Braves had to cut their losses and dump Derek Lowe
Derek Lowe was 9-17 with a 5.05 ERA this season. (Jason Getz/AJC)
(UPDATED: 7:40 p.m.)
You can always tell how much a team wants to get rid of a player by how big of a financial hit it is willing to absorb from his contact. The Braves basically just announced: “Feel free to drop that concrete block on our heads — just take Derek Lowe off of our hands.”
It’s done: Lowe is gone.
Lowe, with one year and $15 million left on his ridiculous four-year, $60 million contract, has been traded to the Cleveland Indians for minor-league pitcher Chris Jones. An official announcement is forthcoming.
The Braves reportedly will get a low-level minor-leaguer in return. But this was really all about getting: 1) Lowe, a fallen former starter, out of the rotation and out of the clubhouse; 2) the Indians being willing to pay $5 million of Lowe’s salary next year.
Lowe wasn’t the worst free agent signing in Braves history. For that, he can thank Kenshin Kawakami. And he actually was a solid pitcher at times. He even was the team’s best starter down the stretch and in the postseason in 2010.
But he never was nearly worth the contract the Braves gave him, and he wasn’t even borderline decent in 2011. He had to be gone. General manager Frank Wren felt desperate for pitching help after the 2008 season and, after missing on other starters via trade or free agency, he offered Lowe a longer-term, richer contract than any other team had. Don’t blame Lowe for taking the money, blame Wren for giving it to him.
Although Lowe received “ace” money, he never was the ace of the staff through the season. He evolved into a middle-to-back-of-the-rotation guy, and his implosion this season (9-17, 5.05 earned run average) made it clear that he would not be back with the team.
Wren told our Carroll Rogers: “Once you know what you want to do, you want to get the dominoes falling, and that was the first one.”
The good news for the Braves: This lops $5 million off the payroll, so that should help the budget-conscious organization to land a shortstop and bench help this winter.
By Jeff Schultz
•
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164 comments Add your comment
Jeff Schultz
October 31st, 2011
2:20 pm
J Dude — I picked Boise State. So much for that theory, Sparky.
Jeff Schultz
October 31st, 2011
2:21 pm
Yellow britches: Kawakami was signed from a team in Japan.
Jeff Schultz
October 31st, 2011
2:22 pm
Alex — Pretty sure Gonzalez is not going to be back.
Abnerish
October 31st, 2011
2:24 pm
Alex or Fredi? Or both???
HotDamn
October 31st, 2011
2:24 pm
Which Gonzalez do you mean JS? Please say Fredi….please oh please
DawgDad
October 31st, 2011
2:24 pm
Look, the Braves burned themselves thrice over trying to win one last time for Cox and the good-ole-boys, and now they’re stuck between an “all-in” shot and a rebuilding program. In September we witnessed the down-side of the “all-in” failure married to a youth-movement leveraged before its time. They aren’t out of the woods yet by a long-shot; this is an imbalanced roster with gaping holes anchored down by a top-heavy payroll going to players who aren’t going to produce (Hudson excepted). Paying $10 million for someone to NOT pitch for you is NOT the way to compete for a pennant and World Series. I don’t look for the Braves to be serious contenders until some sanity in managment is restored and they get out from under the Uggla contract.
what of it?
October 31st, 2011
2:26 pm
Wren’s fault indeed. People were laughing at us when the deal was made, and still laughing now.
Guy Dog
October 31st, 2011
2:27 pm
More and more wins folks. 2012 looking up. Selah!
Chop Chop
October 31st, 2011
2:29 pm
Wren should have dumped this guy before last season. That being said, I think the Indians actually did well in this deal. They get a proven veteran starter with no significant injury history for a cheap price.
Abnerish
October 31st, 2011
2:31 pm
I disagree. Barring injuries, I expect the Braves to once again compete for the East and WC. They will have one of the best starting rotations with Hudson, Hanson, Jurrjens, Beachy, and whoever is our 5th starter. Assuming they get someone for SS and/or another OF, they should have a solid starting 8. Their only holes will be SS and OF (assuming Prado and Heyward don’t return to form).
Stat Man
October 31st, 2011
2:36 pm
Your caption writer is out to lunch – the Braves sent the cash not the Indians.
So saying “to the Indians for a minor leaguer and cash” is incorrect. It was Lowe and cash ($10 million) for a minor leaguer.
Oh for the days where accuracy in journalism meant something.
Peter
October 31st, 2011
2:37 pm
Don’t forget about Medlen, he could be in the rotation next year.
ueeediot
October 31st, 2011
2:41 pm
If youre going to let Chipper come back next year, then you MUST pick up a SS to cover up Chippers lack of production. Otherwise, let Chipper go and find a 3B to cover up A.Gonzales lack of production.
We cannot afford to have both at mediocre levels or below in 2012.
I also cannot believe that Chipper at 38/39 is getting better at his position.
Add to that the outfield woes and it will make for another long season.
Why doesnt Frank Wren make noise in the FA market about even TRYING to spend the money for a real all star SS? At least show me youre TRYING to get players in here and not just watching the other GMs get the talent for practically NOTHING (Phillies pitching staff)
Peter
October 31st, 2011
2:42 pm
I think 2012 will be the first year that the Braves have a legitimate shot at overtaking the Phillies in the East. Yes, we all kind of wishfully thought that they could beat them the past two years, but the reality is that the Phillies were a much better team. They will be a year older next year, and I see the Howard injury limiting them even more on offense. Meanwhile the Braves will also be a year older, and more experienced. Hopefully a new hitting philosophy will breathe life into a lineup that I believe CAN be very potent. And hopefully the starters will be able to go deeper into ball games and stay healthy. But the gap is closing between ATL and PHI.
nashvillewill
October 31st, 2011
2:43 pm
The parting shots about Lowe are unnecessary – he is gone and that is enough. Wish him well.
Teheran and Delgado, Hudson and Minor, Beachy and Medlen provide a wealth of talent, though not much experience. Hinske resigning was another mistake. Hinske was horrible in chances down the stretch. At least not a $10 mil mistake.
And who is SS? And who is LF? RF? Many holes to fill.
Bschro3000
October 31st, 2011
2:43 pm
I disagree that his contract was “ridiculous” … that’s the price of doing you starting pitching shopping in the free agent market. Who was the FA starting pitcher on the market? AJ Burnett. For Wren – who was building a staff from scratch – he bit the bullet and started building a better minor league system. I wish Derek could have had a better end of this year – and i think he will have a good 4 or 5 starter role in Cleveland.
This also shows the power of young starting pitching … we are going to start trading our pitchers soon and build our World Series team dealing from this strength … an incredible turn around if you consider what our pitching was like when we signed Lowe.
Ohmagawdyes Ohmagawd
October 31st, 2011
2:46 pm
Hope he finds less clueless State Patrolmen up in Ohio…
DawgDad
October 31st, 2011
2:48 pm
I have to ask all of you optimists, did you watch ANY of the games in September? The Braves collapsed and played like a 100+ loss team, not contenders. The current reality, folks, is losing series after series to everybody they play.
DK Frosty
October 31st, 2011
2:48 pm
At least the Braves saved $22.5 million by signing DLowe instead of A.J. Burnett
Bschro3000
October 31st, 2011
2:49 pm
DawgDad – The Braves will enter 2012 as the leaders to win the East and we will be back in the WS 2011 and be the leaders in our division for the next 5 years. Phils and Mets are in a lot of trouble.
1eyedJack
October 31st, 2011
2:49 pm
Derek Lowe sweats 180 proof.
1eyedJack
October 31st, 2011
2:50 pm
Kawakami’s salary comes off the books too, right?
pat
October 31st, 2011
2:50 pm
LOL! Yeah, I bet he wins 24 games next season with a 1.01 ERA wins the cy young and MVP…Why? becuse that’s how it goes with the Braves….
ronaldh
October 31st, 2011
2:51 pm
At some point Frank, the bird, Wren needs to be held accountable.
“Lowe wasn’t the worst free agent signing in Braves history. For that, he can thank Kenshin Kawakami. And he actually was a solid pitcher at times. He even was the team’s best starter down the stretch and in the postseason in 2010.” Just who is the genius who made both of those free agent signings? He is none other than Mr. Wren. To give lowe 4 years at $60 million is beyone anyone’s ability to comprehend.
Gwinnett Fred
October 31st, 2011
2:52 pm
A LOT of the saved money will have to go to Jurrjens. He will certainly get a big raise from his $3.25 million contract of 2011 when he hits arbitration in a couple months. So you armchair GM’s don’t go spending the $10 million the team has “saved” by dumping Lowe & McLouth just yet.
pat
October 31st, 2011
2:54 pm
And Lowe was better than Burnett….He made D. Lowe look like an ace in comparison….
I don’t have any shots on Lowe, I liked him, he seemed like a good guy and was genuinly interested in doing well, he just didn’t execute.
Happy Trails D….
DetroitBraves
October 31st, 2011
3:01 pm
Don’t the Braves have several arbitration raises they are going to have to pay out this season? That probably eats up the $5 million before getting to other needs. I don’t know that for sure. I guess I could look that up. Either way, Lowe’s contract was dead money and the Braves have better arms. Paying $10 million for nothing sure beats paying $15 million for nothing. There has been good Wren and bad Wren over the last few seasons. Today it was good Wren (though good Wren was only cleaning up bad Wren’s mess).
Dave in Buford
October 31st, 2011
3:02 pm
There sure are a lot of experts on the blog today.
the only real reach out of all those “bad deals” was Kawakami, and only because he had never pitched in the U.S. major leagues … he was, however, a proven major leaguer in Japan, so I still find it difficult to excoriate Wren for that one.
Lowe was a proven starter who gave you a lot of innings and Wren got him at a time when he had no starting pitching except a couple of unproven kids. Going 9-17 is way out of line given his history, so how can you sit there and say Wren should have known he’d suddenly blow up? Nuts.
Ted M
October 31st, 2011
3:07 pm
i hope Gonzalez doesn’t come back but I bet he does
Ted M
October 31st, 2011
3:08 pm
Who could we trade for at short?
