The Braves: Serious about saving $$$, less so about winning
Melky Cabrera: The latest in a series of cost-cutting imports. (AJC photo by Jason Getz)
The Braves just traded the man who might well have been their Opening Day starting pitcher for an outfielder who might not start on Opening Day. Think about that.
Think also about this: The Braves just traded a man who finished fourth in the National League Cy Young voting because he was making too much money. And here’s how much Javier Vazquez is scheduled to make in 2010 — $11.5 million. That’s not even half what CC Sabathia, his new Yankee teammate, will earn. And that tells us all we need know about the Braves.
They keep making noises about contending for division titles, but it’s just noise. They can’t afford to do real business any longer. From the day the 2009 season ended they were looking to dump a starting pitcher, ostensibly to add a power hitter, but Melky Cabrera isn’t a power hitter. He was the eighth-best position player on the Yankees. He might not beat out Nate McLouth in center field here. He might wind up in a platoon. And he’s what the Braves got for the man who was their best pitcher last season.
“A perfect fit,” Frank Wren called Cabrera, speaking on a teleconference Tuesday, but the only thing perfect about this trade was how completely it detonates the Braves’ claim to being serious players. You don’t trade an ace unless you get a big bopper in return. The Braves got a guy who hit 13 home runs with 68 RBIs last season.
Yes, there’s more to the trade than Cabrera. Mike Dunn should help in the bullpen and Arodys Vizcaino is a young power arm, but the cold truth is that the Braves just played what they deemed their trump card — a surplus of starting pitching — without improving their run production one whit. And don’t fool yourselves: That $11.5 million they saved on Vazquez won’t allow them to splurge on Jason Bay or Matt Holliday. Those guys are out of price range, out of sight.
“We’re very fortunate to be able to make a deal like this,” Wren said. Then this: “We’ve been focused on [finding a run producer] all offseason, and we were waiting on the right match. And we’re still waiting.”
But Vazquez is gone. Can’t trade him twice. And the Braves can’t trade Derek Lowe because they’re down to five starters. So the best that can be reasonably hoped is that they find a Marlon Byrd or a Xavier Nady or — knowing as we do that the Braves love recycling old favorites — a Mark DeRosa or a Jermaine Dye. Except none of those players will make them better in the way that losing Vazquez makes them worse.
Loading ...As someone who has defended Wren in the past, I have to say I’m stumped. Obviously the Braves’ salary constraints are worse than we’d been led to believe if they had to make this sort of deal so soon — Santa Claus hasn’t yet come and Javier Vazquez has left the building — but even more puzzling is Wren’s contention that this enabled him “to improve our club.” Maybe it improves it in 2012, when Vizcaino is ready to join Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurrjens. But the way the Braves operate those pitchers will have been sold off by then.
Nothing about this offseason suggests that the new Braves are any better than the ones who finished third in the NL East. Is Billy Wagner an upgrade over Rafael Soriano? No. (But he’s cheaper. And also older.) Is Takashi Saito better than Mike Gonzalez? No. (But he’s cheaper. And also older.) Is the new first baseman … oh, wait. They don’t yet have a new first baseman.
For all this motion — Wren is forever in a hurry — the Braves will enter January 2010 a lesser team than in September 2009. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. But that is, sad to say, the way it works here, where $11.5 million for a big-time pitcher is considered too much, where the drive to win is trumped by the need to scrimp.
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748 comments Add your comment
Dennis Newton
December 22nd, 2009
10:44 pm
Now lets do Melky Cabrera, Arodys Vizcaino, Kris Medlin and Jordan Schafer for Adrian Gonzalez…and all will be forgiven and Frank Wren is back on the Christmas Card list.
Jeff
December 22nd, 2009
10:45 pm
We have the worst owners in baseball. This franchise has become a joke. I will always love the Braves but these morons are making it hard.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 22nd, 2009
10:46 pm
The pitching staff will be fine with Hanson and Jurrjens at the top, and the bullpen will at least be decent. But Bradley is right. Ultimately this comes down to getting 60 cents on the dollar for a Cy Young candidate. When you trade an asset, you hope to get back an asset or assets of equal or greater value. The Braves, bottom line, didn’t do that.
fred dre
December 22nd, 2009
10:47 pm
S.O.B SAME OLD BRAVES
Marko
December 22nd, 2009
10:49 pm
Dumb article.
In baseball, a trade is almost always going to involve a dump of salary, trade of contracts, or trading the future for the present or vice versa. Everybody should know that.
