Buyer’s remorse: Braves pay D-Lowe $10 million to go away
This was Derek Lowe's final act as an Atlanta Brave. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
Not every failure is a function of poor design. Yes, the Braves overpaid for Derek Lowe, but you always overpay for free agents. (That’s why they’re free agents — because the team that had them and therefore knows them best decided they weren’t worth their asking price.) The Braves paid high to buy Lowe for the best of reasons: They needed him.
Let’s return to the dark days of 2008. The Braves went 72-90, their worst record since the pre-worst-to-first 1990, because they ran out of starting pitching. John Smoltz got hurt. Tom Glavine, back after his New York exile, got hurt. Mike Hampton, as ever, got hurt. Tim Hudson got hurt and needed Tommy John surgery. Matters were so dire that the journeyman Jorge Campillo started 25 games, second-most among Braves behind the rookie Jair Jurrjens.
Frank Wren, the Braves’ general manager, entered the offseason determined not to let what happened in ‘08 happen again. Being Frank Wren, he overcompensated and bought Kenshin Kawakami for three years at $23 million having already traded for Javier Vazquez and landed Lowe for $60 million over four years. Kawakami, who’d never pitched outside Japan, was the mistake. Lowe was, at least at the time, the smart hire.
Wren was fairly specific in his demands: He wanted a starting pitcher capable not just of winning games but staying healthy, and if Lowe had proved anything it was that he’d answer the proverbial bell. He’d worked between 182 and 222 over seven consecutive seasons for the Red Sox and the Dodgers, two high-profile clubs. He’d started and won Game 7 of an ALCS in Yankee Stadium, and he’d won the clinching game of a World Series for a club that infamously hadn’t won one since 1918.
Better still, he was considered a Good Clubhouse Guy, which not all starting pitchers are. He arrived at Lake Buena Vista in February 2009 and had the Braves buzzing about two things: His heavy sinker, which hitters made a point of pride to try and drive in batting practice (and not many succeeded), and his zeal for preparation. At 8 a.m., D-Lowe would be out in shorts and sweatshirt running the stadium steps. “Best workout routine I’ve ever seen,” pronounced Bobby Cox, who’d seen a few.
It should have worked. It just didn’t. Lowe was 15-10 in 2008, but it was a bad 15-10: He had an ERA of 4.67 and opponents hit .301 against him, which is indeed batting-practice stuff. Being Frank Wren, the GM tried hard to trade him over the winter. (Wren is, as we know, a tad impulsive.) Getting lucky, Wren found no buyers.
Because without Derek Lowe in September 2010, the Braves would be sitting on a playoff drought of six seasons. Lowe was 5-0 with an ERA of 1.17 over his final five starts, and if he’d been 3-2 the San Diego Padres would have snagged the National League wild card. He started two games in the Division Series, losing the first 1-0 and the last 3-2 but having finally held up his pricey end.
That stretch run seemed a sign that Atlanta had finally seen the real D-Lowe, but no. He was terrible last season, going 9-17 with an ERA of 5.17. After a 7-1 loss to Philadelphia that dropped the Braves into a wild-card tie with St. Louis, Lowe said: “I’ve always said that hitters will tell you how your stuff is,” and his, for reasons unclear, had become substandard.
That would be his final act as a Brave. Wren would say later that week that Lowe wasn’t in the team’s plans as a starting pitcher for 2012, and thus did the GM try again to dump the biggest purchase of his stewardship. He succeeded Monday, sending Lowe to Cleveland for a minor-league pitcher while agreeing to absorb two-thirds of the $15 million Lowe still is owed. That’s how much the Braves wanted rid of Lowe: The team that doesn’t have much to spend is willing to spend $10 million to make him go away.
It’s a trade that will please Braves fans, who never much cared for Lowe, but it’s also a cold reminder that the best-laid plans often land in yonder trashcan. As promised, Lowe ate innings — an average of 192 of them over his three seasons as a Brave. They just weren’t very good innings.
By Mark Bradley
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95 comments Add your comment
SR
October 31st, 2011
6:52 pm
Enter your comments here
Angie O'Plasty
October 31st, 2011
6:57 pm
Congrats to Larussa on a great career. Wish we would have had him over the years.
Disco Pup
October 31st, 2011
6:59 pm
When I told my wife of the trade, she said she was suddenly feeling hot and wet! Thanks Mr. Wren!
Willie C
October 31st, 2011
8:24 pm
I picked one game to go to this year and it was a Derek Lowe game. Do you think they lost or won ?
Remember Russ Ortiz??
October 31st, 2011
8:42 pm
What was so wrong with Derek Lowe’s stuff?? He OWNED Nate McLouth….
Cloyd Boyer, Ken Brett, Dom DiMaggio
October 31st, 2011
8:44 pm
Toe,
If you’re still around, I agree with ya. Nothing wrong with wishing Chip would retire. We could use his money to get a MUCH more productive player. We are not a team that can afford to keep an icon around for iconic money when the icon is, as all icons eventually are, past his prime. A first ballot HOFer for sure, but 2012 Chipper is not worth 14 million.
Gary
October 31st, 2011
8:52 pm
If only we had had a good manager like tony larussa over the past 20 years we could have won 3-4 titles.
This Team....
October 31st, 2011
8:52 pm
Now let’s make a bid to get Reyes.
Moe
October 31st, 2011
8:53 pm
Now let’s try for the same with chipper.
bob from smyrna
October 31st, 2011
9:15 pm
Give Braves major credit: Lowe, etc, gave them time to acquire and develop the slew of great young arms that I expect to see excel the next 5-10 years. Hanson, Jurgins, Beachy, Teheran, Delgrado, Medlin, Kimbrell, Venters, OFlaherty, Minor, etc. No other team has such a stockpile!
Major League Chokers
October 31st, 2011
9:23 pm
What we need to trade is owners! Any movement on that front, or are we stuck with idiots from Colorado that spend billions on brick and mortar bookstore in the e-book age?
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
9:57 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.
Pedro Borbon Jr.
October 31st, 2011
10:04 pm
What a city full of idiots. Granted the man had a bad year but he did give you 39 wins over 3 years and just because the “Village Idiot” Mark Bradley writes another stupid column everyone wants to pile on D. Lowe. He pitched the Braves into the playoffs last year but since he didn’t do it again you want to run him out of town. He’s 1 of 5 starters, he didn’t lose every game and didn’t blow a single save. The man could have had an ERA of 1.5 in September and not won. Read the box scores MB!!! NO RUN SUPPORT!!!
Meanwhile in NY “CC Howfatcha” won 59 games over the same period and will probably hold the Yankees up for 175 million. The NHL had the right idea. This is a Bush League sports town and doesn’t deserve anything more than the Gwinnett Braves.
Peter
October 31st, 2011
10:06 pm
When will we run Frank Wren out of town….Tell me all his great moves someone !
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
10:08 pm
Andt Scherholz stands by and lets Wren make these signings because he knows wren is just making him look like a genius.
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
10:17 pm
Pedro Borbon Jr.,
Wins can be a very misleading stat… As in the case of Lowe… Lowe is the most overpaid player in Braves history… WREN MUST BE FIRED FOR COMPLETE INCOMPETENCE…
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
10:23 pm
I have just gotten off the phone with the OCCUPY ATLANTA people and they agree that Wren is just an overpaid CEO who is sucking us dry. They said Wren must go and they will be camping at Hank Aaron Field (formerly known as the ted) tomorrow….
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
10:28 pm
We must rename Turner Field after Hank Aaron… Who meant more to the game and to Atlanta baseball?
The seventh Son
October 31st, 2011
10:47 pm
Stipend for footballers at collegiate level needs to be real time $!0,000 per year or more.
Saban makes $5,000,000 per year and NO tackles, touchdowns, receptions, blocks, etc. per year.
D U H ! !
The seventh Son
October 31st, 2011
10:55 pm
UH….Ted Turner, for all his liberal bull excrement, PAID Hank and BUILT the stadium.
Although, that being said, Hank was a magnificent representative of the game. Actually, much better than the full-of-excrement Turner.
HANK AARON FIELD !!!!!
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
10:56 pm
Seventh Son,
college players are getting a big free ride already… But most of them don’t take advantage of it… If you gave them a few thousand a year they would just use to get into more trouble than they already do…
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
11:02 pm
Seventh Son,
You show your ignorance. Hank left the Braves after 74… Turner bought the Braves in 76… Ted Turner was a clown owner who had money to spend like Steinbrenner. Remember when the idiot told cox to take the day off and showed up in the dugout in uniform as manager for a day??? What an a$$.
WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED
October 31st, 2011
11:08 pm
By the way, Turner Field was built and paid for by the 1996 Olympic Games, The Braves chipped in a few million to convert it over to a baseball park. Turner in no may deserves to have the park named after him. I’m a native Atlantan and a Braves fan since they came to Atlanta in 1966 and I was stunned when they announced that it would be named Turner Field.
Bradley Blows
October 31st, 2011
11:24 pm
Enter your comments here
Bradley Blows
October 31st, 2011
11:26 pm
Bradley just bet on Oquendo… That will mark the end of his career. He will probably get a career ending injury in the offseason.
Please move to Kansas City, MB.
GT Alum
October 31st, 2011
11:53 pm
Love how people praise Lowe for that great September last year. What people seem to forget is even with that great September, he finished with an ERA of 4 and a 16-12 record, meaning going into Sep, he had a sub-500 record and a 4.5 ERA. If he hadn’t spent the first 5 months of last year being a below average pitcher, the Braves likely wouldn’t have needed a big run in September to secure the wild card. But that’s sports. You can suck most of the year, but it you come up big at the end, you’re a valuable clutch player. Personally, I’ll take the guy who gives you good performances 8 times out of 10 all year long.
SOUTH GA. BOY IN THE ATL
November 1st, 2011
3:06 am
The problem, as Mark said, is Wrens impulsiveness. He thought that he had to have a big name FA pitcher. As teams like the ,practically speaking, bankrupt Marlins have proved is that talent is more important than experience. Wren should have fast tracked one of the young pitchers that year to the major leagues and the Braves would have been much better off. Tampa does it and they succeed in the toughest division in baseball. I hope that Wren has learned his lesson about FA pitchers and will forget that route. He has needed and still needs to spend the money on a RH power hitting outfielder. If he had spent that 60 million on a big bat in the outfield and used Prado as the ultimate utility plater that he is then we might have won a title. Post a note to yourself Frank. Get a RH power hitting outfielder this offseason, that is if you really want to compete for a title. Please, dont make a dumb “Derek Lowe” mistake again with pitchers.
legionaire
November 1st, 2011
5:33 am
Lowe evidently had a drinking problem. Remember he was caught DUI and racing on Peachtree late one night. He was able to buy his way out ala Ray Lewis. Booze for a 37 yr old athlete is the kiss of death and it showed.
Stan B
November 1st, 2011
7:04 am
Someone brought up Bruce Sutter’s contract. According to this article, from 1985, he will be getting a paycheck from the Braves until 2021.
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-01-07/sports/sp-11899_1_bruce-sutter
TheAntiMe
November 1st, 2011
7:11 am
The team that doesn’t have much to spend is willing to spend $10 million to make him go away.
That sounds really cool and all, they way you state it Mark, but to be honest, the Braves are saving $5 million dollars and getting a promising minor league pitcher in return.
Stan B
November 1st, 2011
7:18 am
Some Braves on the list, there are 5 in the top 10 worst deals of all time, but only two of them were “bad” deals by the Braves. As bad as D Lowe was this year, his deal was sweet compared to some of these that the Braves pulled off.
Go Braves!!
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/554808-mlb-free-agency-50-biggest-free-agent-busts-of-all-
time#/articles/554808-mlb-free-agency-50-biggest-free-agent-busts-of-all-time
GOP Cannon
November 1st, 2011
7:23 am
Lowe, I wish you the best, good luck in Cleveland.
