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
Rico Carty
October 31st, 2011
4:24 pm
Give me a call.I can still hit and play as many games a Chipper!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike Bobo
October 31st, 2011
4:32 pm
Was Wren the GM who traded for Mark Tex? Just look at key parts of the Rangers this year (SS, Closer, SP) and see what was given away for Rent a Mark!! Attrocious.
joejoe
October 31st, 2011
4:45 pm
I had already said I didn’t want to attend a Braves game next year that Lowe would be pitching.
It hurt to watch him struggle.
LAC
October 31st, 2011
4:47 pm
frank wren is THE new don waddell of how to ruin a professional sports team.
Question is… Will he help run the Braves out of town too ???
Where would they go ? winnipeg ???
Wish for More
October 31st, 2011
4:58 pm
Any chance at all we could get somebody to take Wren off our hands?
I want to take a dump on Lowe
October 31st, 2011
4:58 pm
I’d like to take on dump on that loser’s head. Seriously, who gets paid more to do less with their life than Lowe? I will never forgive that piece of crap for the way he screwed our whole season. And I turned on Fredi as a manager solely because of his decision to start him againt Philly with the whole season on the line.
Frank Wren
October 31st, 2011
5:15 pm
You mean Dan’s agent is a pimp? I’ve been dealing with a pimp?
Robert
October 31st, 2011
5:18 pm
This is about the lesser of two evils. Flushing $10 million down the toilet hurts, but paying a mediocre middle reliever $15million not only costs even more but might hurt the team on the field as well
As long as this guy Jones doesnt have any felonies on his record, this deal was a win for the Braves
Octoman
October 31st, 2011
5:21 pm
At this point I feel like they need to just clean house, starting with Wren. It is the only way to get rid of the foul stench of what happened in September.
Bill
October 31st, 2011
5:24 pm
Great job Wren….Chris Jones will be up in year are two and we need another lefty. The extra cash will go to get SS are LF ..
Robert
October 31st, 2011
5:25 pm
“But this was really all about getting: 1) Lowe, a fallen former starter, out of the rotation and out of the clubhouse”
Please dont buy into the Braves organization’s habit of bad mouthing the character of every guy they get rid of
This was about cutting bait and minimizing the losses from a bad decision by the front office . Derek Lowe had his juvenile moments – as evidenced by his little drag racing adventure last season. But he was not a distraction in the clubhouse – and to suggest he was now after he has parted ways with the team on less than ideal terms is classless to the extreme. (It’s also pretty much standard operating procedure for the Braves)
What suddenly made Derek Lowe a clubhouse cancer? – Did he (gasp) suggest that maybe Chumper shouldnt bat third?
Chipper Jones
October 31st, 2011
5:28 pm
“Sweet. So after trading Lowe and dumping McClouth what are the Braves gonna do with that extra cash?”
Hell-OH?
They are need lots of money to be able to pay me enough so that I can get to 500 home runs.
Or did you forget that ?
Mike
October 31st, 2011
5:29 pm
Jeff, in hind sight, it wasnt a bad deal getting Lowe. Even Kawakami was a good pickup that first year. Kawakami, Lowe, and Vasquez gave the Braves a chance in the rotation and actually pitched pretty decently.
Yes we wished he pitched better, especially this year which is the first total dud for him. But he helped keep the rotation afloat while the young guys came along. In fact, if the Braves didnt get pitching rich all the sudden out of the minors, Lowe might still be needed in the rotation.
wawel78
October 31st, 2011
5:36 pm
I guess we agree to disagree. Lowe signing was much worse than KK.
stinger
October 31st, 2011
5:40 pm
Wren is an idiot..Lowe was a big time bust…we’re paying Chipper ungodly money too! The Cardinals won a championship because they spend the money wisely…Wren you don’t have a clue!
Heb11:1
October 31st, 2011
5:41 pm
With all due respect, every general manager in baseball has made this mistake. Case in point, Theo Epstein, who signed Dice K for a king’s ransom, and did not get his money’s worth. The free agent market is a bit of a crap shoot. All things considered, Wren has done a really good job with this team. Lord willing, the Braves can recover from last September and come out swinging next year.
Instant Dawgma
October 31st, 2011
5:44 pm
Are all the Lizards back in their closet now?!!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Feel that Bulldog Bite lizard
Chipper Jones
October 31st, 2011
5:56 pm
“How has FW kept his job? ”
There is legend about a set of pictures showing Bobby Cox with a young Cambodian boy (actually it’s Rafael Belliard but whats the difference?) . Mark Lemke found the negatives at the end of the 1990 season, and made several hundred thousand dollars over the ensuing years selling copies of the pictures to marginal Braves players. When Lemke left the organization, he sold the negatives to Randall Simon, who steadfastly refused to sell John Rocker a set of the pictures
Things started to get out of hand when Dan Kolb left the team and sold the negatives to Pete Orr, who seemed to know that even having the pictures wouldnt keep him around long enough to qualify for a big league pension. To that end, while he made $740,ooo in official salary in 2006 and 2007, Orr’s tax filings with the IRS attest to him making no less than $1.5 million from distributing copies of the pictures AND the negatives. By 2007, it seemed everyone had them. Andruw Jones even had a set. Scott Thorman had like six sets. The heighth the insanity when Yunel Escobar Xerox’d a100 sets and sent them the Braves COD from Toronto.