The Braves get rid of a 10M+ pitcher who would probably end up being a 4th-5th starter this year (something that Lowe can do fine). Just like Wren knew LaRoach would tear it up in the second half, Wren understands that Vasquez is a .500 pitcher with a 4.00 era that had a career year last year. Perfect time to get rid of him. No chance in hell that he could have duplicated last year.
Good Trade. They get some prospects that they can use in a few years or trade in the meantime. They get an OF that is now one of the top 3 they have (not saying much though) and they can now sign free agents.
Steve From Dalton
December 22nd, 2009
10:50 pm
Mark- Liberty Media acquired the Braves in a stock swap. They have to hold onto the Braves for a set period of time for tax purposes. How much longer before they can sell the team?
Grace
December 22nd, 2009
10:50 pm
Doh. Corporate mentality….
Dennis Newton
December 22nd, 2009
10:50 pm
CF Nate McLouth
2B Martin Prado
3B Chipper Jones
1B Adrian Gonzalez
C Brian McCann
RF Jason Heyward
LF Matt Diaz
SS Yunel Escobar
SP Pitcher
Can we say playoffs!
Mark Bradley
December 22nd, 2009
10:54 pm
I believe until the close of 2010, Steve.
BravesfaninMD
December 22nd, 2009
10:56 pm
Braves backed the wrong horse by keeping Hudson…. he won’t last as long as Vazquez. By signing Hudson, Wren had to trade Lowe or Vazquez. Wren basically said today in his radio interview that Hudson was the better pitcher, but I totally disagree. Yes, he’s a fan favorite, from Auburn and a good teammate, but let’s see at the end of the year who had the better season.
BUT, I will reserve judgment on this trade until I see what moves Wren makes by spring training.
2010Braves
December 22nd, 2009
10:56 pm
@ Fred (Not you Fred Dre but Fred)
You got to be kidding me, right?
Jeff
December 22nd, 2009
10:57 pm
The sad thing is the fans no longer have a voice like they did when Ted was the owner. This group of owners is out in Colorado and is only concerned with making money. The Braves are becoming the Royals.
Rob
December 22nd, 2009
10:58 pm
What’s new? Same story, different year. Seems the Braves will never learn that if you want to keep The Ted full, your fan base happy (which in turn buys your merchandise), win divisions and possibly championships, YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO SPEND. The four people in my family haven’t been to one Braves game or bought a single t-shirt or cap in the last two years because of this behavior. I’m sure we’re not alone either! The quality of the team continues to deteriorate while the ticket prices climb. Thanks, but no thanks.
JohnnyT
December 22nd, 2009
10:59 pm
Don’t blame Wren. Blame ownership. The team hasn’t been the same since Ted left
Richard Edwards
December 22nd, 2009
11:00 pm
I think I’m going to puke. They’re laughing in the Bronx. We give up a Cy Young type guy for an average outfielder with very little pop. Barf…
jake
December 22nd, 2009
11:01 pm
Obviously, 2010 is the year to take that sabbatical I’ve always dreamed about and do a year in the Peace Corps in Bangladesh. Between Bobby “The Butcher” Cox and Frank “Thumbs” Wren the Braves are going to be unwatchable.
jake
December 22nd, 2009
11:03 pm
By the way, if anyone sees Dennis Newton, the only thing that will bring him down is a thorazine dart.
Dennis G. Berdanis
December 22nd, 2009
11:07 pm
Shouldn’t surprise you. It’s been like this since Turner was bought by Time Warner. That’s the day we stopped competeing for the best players with the Yankees.
southerndawg
December 22nd, 2009
11:09 pm
Come on folks. Spring training hasn’t even started and everyone is throwing in the towel. Cabrera is not a slouch and it’s not like we gave up a 20 game winner. Give the guy a chance before you boo him out of town.
o-me
December 22nd, 2009
11:09 pm
One thing for sure the Yankees just got better. The Braves just got worse. Thanks Mr. Wren for nothing!
Thanks Mark for having the balls to call the Braves out. Most ajc reporters don’t do that. Thats why you’re the best.
Keith
December 22nd, 2009
11:10 pm
Vazquez was awesome this past year but his history says that it was a career year. He was also to be a free agent next year so we did get a big time arm and a couple of good role players. If Wren makes another big move for a bat then all is forgiven.
