The World Series is over, the Giants won it all in five games thanks to good pitching, and more luck in three weeks than most teams have in an entire year. Congratulations Giants.
But here on November 2, 2010 that's not the most important thing to Braves fans is it?
Not by a long shot.
Today the off season officially begins. What that means for the Bravos is that for the next five days they have exclusive rights to speak with Troy Glaus, Derek Lee, and Eric Hinske.
I imagine that the conversations with Glause and Lee will go something like this: "well it was great having you around, thanks for the good times. Good luck next season."
Glaus will probably be looking for a job in the AL that would allow him to DH at least part time. The Rays, A's, and Mariners are just a few teams that could find room for Glaus.
Derek Lee is a type-A free agent, but probably won't be offered arbitration so the Braves will not net a draft pick. He will find a spot on a team looking for a right handed first baseman, Baltimore is known to be interested. The Braves wont offer arbitration because the chances are too great that he would accept after having a down year, and with the emergence of Freddy Freeman first base is not one of the Braves major needs. The only circumstances that they would offer arbitration, would be if they found a trade suitor that they could flip him to almost immediately.
That being said, a right handed first base option could be appealing to the Braves to back up Freeman, and rest him against tough left-handers. Jorge Cantu, Xavier Nady, and Jose Lopez could all be options if they aren't retained by their current teams.
Hinske is an interesting case because the Braves would like to keep him, but may not have a place for him or the funds he requires. They will probably offer him 2 million or a little less on a one year deal, he will probably test free agent waters and could return if his services aren't worth more to another team.
Scott Procor who was signed last off season while recovering from Tommy John surgery only pitched a handful of innings for Atlanta this year but it is expected that the Braves will announce that they have brought him back on a deal that will pay him 750K and incentives that could bring the total up to 1MM.
I think this is mainly a depth move, but if he can return to the form that he showed in New York a few years ago he could be helpful. I don't really understand why they gave him a guaranteed contract when they could probably find a better option in the free agent market.
As expected the Braves also picked up the options for Omar Infante and Alex Gonzalez, this was a virtual no brainer as there are not any better shortstop options available for 2.5MM. Infante is coming off a very good campaign that saw him play 2b, 3b, SS, Lf and Rf while hitting .321. He will also make 2.5MM. Both are affordable and effective options that will fulfill their purposes.
The top free agents this season are Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth, Adrian Beltre, Victor Martinez, Cliff Lee, and Adam Dunn. Though the Braves likely aren't players for any of them. It's possible that they could make offers to Werth, and Dunn if they decide he can play left field, but probably wont have the funds. So look for Frank Wren to start getting creative starting next Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment