Young Speculation
By Editorial Staff
Hi again from the Michigan Meatlocker! It’s good to be home, even if it’s supposed to drop below freezing tonight.
I wanted to drop a quick note about the info bouncing around about Michael Young being a backup plan for the Braves at third base. I figured it’s about time to add my opinion.
I’ll try to be nice about how I phrase this: to those who think this has any chance of being real, I think you need to get your meds adjusted! The people suggesting it seem to think that if Chipper can’t make it back, that frees up his salary to pay for Young. Well, even though they make close to the same money, Chipper still gets paid, even if he can’t play. Even if the Braves have insurance on him, I’d bet its major benefit was for last year. And even if they have coverage for this season, my knowledge of the insurance business tells me that it would be exorbitantly expensive to try to cover 100% of his salary, especially at age 39. So, what makes anyone think that the Braves could come up with, say, $5 to $10 million incremental to pay for Young?
Even if the Braves could pay, I still don’t see a deal happening. Young is close to a hallowed player in Texas. He’s the Rangers’ all-time hits leader. And he’s beloved in the community. In my opinion, the only way the Rangers trade him is to sell high. And, since the Braves would have no way of knowing if they need him until they discover that Chipper can’t go, that would give Texas a huge advantage in negotiating leverage. That’s a formula wrought with disaster from the Braves perspective, and I don’t think Wren would risk making such a huge mistake.
Finally, if the Braves have any kind of scouting on Young, they have to know that he is already in decline mode. Offensively, his production is down on virtually every metric, old-school or new. And those who watch him in the field regularly pretty consistently say that his range isn’t what it used to be. Even if he might be the best bat the Braves could find to plug a hole at third, there’s no way he’s the best value. With Prado available to move back to third, that opens up a whole universe of outfielders that could be sifted through. I think that’s where the Braves could even the negotiation leverage, trading a commodity that teams always need at the end of spring training, pitching (which the Braves still have a lot of), for a decent-hitting outfielder, which is generally more plentifully available than decent-hitting third basemen.
I just think that the Young talk came about because there wasn’t a whole lot to write about. What do you think?