Atlanta Braves? I Have Your Black Friday 3B Deal Right Here

Sep 29, 2015; Anaheim, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie (15) looks on during a pitching change during the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Braves Should Pursue a Trade With Oakland for Brett Lawrie

Over the past couple of days, our man Fred has been looking at the possibility that the Braves could look to the Far East to bring in a new third baseman.  Exhibit 1 is Jae-gyun Hwang from South Korea.  Almost as quickly as he offered that suggestion, though, AJC Braves beat writer Dave O’Brien shot it down.

Well, it certainly wasn’t a terrible thought.

#2  was Japanese star Nobuhiro Matsu – probably a better choice than Hwang all the way around for reasons that Fred wrote about here.  If the Braves were to look out-of-country for someone to man the hot corner, then this might be the way to go.

At least I thought so until yesterday.

Let Me Tell You a Story

There has been a bit of a cascade of dominoes falling over the past month, and the latest one dropped yesterday.  This sequence was started when the Houston Astros made a $15.8 million Qualifying Offer to CF Colby Rasmus.  Houston was really hoping he’d reject that… but he accepted it, and that caused an ‘uh oh’ moment in the Houston Front Office.

Their team payroll was already at a high point under their relatively new ownership… $72 million to open the year… and Colby’s acceptance of the offer doubled his salary for 2016, raising their current obligations – before arbitration players – to roughly $58 million.  They have eight arb-eligibles on the roster, too.

Something had to give, and yesterday, that next step occurred:  Jed Lowrie was traded to his most-recent prior team – the Oakland A’s.  He probably wasn’t happy about that (lives in Houston, had just finished year 1 of a 3-year deal), but the Astros needed to dump payroll and his $7.5 million is now off their books – for the price of a relief pitcher.  Makes perfect sense for the Astros, who were really tied to using Lowrie as an expensive utility infielder.

Moving to Oakland.  Honestly, I don’t really get the deal from their point of view unless they had ulterior motives.  And according to Susan Slusser, writing for SFGate.com, they do.

"Lowrie’s return all but ensures the A’s next will move either second baseman Brett Lawrie or third baseman Danny Valencia. Both are drawing interest from American League teams, according to big-league sources, but Lawrie, obtained in the Josh Donaldson deal with Toronto last winter, is considered the better bet to be traded: He can play second and third well, he has an enormous amount of natural ability and he turns 26 in January."

Oakland, with equally frugal ownership, has now added $7.5 million to their payroll, which has been sitting at all-time-high levels over both of the past 2 seasons.  Also: they have fifteen arbitration-eligible players.  It would make sense, then, for the A’s to dump 1 or more players elsewhere to at least balance that equation.

That brings me to the Atlanta Braves and how they could help both teams out.

Next: The Perfect Solution for What Ails an Infield