Braves at Winter Meetings – Live Thread (Day 4/Wrap)
Once more into the breech!
Already this morning, we’ve had some news:
- The Rule 5 Draft has concluded. Braves lose two minor league pitchers (Michael Lee and Blaine Sims) in the minor league portion of the draft. Lee goes to the DBacks system; knuckleballer Sims [don’t call me Lucas] goes to Houston. Neither is a major loss; Lee probably more so, though he’s also 27 years old and had just touched AAA late last season.
- The Cubs and Marlins have swapped outfielders: Justin Ruggiano and Brian Bogusevic.
- Michael Morse has signed with San Francisco (from Seattle/Baltimore in 2013)
- LA Angels: picked up LH relief pitcher Brian Moran from Toronto in exchange for…. wait for it… an international draft bonus slot. Wow, that’s underwhelming. But apparently it’s a $244,000 slot, so I guess that’s good for Toronto… especially since the Blue Jays only had him for… what, about 2 minutes? They drafted him in the Rule 5 draft. Sounds like another shrewd Alex Anthopolous move to me.
Meanwhile, Atlanta….
- Has signed Jordan Walden for 2014, essentially exactly on his arbitration figure estimate of $1.49 million.
- Eight others still remain for arbitration: Kimbrel, Heyward, Freeman, Medlen, Minor, Beachy, Chris Johnson (the only Johnson left) and Schafer. We do still have two Jordans, though.
Here’s the Quote of the Week… confirming my fears:
"It was the afternoon of the next-to-last day of baseball’s four-day Winter Meetings, and Braves general manager Frank Wren was asked if anything had surprised him about this year’s event.“There’s still a little sticker shock, at what guys are getting,” he said Wednesday. (from DOB’s post)"
I suppose there’s a point at which you have to admit this… Scott Feldman and a 41-year-old Bartolo Colon both getting multi-year contracts of $10 million per year is that point for me.
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I don’t expect a lot of news today, but we’re still waiting to hear Eric O’Flaherty‘s decision on a contract… with somebody. The Braves had made an offer, but I can guess that it certainly wasn’t an overwhelming one since he hasn’t signed it yet.
In any case, come one, come all: this is the thread to get it all off your chest!