Atlanta Braves Mike Minor Fallout: Winners and Losers

Aug 22, 2014; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Atlanta Braves manager

(33) goes to the mound to relieve starting pitcher

(36) during the eighth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

Today we learned that LHP Mike Minor underwent successful surgery on his throwing shoulder to repair a partially torn and frayed Labrum.

While it is good news that the surgery was successful, the entire incident just leaves a bad taste. Minor is clearly done for the 2015 season – a season that never actually got underway for him, despite high hopes for a good start after an up-and-down 2014 campaign.

But going even further, it is pretty apparent as well that Minor is also done as an Atlanta Brave.  His actually won his 2015 arbitration case for $5.6 million – the first Braves player to take the team to trial in well over a decade.  As a Super-2 status player, he actually has 2 more years of arbitration eligibility.  However, given this injury, Minor’s performance and propensity for other injuries during his Atlanta years – never mind the plethora of pitching prospects available – there’s almost no way the team will tender him another (likely $5.6 million) offer for 2016.  He’s done.

So what’s the fallout?  Who wins and who loses in all of this?

Winners

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Mike Minor himself.  With 145 innings in 2014 and a scant few during Spring Training this year, Minor has a chance to be fully healthy and rested for the start of 2016 at age 28.  He’s still built in the mold of the modern pitcher:  6’4″/220 with a track record of being very good – when he’s healthy for a decent stretch.  Teams will come knocking at his door, and he’ll have his choice.  Oh, and he pockets $5.6 million for this season.

Wandy Rodriguez.  Now recognize that Wandy was signed while the team believed Mike Minor would be a key member of the rotation.  But his perceived role actually grew from #5 starter to #4 starter after the shoulder pain cropped up.  While that role faded and he was ultimately released, Rodriguez was still able to show enough during Spring to land a major league job (with the Rangers).  This was certainly in part due to Minor’s absence.

Mike Foltynewicz, et al.  When the veterans falter, the prospects have an opportunity to rise up.  Certainly Folty has done so, as he is now the #4 arm in the Atlanta Braves rotation.  It seems likely that he will soon be joined by another recently-acquired young arm to take the #5 slot.  It took some additional seasoning time, plus the loss of four names between them and the Promised Land, but it has happened.

Push

Eric Stults, Trevor Cahill.  It’s a bit harder to quantify putting these guys on the list (so I created a new category for them). Certainly they did benefit early on from Minor’s absence.  By now, it was hoped that Minor would have completed his rehab starts and then one or both of these guys would have been jettisoned.  Yet they’re still here for the moment… and in fact, you almost have to wonder if Atlanta had an inkling that Minor wouldn’t be back.  The Cahill trade still makes little sense beyond buying an extra draft pick, but you can kinda add some justification if he’s hanging around as the insurance policy that turned out to be necessary.

Stults was supposed to be the innings-eater that would solidify the back of the rotation while we awaited the arrival of ‘the kids’.  Cahill … was a reclamation project, I guess.  Can’t win ’em all, I suppose.

Either way, while these pitchers were able to fill a gap, they have also shown that they just don’t have much left in the tank (even Cahill at age 27), so it would be fair to argue that it will be tough for each one to show that they will be worth another major league paycheck after this season.

Losers

The Braves’ Medical Staff.  This is a tough one, but there have been two major medical failures over the past couple of seasons, and the trainers/doctors are going to be talked about – whether either case was their fault or not.

In the case of Dan Uggla, there seems to have been a failure in terms of knowledge:  lack of understanding that Dan apparently had a eye coordination problem that prevented his eyes from tracking and focusing on moving objects.  Part of this responsibility should be put on the player for his failure to accurately or clearly describe his symptoms – which could have been as simple as “I just can’t see the ball in flight clearly.”  But given that this is a basic skill inherent to the ability to play baseball, it’s also something the staff should have been aware of as a possibility.

In the case of Minor, this is tougher:  he passed the Braves’ physical.  He started 2015 feeling well… even again as late as March 24th after having been shut down for a 2-3 weeks.  He went to see Dr. James Andrews on March 9th, and after receiving an anti-inflammatory shot, Minor heard that his shoulder was declared structurally sound.  Given the source, that’s as authoritative as you can get.

Apparently MRI scans cannot see damage to the labrum.

Even so, we don’t have anything other than Minor’s own words to know how or when this damage occurred.  Was it during the off-season?  Was it during early Spring workouts?  We just don’t know.  What we do know is that it took nearly 3 months to get from the first reports of pain to surgery.  And that pretty much was the margin that has ended Minor’s 2015 season.

So why is the medical staff on this list?  There’s roughly $26 million worth of reasons… irrespective of whether they actually had any culpability in the failed diagnoses.  That’s why they will be talked about.

The Atlanta Braves.  If there’s a clear loser in all of this, it’s certainly the club.  The losses are, in fact, quite substantial:

• $5.6 million for no on-field benefits.
• The arbitration case loss actually raises a precedent bar that will ultimately raise salaries around the league for similar pitchers (a nit of a point, but nonetheless true).
• Any hope of trading Minor for prospects – whether in-season or afterwards – is lost.
• For all intents and purposes, Minor will end up going to another club with no compensation whatsoever coming back to the Braves.

So yes – it is a bitter taste – for we want to see our players succeed.  When they don’t, losses are felt everywhere.  And that’s the tally.

Next: Meanwhile, how are those crops doing?