
@Russ. Yeah Chipper might as well. What is Liberty Media going to do? I can only hope and pray the Braves get sold and not to another corporation.
“Called out”? it’s not like he said anything that wasn’t common knowledge. Liberty Media cannot make decisions on personnel, they are literally investors only. It’s part of the contract they have with MLB.
It is unacceptable that we do not have a championship in this century.
To this point the rebuild has been a complete waste.
2000-2005: Six postseason appearances. Zero titles. Zero World Series appearances. One postseason series win total (2001 NLDS)
2006-2009: Zero postseason appearances
2010-2013: Three postseason appearances. Zero postseason series wins.
2014-2017: Zero postseason appearances
2018-2020: Three postseason appearances. Zero titles. Zero World Series appearances. Two postseason series wins total (in a fake season).
If we don’t win at least one World Series then we’re just repeating the same pattern of this century. The ’90s Braves underachieved for sure but they at least won one title, which we would gladly take right now. Get it done at all costs.