Sept 12, 2012; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher Brian McCann (16) throws out Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Jeff Bianchi (14) in the seventh inning at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Brian McCann is back in the lineup for the Atlanta Braves.  He’s been there for a couple days now after being reactivated on Monday following a shoulder injury to his throwing arm last October, and the subsequent surgery to repair the damage. He suffered a tear to his right labrum, and had been in rehab for almost seven months before feeling well enough for a stint in the minors. McCann’s rehab assignments went well, where in a combination of class A and class AAA ball, Brian batted .348 delivering one double, four homers, and nine RBIs.

The major concern for the veteran catcher though was not his offense so much as his ability to throw the ball after having suffered the torn labrum.  Brian answered that question by throwing well in his rehab assignments, feeling strong and recovering well over night.  When asked how his shoulder was doing, Brian said…

‘I had a really good rehab stint.  ’Things went well, just the way the ball was coming out and how I was recovering the next day. I pushed it as much as I could and woke up the next day feeling good. The strength is there and the durability is there.”

Fans and teammates alike are thrilled at the prospect of having a catcher in the lineup who is also a proven offensive weapon.  After all, despite McCann’s struggles in recent years (in 2012, Brian hit for a career-low .230 with just 20 homers and 67 RBIs in 121 games), his credentials are impressive!  Brian is a six-time All Star, selected each year from 2006 to 2011, and in 2010 was voted the ALL STAR MVP.  He is also a five-time Silver Slugger winner, selected for that honor from 2006 to 2011, missing the honor only in 2007.  Even Brian’s numbers in 2012, while low for him, were not bad at all for a catcher, where your ability behind the plate is what you are paid for.  Brian has never faltered there either.  For example, while Brian doesn’t specifically have a stellar reputation for a great arm, he has nonetheless been top 5 in putouts as a catcher from 2006 through 2011, and was ranked 1st in 2010.  Perhaps that is why Brian is so valuable, because it is rare to have a catcher talented on both the offensive and defensive sides of the game.

Despite Brian McCann’s obvious value, I hear many fans and reporters assuming that this is probably the last year with the Braves for Brian McCann.  Jon Heyman of CBS Sports believes “the handwriting is on the wall”, that Evan Gattis will be the starting catcher for the Atlanta Braves in 2014.  Jon makes a valid point, and fans seem to love Evan Gattis.  Evan is playing well, is considerably cheaper than the $12 Million the Braves are currently paying McCann, and the Braves year-end, year-out desire to keep their budget around the $90s in millions are definite arguments for making the assumption that Brian may have seen his last year with the Braves.  I’m just not sure we can yet make such an assumption.

McCann becomes a free agent in 2014, and whether or not Brian remains with the Atlanta Braves will depend on some decisions, by both parties, that we are just not currently privy to. According to free agency rules, the Atlanta Braves could receive compensation for Brian McCann’s free agency with a draft pick, but in order to get that compensation they would need to offer McCann arbitration.  Arbitration is where the team offers an amount they are willing to pay, and the player offers an amount he desires to be paid.  A 3rd party arbitrator then decides on an amount believed to be mutually beneficial to both parties.  In short, if those parties cannot agree, then the player is simply released in the hopes they will be picked up by another team.  The Atlanta Braves may not be interested in a draft pick compensation, but even if they are, and offer Brian arbitration, can we rightly assume that Brian will not accept the offer?  He is in his 9th year with the Atlanta Braves, and has played professionally for no other team.  He is a mainstay, a bulwark, a fixture with Atlanta. Couple that together with his numbers, and I am not ready to make the assumption just yet that Brian will not be in a Braves uniform in 2014.  It’s a good problem to have, when you have to decide between a hot Evan Gattis, and a veteran Brian McCann, but I’m not going to assume as the 2013 season plays out, that Evan Gattis will continue to be the hot player he currently is.  I don’t wish to disrespect Mr. Gattis at all when I say this, but despite the romanticism of Evan’s story, he has an odd past that might raise a red flag for some in terms of long-term reliability.

Let’s not forget Gerald Laird either.  Laird is an eleven year veteran, with tons of experience handling pitchers.  It was not an accident that Fredi Gonzalez had him catch for young pitchers like Julio Teheran at the start of the season, when so many fans were baffled that Evan Gattis was not catching every game.  Laird brings a wealth of experience to the field, and in my opinion has been a strong asset for the Braves, particularly in the early season absence of Brian McCann.  Gerald Laird signed with Atlanta for two years, so we do not yet know how Laird will factor into these future decisions as well.

