Braves Trade Jason Heyward – Balanced Trade But Why?
By Fred Owens
By now everyone knows that the Braves traded Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden to St Louis for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins. Atlanta loves Jason Heyward and Jason loves Atlanta. Initially I felt that this trade was about a good business decision. Now I’m not so sure.
"“. . .(John Hart) I certainly recognize what an outstanding player Jason Heyward is. We’d have loved to have retained him. My sense was that Jason was going to be out on the free-agent market next year. . .”"
Goodbye Jason Heyward
Jason Heyward was supposed to be the next superstar in the Atlanta galaxy. he did become a world class defender but so far he’s an above average but not superstar hitter. That’s not however, why he was traded. John Hart traded Jason because he said he had no indication that Jason wanted to extend and was going to walk after this season. How do I know? Hart said so last week and it was previously reported that the Braves offered him a Freddie Freeman sized extension and he turned it down. Jason has another version.
Lack of respect?
In an post trade interview Jason told David O’Brien that he expected to hear from the front office but all he heard was silence.
"“. . .the Braves front office are the ones that would have to come to me about a deal, about the extension, about me being here longer than 2015, for that to actually happen. And that never took place last offseason . . .”"
He told O’Brien that he just wanted to play baseball so he requested the two year extension because he hated the arbitration process and wanted the next conversation “to be about me possibly being in Atlanta for a long time.” That conversation never happened so he came to believe that the Wren front office didn’t want that to happen. That clearly hurt Heyward on a personal level.
"“. . . for me as a player and as a person I had made it clear that I wanted to be here for longer than 2015. But again, we never had the conversation . . (the Wren front office) didn’t see fit to have those sit-down talks or discussions about me being here. I don’t necessarily know what they were thinking, but now I see today that I’m traded to the Cardinals . . .”"
Following the 2012 season Heyward did meet with the front office but it was for “minutes, not hours or days or weeks.” In that meeting he told them he wanted to be a Brave for a long time but the Wren front office never moved towards that goal and there were no further conversations after that.
"“. . .I feel like I gave them an opportunity to come to me with anything, but that situation never occurred, so this is where we are today.”"
Peter Gammons said he thought the Wren departure would result in a Heyward extension. When Jason was ask about the departure of Wren he said (paraphrasing here) that he didn’t know anything about the front office and that his job was to play baseball but he hoped that it would result in a better work environment. Now we know what he meant.
Last week Hart said that he expected Heyward to test the free agent market and that no talks had yet taken place. The reason no talks take place one side or the other doesn’t want to talk. We now know which side that was. What we don’t know is why. For now let’s get back to the balance of the trade.
The Decision
When a decision is being made you weigh the pros and cons of the situation so with the front office believing that he would not extend here they are.
- Keeping Jason means the Braves get a 2016 Comp pick
- The outfield market is thin so increasing Heyward’s value now
- Trading him at the deadline means the other team doesn’t get a comp pick and doesn’t give as much value
- Trading him now brings a front line arm and a prospect now
- Miller adds a quality starter
- Jenkins was a top 100 prospect prior to 2013 so he’s as good or better than a comp pick in 20 months time who won’t be in the big leagues until 2019.
- Braves clear $8.3M in payroll
"“. . .We didn’t go out with the idea that Jason was going to be the guy that we used to get our starting pitching. There were conversations (involving) some of our other guys. But nothing that we could have gotten, pitching, that we felt was going to help us compete and to win."
The Trade
Andrew did a great job of breaking down the statistics for the new Braves players in his post. I’m going to look at this from a different point of view staying with the decision side of the deal.
If we had kept Jason through the 2015 season we would get a compensation pick, that’s a drafted player somewhere between the 30th and 40th pick. If we get a good pick that player could player who might be ready for 2019. In Tyrell Jenkins we got a player who was a top 100 prospect prior to 2013, took a step back that year but recovered nicely this year; In 2014 he started 13 games, threw 74 innings at a 3.28 ERA/1.311 WHIP in Hi A ball. He may be ready to enter the rotation in 2017. That seems like an equivalent to any comp pick we get and a know commodity.
On top of that The Braves get a major league ready starting pitcher who has his warts – one of our former writers says his mechanics are destined to create arm injury – but slots into our rotation nicely – Julio Teheran, Mike Minor, Shelby Miller, Alex Wood – and makes it significantly deeper. I omitted David Hale from the rotation because in an interview on MLB Networks’ MLB Now he rattled off the rotation and didn’t mention Hale. I think that indicates he isn’t done looking for young controllable pitching.