JackDennis
November 1st, 2011
8:40 am
The idiocy displayed on this board is staggering.
reckingball
November 1st, 2011
8:54 am
JackD……….Agree.
You can say what you like about Lowe, but he sweated out everyone of his starts, and I’m talking about sweating.
GO BRAVES!
fire phil.
Gatorman
November 1st, 2011
9:06 am
What’s sad is Frank Wren is still in the position to do this in the future. It’s easy to pick out one signing the Braves regret, but since he’s been in that position, you can say the same for all of his signings. The Braves need someone who can evaluate talent, and the Lowe’s and Jone’s signings will never happen again. The Yankees never hold on to their old players, and they limit the number of years they sign older players (more dollars up front, but for less years).
DetroitBraves
November 1st, 2011
9:12 am
Didn’t the Yankees extend Jeter and sign A-Rod, who is already breaking down, until he’s in his 40s?
Stan
November 1st, 2011
9:18 am
It is very obvious back then as it is today that the upper management brain trust is just that not worth trusting and has no brains. maybe a shake up in those positions would be better served. With out this type of move, we can look forward to many more years of losing and finishing in the middle of the hump.
We need healthy pitching and the rest will take care of itself. With the exception of Hudson, we have have no real health starting pitchers. Get the message brain trust!
Bungaloo
November 1st, 2011
9:20 am
When you are paying a 65 year-old pitcher (Bruce Sutter) until 2021 while he sits on the couch and eats chips n dip and farts all day you are a BAD organization !!!
Buddy Landell
November 1st, 2011
9:29 am
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1456665/posts
Read the above link if you think Lowe is a “good guy”.
Dr. Phil
November 1st, 2011
9:39 am
Wren has a habit of dumping players to other teams where they perform. This season, Melky Cabrera hit about .270 with 20 homeruns. Same for Francoeur and Escobar. What did the Braves get in return for these players? I wonder how the Braves would have done had they not given away Andrus, Feliz, and Harrison. If Wren were a player, he would be long gone.
Pedro Borbon Jr.
November 1st, 2011
10:10 am
Referring back to my earlier comment about the sports IQ of this city. The response I got was “Wins is a very misleading stat”. Winning is everything you idiot. You play to win the game, period.
JMac12203
November 1st, 2011
11:54 am
Lowe should have been cut before last season started. He is like Chipper – washed up. Stick a fork in them, they are done.
Touy LaRussa called it quits after a great career. What a classy way to retire. He goes out on top without all the OVERBLOWN fanfare that Bobby created with his retirement tour of baseball cities. That was embarrassing. Way to go Tony – Wishing you the best in whatever the future holds for you. You will be missed by REAL baseball fans everywhere.
Lastly, I am still looking for Bradley to admit I was right when I said that the Cards had a better chance to make the playoff than the Braves with several weeks left in the season. When the going got tough, the Cardinals got going. When the going got tough, the Braves got going….HOME for another winter.
Mitchell
November 1st, 2011
1:02 pm
My favorite memories will always be Bobby Cox taking him out after five innings at 79 pitches and then using a pinch hitter to bunt and then the bullpen gets to take go the rest of the way.
Gotta make sure the bullpen gets in there.
Go Go Pilots and bring baseball back to Seattle
November 5th, 2011
12:44 am
what goin be great see Derek Lowe here when cleveland plays a game at turner field in Interleague play and pitch a 3 hitter in a Indians 9-0 white wash over freddi Gonz n cap tippin with cox in seats watchin his son lose in dugout! and Lowe finish season 18-9 wins American League comeback player of year in 2012….while Wren wins the fickle finger of Fate award ….
Go Go Pilots and bring baseball back to Seattle
November 5th, 2011
12:51 am
For Ted had not bought the Braves may had been Moved and Ted tryed managed but was in Pittsburgh n dave Bristol was inept Manager then and Bobby cox was a Blue Jay manager then….WREN MUST GO WITH WHOM HE HIRED so get u facts right