In short, none of us really know what the Braves are going to do.  I tend to agree that there is at least a strong possibility that 2013 may be McCann’s last year with the Braves, but I find that just a touch hard to swallow in May.  Perhaps it’s merely because I have been such a fan of Brian McCann throughout his career.  Perhaps it’s because he is still pretty young, and despite the so-called 2012 hiccup year, I think Brian still has it in him to be an ALL STAR MVP several more times.  I don’t know.  I just know that there are still unanswered questions about Evan Gattis’ long-term reliability, but few about Brian McCann.  My true hope, and my prediction as well, is that they are both on the team in 2014.  A guy can dream!

Apr 3, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley (26) scores a run under Atlanta Braves catcher Evan Gattis (24) that is later disallowed by an interference call during the seventh inning at Turner Field. The Braves defeated the Phillies 9-2. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

If you haven’t heard, Gattis has a story like none other. He started off in high school earning a scholarship from Texas A&M University but abandoned it after struggling with substance abuse. He went into rehab for his abuse and when he came out he enrolled in Seminole State College. He injured his knee his freshman year and quit college after that. Gattis wondered the United States for four years trying to ‘find himself’ and decide what to do with his life. He worked as a janitor, a ski-lift operator and even worked in a pizza parlor. He eventually came back to baseball in 2010, playing for the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and was drafted by the Braves in that same year.

As a 26-year-old rookie, Evan Gattis is one of the most interesting players to enter the game of baseball. He has played in five games so far this season and has gone 7-of-19 at the plate with a .368 AVG, 2 home runs and 3 RBIs. He’s been fantastic behind the plate with a perfect fielding percentage through 40 chances and has not committed an error.

As Christian Bethancourt is playing in Jackson, MS and Brian McCann is healing his shoulder, Evan Gattis is making one heck of a name for himself. Suddenly, the talks of Bethancourt being called up to the bigs to challenge McCann have stopped. The hopes that the Braves might resign McCann have fallen and everyone is star struck by a player that they had never heard of going into this spring training. A spring training where Gattis also had a .368 AVG, 6 home runs and 13 RBIs in 24 games.

The Braves have a very difficult situation when McCann returns from the DL though. It’s still unclear as to who would be sent back down. A lot of people expected it to be Gattis; however, I would expect that to change if he continues on this fantastic streak that he’s on. He’s taken over the cleanup position in the lineup since Freddie Freeman was put on the DL and has proven himself quite a bit.

However, his work is not done. As we all know, baseball is a game of streaks. He has to prove that he can be consistent if he wants to potentially challenge McCann for the starting role. If Gattis continues to shine, I think he could potentially take that role away from McCann if he struggles upon his return. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Brian McCann’s shoulder surgery means he won’t be ready for the 2013 season. Was his injury mishandled by the Braves and could that lead to his departure for free agency> Photo Credit: Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

Brian McCann will miss the start of the 2013 season because management decided he should play through a shoulder injury when the right diagnostic test might have ended his season in August.

A story by Ken Rosenthal today (3.11.13)  included a report that Brain McCann knew he would need surgery on his injured shoulder during the season but the Braves disagreed and BMac felt obligated to play because the team was in the pennant chase and he felt he could contribute.

McCann told Rosenthal, “I knew,” he said. “I knew in August. Professional athletes know their body. They know what they’re feeling.”

The disagreement continued after the season. This is from my post the day McCann had surgery on the shoulder.

On October 6, McCann told David O’Brien

“We already basically know what is going to happen, what needs to happen,” McCann said. “I think it’s going to be [a matter of] how long I’m out for. Could be a couple of months, it could be a little more than that. Could be four or five months. We’ll see what happens. We’ll find out. I can’t really say right now, but I’m pretty sure surgery.”

In the same post GM Frank Wren had a different view.

“I think we first have to determine if surgery is necessary — that hasn’t been determined yet. . . From what we know it would not be a surgical repair. . .during the season we can’t do the MRI with injection because you’re down too long . . once he has the MRI and we know totally and get the medical report — but from what we know now, the prescribed treatment is rest.”