In the AJC interview Hart told David O’Brien the background on the trade.
"“. . .We knew as an organization going into this winter that we lost over 400 innings in our rotation and we didn’t have any players coming up in our system that were ready to provide those types of innings. We really needed two starting pitchers. . . .(at the GM Meetings) We sampled the waters and we talked to literally every club out there, and we weren’t looking for a one-year sort of fix. Shelby Miller was one of the younger pitchers that we had identified as a guy who could step in and help us right now and that we would be able to control for a number of years. . .we had some other options, but this one we felt was the one that made the most sense . . . ”"
And on Tyrell Jenkins:
". . . Jenkins is a former compensation (round) pick out of high school, an incredible athlete . . . a couple of injuries that have set up him back a little bit. We saw this young man in the fall league, outstanding arm, great athlete, and we feel a year or two down the road has a chance to step in and be a long-term starter for the Braves. So, two young starters, one major league ready. This was the residue of a lot of meetings and a lot of conversations.”"
The other guy in the deal – Jordan Walden – is a frequently injured power arm who would have cost us $3m this season. Arodys Vizcaino, J.R. Graham and others can fill that spot for less.
That’s A Wrap
Any good executive taking over any business must get a feel for what’s really going on before making changes. Baseball is a fan driven industry. The stars are teh ones the fans come to see. Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman are the brightest stars in the Braves galaxy and should have been at the top his must call list. Hart made it clear that he hasn’t had discussions with Heyward the question is WHY? It’s true that pitching needs works and Wren screwed up a lot of the development programs as well as wasting money but surely the first thing a new GM should do is sit down with the star players and find out what they think is going on.
Was the much vaunted Hart so overwhelmed by the forest of trouble he was faced that he failed to see or didn’t appreciate the asset he had in front of him? Did he depend on his new right hand man to give him the story and did that man having been groomed by Wren give him only half of it? That’s a question for another press conference and one I won’t be able to attend. It’s also one that must be asked of Hart.
I know how everyone feels about Heyward as a person and as a baseball player. The shock was evident as Twitter exploded after the deal was announced. Rest assured he feels the same about them. O’Brien ask Jason about his message to the fans. His feelings were abundantly clear.
"I’m overwhelmed by it all right now, because the fans have been awesome to me. They’re disappointed when you don’t do well, yes, but at the same time they’re right there with you in your best moments and they’ve been great for me to feed off of and give back to the city. I grew up in Georgia watching the Braves play. I got the opportunity to be on the other side from a player’s perspective and play for the great Bobby Cox, play with the great Chipper Jones and other players that came through here. And the fans have been awesome to me, so I just want to thank them for their support in my time here. I can’t think them enough for it. And thank you for recognizing my love and passion for this game of baseball, and thank you for recognizing that I went out there every day and gave it 100 percent for them. Again, as far as the situation goes as far as me being here long-term or not, I feel like the fans had more discussions with me than the front office. And that’s not a shot, that’s just the way it’s been, and that’s how much I appreciate the fans. So I want to thank them for that and thank them for their support in the future as well."
Whatever the reason for this massive misstep by Hart and his team, they obviously felt that Jason would become an expensive luxury that the Braves couldn’t afford. They felt – possibly incorrectly – that Jason was leaving anyway so they traded him. Miller is a good pitcher who makes the rotation stronger. Jenkins is a good pitching prospect, and life goes on. Unless I miss my guess this isn’t the last shocking Braves trade you’ll get this season.
I share your anger and disappointment but screaming and ranting will do little more than raise our blood pressure and increase frustration. The course has been set so advice – worth exactly what you are paying for it – is to take a deep breath, step back from the ledge and relax. This was a fair trade in baseball terms and made both teams better. Nothing is as constant in baseball as the unexpected move of a beloved player to an old enemy. This story creates a huge public relations nightmare for Hart and one I feel he must address quickly. The repercussions will be felt in large measure at the turnstiles next year unless something is done to mitigate the public anger. Having said that, the deal is done and amazingly life and baseball go on. That doesn’t seem to make me feel as good as when I initially wrote it. Maybe I need to take a deep breath and relax. . .or go outside and scream. Jason Heyward deserved better.