ZJ
October 31st, 2011
3:12 pm
Jeff, we still have 6-7 starters in the mix. Any chance we trade JJ or Tommy Hanson for an outfield bat? Say Andre Eithier?
falkor
October 31st, 2011
3:12 pm
Happy Trails Lowe……
Frank Wren gets credit for salavaging a small portion of his huge mistake.
I remember the 2007 pitching staff, and at the time Lowe and Kawakami both made sense….and for Wren haters, so did trading Javier Vazquez at the peak of his value, granted b/c these other 2 pitchers were so expensive.
Hard to know how to feel exactly
DetroitBraves
October 31st, 2011
3:13 pm
@Dave in Buford, you may be right. Lowe posted an xFIP this year better than 2009, and nearly the same as 2010. Fangraphs also has his value over the 3 years with the Braves at $11.8M, $10.9M, and $11.4M. So he was overpaid, but maybe not by as much as a lot of us would have assumed. That said, the Braves have no need for him now and he’s clearly not worth $15M. As a result of the trade they may well get $11.4M worth of production for something closer to $11.4M.
Ted M
October 31st, 2011
3:14 pm
pretty soon the yankee’s will pay someone $75 million to take A-Rod off their hands
King Vitamin
October 31st, 2011
3:14 pm
D.Lowe did the best he could. He took his turn every time it came around and gave us a solid 3 2/3 innings no matter what.
PMC
October 31st, 2011
3:15 pm
Oh to be in a position where someone would pay me 10 million to go away.
Next time, maybe the Braves will sign a prenup.
PMC
October 31st, 2011
3:15 pm
Thing is, he’s a really really good pitcher for 5 million dollars
King Vitamin
October 31st, 2011
3:18 pm
What the hell is an xFIP?
Dave in Buford
October 31st, 2011
3:18 pm
You’d have to trade Hansen AND JJ to get Eithier, but that isn’t as nuts as it sounds … I think one (or maybe even both) of them are Boras clients and given the Braves history with that guy, they could easily be traded before they get to free agency. Eithier is not happy in LA and of course they have some serious franchise issues atm.
PMC
October 31st, 2011
3:18 pm
Wren has really done a fantastic job on the whole since he got to town as a GM. He has built a team that is future focused that could have won this year, they just forgot how to play baseball for a month and never hit well as a team all year. That said they are in transition from 10 years of plodding, singles hitting and wait for the 3 run HR. It has been 15 years now since they won a WS game. Wren is trying to move them into a faster team with better situational hitting that can score more runs. It doesn’t happen overnight.
steve brown
October 31st, 2011
3:21 pm
Question: which is worse the Braves front office (Tex deal, McClouth, Lowe, Kawakami) or the Hawks front office (Joe Johnson, dumping Jordan Crawford, still in possession of Smith)?
steve brown
October 31st, 2011
3:24 pm
Almost forgot-7 years of the part timer Chipper Jones.
Bravo, FW
October 31st, 2011
3:27 pm
Jair will be next. We’ve got pitching, and we need a shortstop, and offense.
DetroitBraves
October 31st, 2011
3:31 pm
@steve brown – I’ll vote Hawks are worse. The Teixeria deal was still Scheurholtz. The others you mention aren’t good but they dealt for Jurrjens and Vizcaino while developing all those young pitchers in their own system. Plus Freeman came through the system and I still have hopes that after an offseason and a new hitting coach Heyward will start to resemble what we thought he would be. The Braves have had some bad ones but there are some good ones too so on average I’ll give them the nod over the Hawks.
steve brown
October 31st, 2011
3:37 pm
Is “Sure”holtz still involved in decision making or does Wren do it all? I’ll bet “Sure”holtz is still involved.
Ted M
October 31st, 2011
3:39 pm
Andre Ethier is a lefty…we need a righty
DetroitBraves
October 31st, 2011
3:44 pm
I bet Scheruholtz is still involved too. But since deals are usually tied to a GM, the Tex one was his. And I guess the others are Wren. Wren was on the staff at the time of the Tex deal. It should probably also be mentioned that while that deal is roundly criticized by both us and the media now it was met rather favorably at the time. Doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do, even without hindsight, but a lot of people fell for it right along with the Braves at the time.
MitchC
October 31st, 2011
3:50 pm
Jeff, I’m mixed on this deal..
Yes, Lowe was terrible for us last season.. but.. for a budget conscious team to pay a guy 10 mil to play for another team? Maybe he should have stayed, and could have helped us in some way.
Hopefully the 5 mil we save can get us a good player, even as a backup.
Paul
October 31st, 2011
3:51 pm
if they don’t re-sign Alex Gonzalez they should sign Yuniesky Betancourt since the Brewers don’t want him anymore.
lovethosedawgs68
October 31st, 2011
4:12 pm
DawgDad, You’re sounding cheaper than Liberty Media. Whoever the Braves sign at SS, if they sign a SS, they will sign them for just one year. Pastronicky will be ready by 2013. To the rest of you negative Braves fans, You are so jaded from all of the winning, you can’t see how well the Braves are set up for the next 5 to 7 years….. Take a deep breath and let the past go!!!