When Bobby Cox finally retired, the saga of the pictures seemed to be at an end. The end of the 2010 season found dog-eared and sticky copies of the pictures littering the clubhouse trash cans. Chipper Jones, ever the dutiful son, stayed an extra day in Atlanta making sure all the pictures were shredded. (or so he thought)
Fredi Gonzalez was going thru the drawers in his new office this past February when he found a small parcel with Canadian pstmarks. He turned the box over to Frank Wren, who had actually never seen the pictures until that moment. Just as a goof, Wren scanned a set onto his computer and started playing around with Photoshop. He amused himself substituting various celebrities for either Cox or the little Cambodian kid – sorry, I mean Belliard – and then he had an epiphany.
He surreptisiously photoshopped JS’s pictures in place of Bobby Cox.
That set now sits in a secert safe whose combination is known ONLY to Frank Wren and his wife
Chipper Jones
October 31st, 2011
5:58 pm
And that’s why Frank Wren’s job is safe
Josh Smith for 3
October 31st, 2011
6:06 pm
Chipper Jones – take it easy, Hemingway. You must be bored if you’re writing four paragraphs on a sports blog
Speaking of Chipper, we’ll have alot of free cash if he ever retires…
Cane Ain't Able
October 31st, 2011
6:27 pm
Jeff, why didn’t Braves get an OF or 3B prospect in return ? Is this C.Jones supposed to be good ?
swes32
October 31st, 2011
6:30 pm
I say Frank Wren trade J.J. to Texas for C.J. Wilson
Dr. Kenneth Noisewater
October 31st, 2011
6:32 pm
braves wont spend the money, they will save it after chipper retires and try to resign mccann for a long term deal.
Sheamus
October 31st, 2011
6:37 pm
I’m glad McOut & Liquored-UP Lowe are gone. Braves now need a power OF bat to replace Heyward.
Sheamus
October 31st, 2011
6:42 pm
That was funny Chipper Jones. 4-real. LMAO.
Sheamus
October 31st, 2011
6:44 pm
I think Nate McOut bought a set of those pictures too. Nate faked injury the last half of the season because he knew he couldn’t hit a turd out of a burning paper bag…
SmyrnaBob
October 31st, 2011
6:46 pm
Could have been worse, A J Burnette could have taken the Braves offer first. If so, even Cleveland would not have taken him.
Really?
October 31st, 2011
6:46 pm
Kawakami, Lowe and McClouth, if you remember, were ‘panic decisions’ because we couldn’t get the people we wanted, but management felt we had to do something so that it at least appeared we were trying to build a better team. Unlike those bad moves, this year Wren did not panic, held on to the young guns and bagged Bourne. That was a stellar move. Really.
Sheamus
October 31st, 2011
6:56 pm
I’m glad Nate McCrap is gone !
mudcat
October 31st, 2011
7:04 pm
Not having Lowe pitch every 5th day should result in an extra 4-7 wins next season. Great trade!
rudy
October 31st, 2011
7:11 pm
thats a LOWE blow….hehe
MitchC
October 31st, 2011
7:37 pm
Jeff, another point:
Your article is very “Hostile” toward Lowe. In reality, until this year, he really didnt pitch that badly. Yes, a 4.67 ERA isnt good in 2010, but he still won a lot of games for us over the first two years of that contract. We dont make the postseason in 2010 without him.
Lowe’s age us another reason why we couldnt think he would have a comeback year in 2012.
He had a bad year in 2011, but,I dont have the hosility toward him that you seem to.
Hurt Kurbstreit
October 31st, 2011
8:02 pm
That was a bad deal from the get go. Fire Wren for making that deal.
Lefty Groove
October 31st, 2011
8:28 pm
Lowe sweated a lot when he pitched. All alcoholics I’ve known sweat profusely…
Lefty Groove
October 31st, 2011
8:30 pm
I’m sweating right now…
WREN HAS TO GO
October 31st, 2011
8:51 pm
What a completely clueless signing of Lowe. I cringed when I learned about it. Kamikaze was a complete brain-dead move. Trading for McLousy was yet another one. Signing Chipper to a multi-year $15m deal was insane. I swear I could do a better job than Wren. He’s a dunce.
Bravo, FW
October 31st, 2011
8:59 pm
Javy Vasquez and JJ are/were both FW acquisitions, I believe, as is Bourne. Pretty sure at least one of the young arms was brought in a trade as well…again, by FW. After watching a bevy of former Braves, all given away by Schuerholz for Tex, playing in the World Series for the Rangers I’m not about to throw Wren under the bus. With the resources he has, he’s done yeomans work. What we really need is a decent owner who has an interest in, and the pockets for, making the Braves competitive financially.
TRADE CHIPPER
October 31st, 2011
9:21 pm
To the AL for a real shortstop.
