It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Major League Baseball’s rumor season is in full swing. The Atlanta Braves are one team that is not short on hype or rumors surrounding their team. This should be expected because of experiencing a horrific September and collapse that has led the Front Office to say “We are willing to discuss anyone on our current roster in a trade.” This is a team that won 89 games a year ago and had the fourth best record in baseball into late August.
I cannot fault Frank Wren and the Braves. They have amassed a lot of talent through growing solid big-league players and have made some clever trades that have put them in this position. They are too talented to experience what they did last September. Though, they did experience some significant injuries to key players. All in all, Wren is looking to make this team better and correct the problems that they experienced moving forward.
The two big names on the Braves’ rumor mill this off-season so far are Jair Jurrjens and Martin Prado. The reason they are the big names is because the Braves have already unloaded Derek Lowe, faster than I thought and faster than most people anticipated.
Jurrjens and Prado are both affordable players that have two more years under contract. Both have enjoyed success in their brief time in the MLB. Here is a break-down why each guy may be available:
Jurrjens – Jurrjens has been a solid pitcher for the Braves for four seasons. He was acquired from the Detroit Tigers for Edgar Renteria. His emergence has been a great testament to the brilliant deals that Frank Wren makes. Jurrjens has grown into a very serviceable pitcher. He is not a huge strike out guy, averaging only 6.15 every 9 IP in his career. He has a 2-1 K/BB ratio as well. He depends on pitching to contact and good location to be successful. He is coming off a solid 2011 when he had the 2nd lowest ERA of his career, at 2.96. Overall, he has a career 3.40 ERA. His career FIP is much higher around 3.88 in his career. He is not looked on with much promise by advance baseball statisticians, but that has a lot to do with his low K numbers and his high FIP.
Overall, Jurrjens has been a solid starter for the Braves in his short time. The reason he is available is two-fold. First, the Braves have a surplus of young starting pitchers ready to take over a spot in their five-man rotation. They are slated to have Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson and Brandon Beachy be in their 2012 rotation. They then have Mike Minor and the top pitching prospect in baseball, Julio Teheran ready to move into the rotation too. They have Kris Medlen, who returned from Tommy John surgery in September ready to pitch either in the rotation or in the bullpen. Randall Delgado pitched some huge games in September for the Braves, though he seems poised to spend some time in Gwinnett. That is seven starting pitchers ready or knocking on the door of pitching in Atlanta.
This depth added to the fact that Jurrjens will get a raise this year in arbitration putting him in the $5-6 million range, creates a possibility the Braves may trade him.
$5-6 million isn’t that bad for a guy that has been as successful as Jurrjens. His injuries the past two seasons may create some problems, but the Braves don’t have to trade Jurrjens right now. Out of the rumored arms available through trades, Jurrjens is at the top. The free-agent market isn’t that flushed with good arms either. It seems obvious that the Braves are wanting a good haul for Jurrjens. I think that the Braves will trade him. I won’t be disappointed if they don’t.
Prado – Martin Prado is an interesting player. He, like Jurrjens, has endured two seasons of injuries. He showed in 2010 that he is a good hitter. When the Braves acquired Dan Uggla before last season, Prado was one of the better second baseman in the NL. When Uggla arrived, Prado shifted to left field and didn’t complain. He played admirably, but he struggled at the plate in 2011. He was going to be a push as a left-fielder in production any way, but his 2011 season made him a horrible offensive left-fielder.
The Braves have expressed that they want to upgrade their offense for the…it seems like they sing this song every year…at least third consecutive year. The one place that they seemed poised to do so is left field.
This makes Prado expendable. It seems like his salary increase to the $4-5 million range makes him too expensive to be a super-utility player for the Braves. They could use Prado to back-up Chipper Jones when he isn’t in the lineup every day. They could use him to back up Uggla and Freddie Freeman too. They could use him in left field as well. It would be sad to see the Braves trade him, because he is a hard-nosed player.
However, the Braves are intent on upgrading their offense. This fact alone is why they are shopping Prado and Jurrjens. The $10 million that they save trading these two players added to the $5 million they saved by trading Lowe is huge for a team with the budgetary constraints of the Braves.
The Braves are also in need of signing a shortstop. Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins are the two top shortstops on the market. Many assumed that the Braves would not be interested in either of them because of the length of the contract and the amount of money demanded. However, here is a rumor about Jimmy Rollins that is interesting from Jayson Stark at ESPN:
One friend of Jimmy Rollins tells Rumblings he has more than a half-dozen teams interested in him. An educated guess on five of them: Phillies, Cardinals, Brewers, Braves and Giants.
Rollins would not address their need in left field, but he would be a huge upgrade at shortstop. There is already a lot of speculation that the Braves are up to something big this offseason. The acquisition of Rollins would be huge. They would hurt the Phillies and make their team much better.
A lot of things have to happen in order for Rollins to come to Atlanta. This would make the Braves much better in 2012. His arrival would still leave a huge hole in left field, though.
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