Mike Minor and His Curious Case With The Atlanta Braves

Mike Minor’s Stay In Atlanta Has Been…Well, Strange

Is Mike Minor done with the Atlanta Braves? (I sure hope so)

*This article is in direct rebuttal to the piece that fellow Tomahawk Take writer Dan Horton wrote entitled “Atlanta Braves and the Curious Case of Mike Minor”

Let me just put this out there now, I do NOT like Mike Minor.

If this publication didn’t have a PG rating I’d be throwing around expletives enough to fill up a paragraph (or 2).

It’s not his professional stats or his career accomplishments that I do not like because the numbers that he has thrown together are respectable; I do not like his character.

He doesn’t strike me as a teammate that others would go to war for. He strikes me as the type to throw food in the lunchroom and then go and hide behind something after starting a food fight. He’s not Braves material (maybe the Yankees?).

He annoys me. (not like a gnat that flies around your ear, but like the kid on the other side of WalMart that you can hear swearing at his mom that you want to go and discipline yourself)

The past arbitration pettiness was just a start, and then to find out later that he had arm issues and needed surgery, that was the icing on the cake or the straw that broke the camels back, so to speak. He knew (expletive) well that his arm was jacked up and yet he went in arguing on a $500,000 difference. (WHO DOES THAT!!!) The Braves offer was valid, he could have taken it, ESPECIALLY since you (he) already knew he had arm troubles. Also this would probably required surgery and that would take him off the mound for some time…you can’t tell me he didn’t know this.

Aug 1, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Mike Minor (36) sits in the dugout during the fourth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Fast-forward to today and his “rehab” isn’t rehabbing. Of course it isn’t. He’s lazy and doesn’t really want to pitch. He wants to continue to make $15 Million a year sitting around eating Cheetos and Kit Kats while the rest of his teammates are busting their buts trying to make the organization look respectable. I know the 500k are peanuts in the grand scheme of things but the principle of it all (from my perspective) is severely degrading to the organization and disrespectful.

I don’t know if he should be tendered; we gave him an extra 500k, consider that payment rendered.

Personally, I’d give him an AAA offer and let him work his way back, but I’m not a Liberty Media stockholder (yet) so I am just doing some wishful thinking. A somewhat perfect scenario from the Braves vantage point would be similar where they could spend less, test him, he works his way in and then validates his worth.

BUT, someone as selfish and egotistical as he is, he will NOT accept any offer and he will think he can work his way back independently and then get a better check than league minimum from someone else. Kris Medlen got an $8.5 million 2-year deal from Kansas City and he hadn’t even started rehab in December of 2014. Brandon Beachy signed a one-year deal worth $2.75 million in February of 2015, well before he began throwing off the mound.

Based on his limited and injury prone track record I wouldn’t offer more than the average of what he is making now and what these 2 received on the open market… 1-year deal at $8.95 million…and that’s the ceiling.

They should start the offer at $500k, JUST to irk him.

We wont have to wait long to find out, deadline day is December 2nd.

Let’s hope we aren’t stuck with a lazy good for nothing with mystery injuries and we actually find a positive contributing member of the ball club.

The clock is ticking…tick tick tick.