Atlanta Braves Roster Moves: Alex Torres, Nick Swisher
Braves announce additional roster cuts today: Nick Swisher is released
The announcement was inevitable, but still is sobering to see on the screen:
#Braves make Spring Training roster moves: pic.twitter.com/8QL8q4xUzr
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) March 28, 2016
Alex Torres
Alex Torres – the man with the big safety hat – was supposed to be a key member of the left-handed contingent of new relievers that Atlanta brought in this Winter. But now neither he nor Ian Krol are candidates for at least the initial major league roster.
Torres was a Met for 34 innings last season, a Padre for 54 innings in 2014, and a Ray before that. though the same issue plagued him then that has bumped him this Spring: command. Torress has had this history of too many walks, and that’s been a disqualifier for many-a-would-be Braves’ reliever over the past year. No word on whether Torres will actually stick around, but it does seem that the Braves would like him to continue, and thus the assignment to the minor league camp (he was indeed on a minor league deal).
Just for the sake of confusion, Carlos Torres (the ex-Met right-hander) is still in the hunt for a bullpen role as part of the “35 active players” noted in the press release.
Nick Swisher
Unable to trade him, unable to find a productive role for him, unable to find a corner for him to take up space… the Braves have been compelled to release 35-year-old long-time veteran Nick Swisher.
Going to the crass numbers involved, Swisher will collect $15 million from Atlanta this season, the last guaranteed year of his current contract. The best Atlanta can hope for now is that another team picks him up and pays him the major-league minimum $507,500. That money would go to the Braves, which would effectively offset some of the $900K guaranteed to Tyler Moore, who was acquired last night from the Nationals. The difference here is that Moore can be stashed in the minors in the event that he’s needed.
Today’s result was the risk taken by John Coppolella when he traded Chris Johnson to Cleveland for Michael Bourn and Swisher. Yes, the Braves got cash back in the deal, but it is likely that they hoped to get something more back for Swisher once he was able to demonstrate health in his legs. While he’s been hitting somewhat better as of late, he was slow to get on the field regularly and even then did a lot of DH and 1B work, which reduced his value to other teams. Even so, any team with interest at all was probably anticipating today’s move and figuring that they could wait out Atlanta before taking a flyer on Swisher – on the cheap. Now we’ll see if that’s the case.
It’s sad to see him have to go this way as Swisher’s on-field demeanor and performance have been very good since breaking into the league in 2004: 245 homers, .249/.351/.447/.799 slash line. Unfortunately, injury limited his output significantly once the Indians got him in 2013. He finished 2013 at .246 and never hit better than .210 after that.
The remaining bench decisions will be made soon between Jeff Francoeur, Kelly Johnson, Emilio Bonifacio, Gordon Beckham, and Michael Bourn.