Jo Bling
December 22nd, 2009
11:11 pm
Jdub, you certainly seem to know what you are talking about to a greater degree than most of the folks who have posted six pages worth of comments here today. That said, I’m still going to take you on.
The argument that we needed to unload Vasquez because he’ll be a free agent next year makes no sense to me. If you keep him, you still gain a year of his service and you gain draft picks when he leaves. That’s worth something, and probably more than Melky Cabrera.
Why do you say the Braves can’t acquire a hitter through free agency? They have $9 million right now to do just that. At this point, it’s their best option because unloading more prospects, and possibly a Heyward, Hanson or McCann, in a trade to get a Gonzalez-type player goes way too far. Whatever deal we work for a hitter, you can’t forget that Vasquez is part of it. So you’ve given up all those prospects, and likely a Heyward, Hanson or McCann, PLUS VASQUEZ! to get a player like Gonzalez. Is that a good deal? Or are you suggesting we set our sights much lower? Judging roughly from the comments here, it’s going to take a Gonzalez-like acquisition to win these fans back.
I think what you say, overall, makes a lot of sense, and is certainly more rational than the knee-jerk column Mark Bradley threw up in about five minutes. But as much rational analysis as you can apply to this deal, I still come back to my intrinsic baseball “guts” that tell me you should never unload proven starting pitching. I’m a big fan of selling high and buying low, but Vasquez had clearly clicked on something here in Atlanta. I think he had a couple of strong years ahead.
Oh, well, it’s done. Let’s go get a hitter.
Broke Bat Mountain
December 22nd, 2009
11:11 pm
Do you think we can trade Chip Carey for John Sterling? Seriously I think this trade was about the best Wren could make. Cabrera is a better player than the Rivera kid from the Angels,and the Braves aren’t stuck paying part of Lowe’s salary.Sure 15M is too much to pay for your 4th starter,but maybe D Lowe can bounce back in 2010.The Braves can still trade Lowe later this year when they fall out of the pennant race. The best players the Braves have are still young and their top prospects should be ready late in 2010 or by the start of next year.
The best the Braves can do this year is battle the Mets and Marlins for 2nd place in the east .The Phillies are still the class of the National League.
Mark Bradley
December 22nd, 2009
11:12 pm
All I know about Tim Hudson is this: He hasn’t had as good a year as a Brave as Javier Vazquez just did, and now he’s coming off surgery.
I don’t understand how you expect your rotation to be as strong without the best guy in that rotation.
Richard Edwards
December 22nd, 2009
11:15 pm
Maybe the Yankees should call Frank and offer Francisco Cervelli for Brian McCann. Could be their lucky day.
o-me
December 22nd, 2009
11:15 pm
right again mark
Mark Bradley is a HATER
December 22nd, 2009
11:15 pm
Anyone know what the red sox offered for adrian gonzo?
NC BravesFan
December 22nd, 2009
11:16 pm
If you actually watched the Braves you would realize that JJ and Hanson are the “Ace” and future “Ace” of this team…not a one hit wonder like Vaz!
CLIFF
December 22nd, 2009
11:16 pm
The Braves are dumb if they even consider trading away Freddie Freeman in some of these stupid supposed deals i have read on here.He is part of the Braves future.They should have learned their lesson from the Texeira and Adam Wainright trades.We cannot afford rentaplayers which sacrifice the future for a season.
Mr Charlie
December 22nd, 2009
11:16 pm
I am with ya Mark, I don’t understand why they signed Hudson.
Mr Charlie
December 22nd, 2009
11:18 pm
JJ and Hanson are awesome, but JJ, Hanson and Vasquez are Awesomer. Never shoulda signed huddy.
Jimmy
December 22nd, 2009
11:19 pm
Frank Wren may or may not be as bad as he looks.
How much of this is due to Liberty Media?
Personally, I think Wren IS THIS BAD.
Either way…Liberty Media needs to sell the team.
And Frank Wren needs to go.
Mr Charlie
December 22nd, 2009
11:19 pm
If Lowe produces, and KK pitches like he did the 2nd half of the season, we should be OK. My guess is by June, Lowe and Huddy are on the DL.