We also heard BMac didn’t have the contrast MRI that would have shown the tear because they the team didn’t want him to miss that much playing time. (Contrast MRIs require a dye injection and patients can have side effects including dizziness and nausea as a result, those may take a few days to subside.)  All of this isn’t new to readers on this blog of course.

I wrote often in August and September asking why the Braves didn’t sit the unproductive catcher and suggesting that it was a bad idea for both the player’s health and the Braves to postpone the MRI and the surgery.

In my August 15th recap of the game:

Nothing new on Brian McCann’s subluxation of the right shoulder. So you won’t have to look that up a subluxation is a “The atypical anatomic positioning of any joint that exceeds the physiologic but not the anatomic limit.  OR Incomplete or partial dislocation, as of a bone in a joint.” In other words the shoulder didn’t come all the way apart just far enough to hurt like hell when he moves it; you know like throwing or hitting.  I hope it doesn’t get worse but it is weakened state any high stress event might be too much.

A week later I suggested that “. . .Brain McCann has to hit or Fredi Gonzales has to sit him down and save his shoulder.

On September third I wrote about Fredi Gonzalez dissembling over the health of the team and included this bit on McCann:

“BMac has a cyst in his shoulder and a “frayed” rotator cuff. . . we don’t know what the damage on BMac’s is but judging by his swing it isn’t a minor thing. . . “

I know from personal experience what a torn rotator cuff feels like and how long the rehab is. I had an 80% tear repaired in January – pictures on request .  I digress.  We know now and they could have – should have known– then,  that according to Rosenthal’s report, “. . .McCann had a tear in his labrum, a larger tear than even the contrast MRI revealed.”

Another significant injury – this one psychological – was inflicted on McCann by Skipper Fredi Gonzales who started David Ross in the Selig death match contest. The fact the Ross was stellar behind the plate and along side it aside. Rosenthal’s story says that Gonzalez mishandled the situation enough that, according to teammates close to McCann, he felt slighted. McCann of course would never say that publicly nor will he speak ill of his hometown Braves or any of their personnel, that just isn’t his nature.

The whole idea that we were better off with McCann playing the way he did in August and September rather than trading for another catcher – there were a lot of serviceable backstops on the move at the time – or bringing up Jose Yepez doesn’t stand up to what happened and what could reasonably have been expected to happen.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

While Mac had a good July after the his rest over the all star break The last two months were below replacement level. According to Fangraphs 21 major league catchers had 80 or more plate appearances in August. Of that group McCann 20th in BA and Slg % and 17th in OBP with a WAR of –0.3 In September 30 catchers had 60 or more PA and McCann was 29th in BA and 30th I slg%. He rose to 23rd in OBP but hold your applause, as you can see above that was a .280 and once again a WAR of –0.3 .  He was clearly replaceable on the field. The argument for his leadership and moral support is moot. He could have provided that leadership with is arm in a sling. It was plain and simply a bad decision, not by McCann fro offering to play but my the management team that allowed it.

Whether the season would have ended differently is also moot. The point here is that Mac will not make opening day and may miss a month of the 2013 season. If the right decision had been made in August he’d be ready to go now and might look more favorably on the Braves during negotiations after this season

That’s A Wrap

McCann told Rosenthal and has told anyone else that would listen that his desire is to be a Brave for life but he realizes “. . .that it’s a business, and that it’s out of my control.”  I’ve said for a long time I thought Mac would leave for a bigger payday that then Braves will offer him. As I noted on Saturday Chipper Jones told Jim Bowden on XM radio he thinks so too. In the grand scheme of things The Rangers and Yankees will both be shopping for a catcher with open wallets and Mac will get $17M for five years or so. I think the Braves know this privately and aren’t willing to go there. They will make him a good offer but it will be hard to resist a huge payday just because you don’t want to move. The larger question for the Braves is whether they’ve allowed payroll restrictions imposed because the team owner is a corporate board in Colorado instead of a baseball fan who wants success to change their approach to the players well being.

I know some will disagree but I don’t believe this situation would not have occurred during the streak when Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz ran the club. It’s well documented that Cox held players out longer that the medics required and  wasn’t afraid to go the the minors and get a player or ask JS to make a trade to fill the void. That administration took a long term view when it came to the health of the players. This situation and their insistence that Jason Heyward continue to play in 2011 even though his shoulder obviously needed repair, bring into question whether the Gonzalez – Wren administration feels the same way.