WREN HAS TO GO
October 31st, 2011
9:26 pm
Bravo FW,
Wren must be thrown under the bus to save the Braves from another 15 years without a World Series win. WREN IS A DUMBA$$. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO PUT IT. HE NEEDS TO GO. WREN IS A CLUELESS A$$CLOWN. WHEN SOMETHING GOES RIGHT, IT IS JUST LUCK. HE LEARNED NOTHING FROM SCHUERHOLZ.
Peter
October 31st, 2011
10:05 pm
When are we going to cut our losses and run Frank Wren out of town like the did in Baltimore ?
5150 UOAD
October 31st, 2011
10:05 pm
http://www.ajc.com/news/forsyth/forsyth-raises-big-buzz-1214005.html
UGA fans please read this and sent the DUMB ARSE a note that BEEs are GREAT for the local neighborhood.
I have kept bees off and on for years. UGA’s Keith Delaplane is a great asset to the Ga. beekeeper society. and I respect that DAWG a lot. Please send a note that you don’t mind bees in your neighborhood. They are there already and a person keeping them is an asset to the Food and plant production in your neighborhood.
Peter
October 31st, 2011
10:19 pm
Abnerish you are very wrong about Bourn……. we will have him one more year…..do you know who his agent is ?
Name another great deal, or player we have because of him please ?
He got run out of Baltimore after creating the highest payroll in baseball at the time, that produced zero.
Hillbilly D
October 31st, 2011
10:19 pm
5105 UOAD
I don’t live in Forsyth County but whoever is running things down there is an idiot. Bees aren’t livestock, they aren’t domesticated, they pose no harm to anybody and are very beneficial to the environment. You’d think it’d be a no-brainer. Maybe Pete Amos can talk some sense into them, sense he’s an actual local, and probably has a little common sense when it comes to bees.
On the Lowe deal:
Chris Jones appears to have pretty decent numbers in A ball. Maybe he’ll pan out. I commend the Braves for trying to correct a problem, instead of sticking with a non-producing salary, like so many teams do.
5150 UOAD
October 31st, 2011
10:54 pm
HillWILLIAM you would think that but you are talking about people that want to be elected and they are STUPID to a bad cause for publicity.
UGA had a DR. Keith Delaplen(?) that is have met at Berry College for the BEEKEEPERS School. You know I am a TECH fan but 7734 I want to LIVE long enough to see many more GT v UGA games and BEES and CLEAN WATER are the KEY tom that. LOL please tell your friends to make a STINK even if you are not in that county or this Crap could spread.
gcs
October 31st, 2011
11:14 pm
The Braves can’t even dump Derek Lowe right!
They don’t need any more pitching!!! Get someone who can hit a couple of home runs or steal a dozen or so bases. Jeez.
.
NO MORE WREN
November 1st, 2011
12:44 am
How long are the Braves going to continue to let Frank destroy this franchise? Look at all the horrible deals he has made. Crazy! Add fat Fredi to that list as he is going to end up a bust as well. When can we get back to being a classy organization again? Geez! Bye Wren, Chipper, McLousy, Diaz, fat Fredi, Conrad, TP, blah blah blah.
Watch the Cards get Francona and continue winning while Wren signs some washed up player and acts like it is a big deal. Tough times to be a Braves fan these days.
Columbus
November 1st, 2011
1:51 am
Chipper has the option on his contract, not the team….
Chipper was one of the teams top producers last year rbi’s obp, 2 out rbi’s.
He made the All-Star team in 2011.
I will take him for 110-120 games ANY TIME!
Now we need…….SPEED!
Columbus
November 1st, 2011
2:01 am
Ummmm…..Frank Wren is NOT destroying this franchise. He is doing a GREAT jobs with the money he has and let us NOT forget, Schuerholz IS STILL TEAM PRESIDENT. We NEEDED pitching bad when Lowe was signed. Wren just dumped him and that was a good move. The only thing Lowe did was eat up innings. We freed up some money to spend elsewhere, which is good. That was a good move. Signing BOURN was a GREAT move! Getting UGGLA was a GREAT move. Uggla is a keeper!
Had Heyward hit worth a FLIP or been put on the pine and Constanza played, Braves would have easily won the wildcard. Had Hanson and JJ not got injured for such a long time. Bravesd win the wild card easily. If all of the previous things had not happened, Braves challenge the Phils thorugh September with HALF OF THE PAYROLL PHILLIES AND YOU IDIOTS SAY WREN IS DESTROYING THE TEAM? YOU ARE IGNORANT TO THE FACTS SON!
BRAVES HAVE HALF THE PHILLIES PAYROLL! Much less than the METS too! Have you seen the team payrolls in the NL?! Wren has done FANTASTIC!
Go run your fantasy leagues where everybody has the same playing field……
schultz likes barbie dolls
November 1st, 2011
7:10 am
By Lowe U did the Job and was trade to cleveland where u can pitch before 6,000 fans now so you should win 17-8 record and era of 2.78 for Indians for 2012 Frank Wren will just eat spam and laugh at fans here as he gets low grade for top notch people he trades away!
Corzine
November 1st, 2011
8:16 am
Yes I am a big time lib and yes I diverted customers money at MF Global but it’t those mean republicans fault. Just don’t check obama’s campaign funds please for the money.