Steve C
December 22nd, 2009
11:23 pm
Oh please, Wren could have waited and got the blockbuster hitter for such a “great” pitcher? As I recall, Javier Vasquez was not the answer last winter when his signing was roundly panned. God bless him as his performance kept the Braves in contention. If you ask me, the Braves were never going to get a blockbuster trade using a starting pitcher as long as they had six of them. People knew they would be desperate to move one. Frankly, I like Melky Cabrera from a depth standpoint. I also like the young arms. It was fairly obvious that Vasquez was going to be the one to go, and I think the team will end up being more solid as a result of the trade, even if we are still looking for the big bat. I think the added punch from Cabrera will be a good addition to what is shaping up to be a better overall lineup, while still having a starting rotation that appears to be every bit as strong as what we had going into last spring. Whether that is enough is debateable.
Fed Up With Wren (Again)
December 22nd, 2009
11:28 pm
Just want to say that the glory of being first today is far outweighed by the depression I feel by knowing the Braves will not contend for a playoff berth anytime soon. Phillies – Roy Halladay. Braves – Melky Cabrera and Billy Wagner and some mystery 30 HR, 100 RBI guy that our idiot GM is saying we “are in the mix” for. I’m not holding my breath.
Dennis Newton
December 22nd, 2009
11:28 pm
Cliff…I agree we should not deal Freeman. However there is a difference between a “rentaplayer” and a “transition” player. A-Gonz is a transition player until Freeman is ready in two years. Cabrera is not a solution rather a temp piece and a legit name when salary dumping as with Vasquez. Giving up some prospects is valid if you a) have sufficient minor league depth (which the braves have at the moment) and b) it betters the ball club now and in the year following during the transition period. I disagree that major league baseball teams should ever be in a “rebuilding” phase. This is the major leagues, charging fans major league prices on everything from a box seats to hot dogs and charging premium dollars for everything bearing a “MLB” logo. When a club says they are in the “rebuilding” phase they are usually in a cost cutting, profit margin state of mind and should lower pricing on all aspects of consumer cost until the “rebuilding” phase is complete. Lets use the tactics of negotiation and good old “horse trading” to put the best team forward, and sometimes that requires sacrifices.
Plate Appearance
December 22nd, 2009
11:28 pm
WREN’S “HEALTH CARE”
Great article Mark! Thanks for telling it like it is!
Wren is indeed ever in a rush to get his “health care bill” passed before Christmas. Wren IS EVER IN A RUSH!
But whose “health” is he concerned about?
Apparently his own “health” with the corporate owners. And apparently the “health” of the finances of the corporate owners.
But certainly not the Braves. And certainly not the fans.
There’s also the possibility that Wren’s simply a bad GM.
And at this point I’m FULLY willing to believe this possibility.
Great Xmas present for the fans and players Frank!
Thanks for selling us all out — as you postulate the current “health” of the team when the “patient” just took a drastic turn for the worse — through your woefully bad diagnosis!
PHIL
December 22nd, 2009
11:29 pm
Who said we didn’t give up a 20 game winner??? He would have won 25 with some run support. If we wanted to trade dollars off why didn’t we package Lowe and Kawakami for a couple bats and balls? Instead, we expect to get better by trading the best player on the team. Pitching was the strength of the Braves last year and now it’s gone.
Mark you should stick to writing about baseball.
Mr Charlie
December 22nd, 2009
11:29 pm
These two pitchers we traded for a liked, maybe we will be able to trade them off somewhere, but this trade is a diseaster if Huddy goes down.
Greg Brooks
December 22nd, 2009
11:32 pm
I’ve been a dedicated true blue braves fan since 1987. Honestly, this trade smells so bad, it’s unlike any trade in the past 20 years – because this one sucks right outta the gate. It’s pathetic. Way to blow a fan-base Wren.
Bob Brown
December 22nd, 2009
11:32 pm
I have come to the point that I think Wren will “general manage”the Braves right into the celllar where they languished for so long. (Anybody remember some of those pitchers who were oly a little better than batting practice pitchers?) Their credo was throw it and duck. Well the pitching is better than that, but who is going to play right field? Infante? Diaz? Blanco? How about …??
I also believe that Wren has trouble telling the truth. I presume he can distinguish between truth and fiction, or perhaps he has visions of achieving grandeur with his new boy Melky.
When I saw the news about the trade, a discussion got started.
Was a Melky Cabrera a new candy bar or a tropical drink?
The way the Braves will play this year might inspire consuming a tropical drink –, or watching some other team.
