Atlanta Braves Manager Gonzalez Shoots Down Freeman Rumors

“This is what I’ve got to work with?”; Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez (33) in the dugout at Nats Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

This morning (8am EST), Atlanta Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez was interviewed on the Sirius/XM’s MLB Network Radio channel by Jim Memolo and Todd Hollandsworth. There were discussions about the trade sending Andrelton Simmons to the Angels, about related rumors on Freddie Freeman, and on Hector Olivera‘s transition to the outfield.

Some of these answers are good… some of them were odd.

First off, here is the link for the audio of the interview:

Key snippets and paraphrased quotes:

ON FREEMAN:

Fredi talks to Coppolella 2, 3 times a day
Coppolella would not be doing his job if he weren’t listening to people
Just talked to Coppy last night, 7:30, and he said those rumors aren’t true – he never even entertained the idea (of trading Freeman)
Freeman will ‘absolutely’ be a Brave in 2016

ON SIMMONS:

I think we were 30th (if I’m not mistaken) in offense, in runs scored last year
I think we’ll try to add some offense to get better for this upcoming season and also add a couple of pitchers that are… gonna be close to the major leagues for next year
(Not on the recording) Fredi believes that Simmons’ hitting is something between his 2015 output and his 2014 homer-burst numbers. That does beg the question about Aybar’s bat being any better at all.

ON MIKE MINOR:

(This section was not on the recording) He’s not throwing now
Hopeful – crossing our fingers (said at least twice) that he can come back and contribute like he did before
Will probably get it cranked up a little earlier than usual – January
Still hoping he can come back from shoulder surgery

RESPONDING TO Q ABOUT HOW WILL THE TEAM BE BETTER W/O SIMMONS OR FREEMAN

Take Freeman out of the equation after talking to Coppy. I had the same question – I get those alerts… on my phone, and we had a conversation and Freeman will be with us.
Going into…. talking it over for a long time… this wasn’t a 5 minute conversation and then we traded Simmons… this conversation was a long time… all the way from this time last year… we were talking about offense compared to defense and value… and believe me, you watch the young man play shortstop and you go ‘wow’, I mean this guy wins games with his glove.
But again we were 29th, 30th in runs scored in the big leagues and we wanted to add some offense. If you look at Aybar’s numbers defensively – now nobody’s close to Simmons – but this guy’s okay. Gonna catch the ball, make the routine plays, plus the possibility of adding some offense.
There’s a young kid, about a year-and-a-half, 2 years away called Albies, one of our young prospects, and he’s a guy – we’re gonna see a lot of him in Spring training, and you know, this guy is knocking on the door.
So you make that trade to get a couple of pitchers that can help us in the future, some young pitchers, and you feel like you upgrade a little offense where we were lacking.

Editor’s Notes:

First, I’ll recommend Fred’s analysis of Simmons vs. Aybar
Second, I’ll simply highlight the DRS – Defensive Runs Saved stat for each player. Aybar in 2013-2015: -7, -3, -3. Simmons? 41, 28, 25.
If Aybar was demonstrably better on offense, then I could dismiss the DRS figures a bit, for ~30 runs of differential over the course of a season can be made up in offense (roughly a run per week). However, you’d have to look at Fred’s numbers and see that this is not the case… clearly.

There was more… Olivera

At this point, the Soundcloud recording ended, but the interview continued to ask about moving Hector Olivera to the outfield. I wish this recording had been available, for the answer was… a bit bizarre.

Fredi told his questioners that they were moving Olivera to the outfield to “free up his offense”. Those are the words I believe I heard from him. A related tweet paraphrasing that was close:

Gonzalez on moving Olivera to OF: "We were looking for some offense in OF. Not a complete transition, we'll still look to use him at 3B"
— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) November 17, 2015

Okay… last time I checked, Major League baseball players don’t carry bats with them when playing defense. This answer from Gonzalez completely avoided the real answer, which should have been “he can’t play third base very well.” Heck, the team’s current plan seems to be to put Adonis Garcia at the hot corner, and we know he’s also rough at the position… but probably better than Olivera.

If the answer had anything to do with offense, then the answer could have been “we wanted to get Garcia’s bat into the lineup and felt we’d be better defensively if he played third base, which required Hector to go to the outfield.”

But more strangely, Fredi also suggested that Olivera still might be utilized at third base on occasion. Okay… That’s clearly the way to go – drop him onto third base cold turkey every now and then just to make sure everybody remembers why you opted to put him into the outfield in the first place. That answer really sounded like he was just making up something.

Next: Even if they Want to Move Freeman, It Would Be Tough

The Smoke-Screen Continues

It is clear that Gonzalez is keenly aware of his team’s offensive woes. And truthfully, he’s no idiot: he knows that Aybar isn’t going to help that. But he’s also not going to diss his own player or his GM by saying otherwise: he’s trying to make the most of the hand he’s dealt and smiling for the cameras/microphones/etc.

This Simmons trade was therefore all about Sean Newcomb and his potential. That had better pay off… whether via him directly becoming a stud, or in allowing Coppolella to be comfortable enough with his pitching surplus to go after a Todd Frazier and solve two problems (3rd base offense and defense) in one shot.

In the meantime, no: the offense has clearly not improved, and now the defense will be suffering on top of that.

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