Dk
December 22nd, 2009
11:37 pm
To some extent this is about money. The Braves (before this trade) didn’t have the $$ to make a serious offer to any top tier free agent. Hopefully that’s now changed. Also, getting Cabrera (who can hit in the top of the order) will allow them to move McClouth a couple of spots back. McClouth had 20 HR’s and slugged .440 but only had 70 RBI’s because he had to hit #1 in the Braves lineup. The addition of Melky will allow him to hit 5th or 6th where he can hopefully knock in some more runs. This isn’t a great trade, but it isn’t terrible either. The braves got a solid (but not a great player) a prospect with some upside, and a prospect with a terrific upside, (but who is after all a young pitcher… anything can happen to him.) The Braves have put themselves in place to make a serious offer to a free agent, and to improve their team and make the playoffs. No matter what they do the Phillies will probably take the NL East, but the wild card looks winnable.
Tommy
December 22nd, 2009
11:41 pm
‘Frank Wren sucks’
the same Frank Wren who last year took a 90-loss team and had them in contention until the final week of the season?
Give it time. I’m witholding judgement until late January. First base still has to work out.
The Braves had to dump a salary. Welcome to cheering for a team from anywhere other than New York, Chicago, LA or Philadelphia.
The Braves got what the market would bear. Other mid-market teams couldn’t afford Vasquez, the Red Sox and Dodgers rotations are full, the Mets were unlikely to offer anything we could use, same with the Cubs and Angels, and no way he could be sent to Philly.
It was the Yankees, or send him somewhere else for even less AND eat some of his salary. The Yankees had us over a barrel. And it’s nothing new. If you think imbalance is a problem now, read up on what was going on back in the 30s and 40s.
And Vasquez will get bombed at the new Yankee Stadium. He was horrible with the Yankees in ‘03, and that new park is evil to right handed pitchers.
Mark Bradley
December 22nd, 2009
11:54 pm
Does it matter what Vazquez does in New York?
Bobby P
December 22nd, 2009
11:56 pm
DevlinLaw got it right .. Bradley’s a Jacla$$ Sit tight nitwits..
The Pirate
December 22nd, 2009
11:57 pm
The LONG slide back into 80’s-type Braves baseball, which was a friggin’ laugher… go Phils!
Mr Charlie
December 22nd, 2009
11:59 pm
No, it does not matter what Vaz does, he’s gone.
MitchC
December 23rd, 2009
12:03 am
Mark, I’m stunned and angered at this trade. For a team that was among the shrewdest in baseball when John S sat in the GM chair, we are getting worse and worse about deciding what deals to make.
We sign Derek Lowe to a four year, huge deal, and he has a disappointing 2009 season. Vazquez is signed to a rather reasonable deal, in years, and money, and he comes up big. We re sign Hudson after only a few starts, and then we essentially just give away the guy who was our best pitcher last year, for an average outfielder, at best? Wren certainly isn’t acting like the men who supposedly taught him how to deal, Bobby, and John S.
This is a terrible, terrible deal, and one that may haunt the Braves for a while to come. Lowe will only get older, and worse. If a starting pitcher had to be dealt, I would have waited until well into January, or close to spring training, to see who offered what for either Lowe or Vazquez. Maybe if this had been, late January, or Feb 1, and there had been no takers for Lowe at all, and Wren had to deal Javy, then I could have understood it. Not at this stage. He had at least another month to play with before making a panic deal like this.
I have a strong feeling the Fire Frank Wren fan club will be making appearances all over the AJC blogs. If the Braves have another season out of the playoffs in 2010, Bobby isnt the only one who should leave. I would then say, with five straight years out of the playoffs, with all the money this team spent on starting pitching, and the callup of Hanson, and others, it would then be time to show Wren the door.
Blake
December 23rd, 2009
12:05 am
Great article!! I have been saying for at least 2 years that the Braves are putting together teams on the cheap and settling for mediocrity. We have been though 2 off seasons being promised a “big hitter” last year we got Garrett Anderson (yippee?!?)…and this year we get Melky Cabrera and a promise for a “right fit” to be named…This trade is another event in the history of miserable failures that make up Frank Wren’s career. Anything short of an aquisition of Adrian Gonzalez should be a major disappointment for Braves fans this offseason and we should place the blame where it should have gone when this site and its readers were blaming Bobby Cox last year. FIRE FRANK!
former braves fan
December 23rd, 2009
12:05 am
It’s all about the money with this corporate group. Until they sell this team I will not attend another game and I hope thousands of TRUE Atlanta Brave fans share my sentiment. This team will be third rate until ownership changes. Trading one of the best pitchers in the NL for NOTHING says volumes about the management. Wake me up when the nightmare is over. If they thought the TED was empty last year, just wait what this move brings.