Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: the Other Side of the Deal

Newton’s Laws of Motion also apply to baseball:  for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Such was the case this weekend.

The Atlanta Braves have acquired Brandon Phillips from the Cincinnati Reds.  That was something they apparently wanted to do back in November, but were unable to finish the trade.

Now they’ve got their man, though under circumstances that remain a concern.

In this case, the Braves reacted successfully from that failed November deal to land Sean Rodriguez, whose bat showed a significant improvement in 2016 over previous campaigns.

That looked to be a strong pickup for the Braves… until the Rodriguez family ran afoul of someone with evil intent.

But for two weeks, even that Miami car wreck didn’t seem to derail that plan.  However…

If there’s good news here, it’s that Rodriguez isn’t a pitcher.  Shoulder injuries are their bane – orthopedic surgeons have yet to discover the ‘Tommy-John-equivalent’ panacea procedure for repairing shoulders.

That said, we do not know the full extent of this injury.  Being a ‘non-baseball’ injury means that it’s different from what sports surgeons usually see, but there’s no news on whether that’s better or worse for him.  Hopefully that broad “3 to 5 months” window can be tightened up a bit, but already sources are suggesting to the AJC that he could miss the entire year.

That’s a tough blow for Rodriguez and a tough blow for the Braves – though somehow John Coppolella managed to actually come back to the Reds and get a (reportedly) better deal than he had in November.

I guess even in bad situations, you gain leverage if the object of your trade will agree only to come to your city.

But for Sean Rodriguez, we hope the news improves for him – and his family.  His wife seems to have gotten the worst of it, though her own report made that sound ‘fixable’.  Their children with them at the time appear to be okay.

We hate to lose players at all, but especially in this way.  But Rodriguez is inked with Atlanta for both 2017 and 2018, so there’s a real good chance that we’ll still see him around SunTrust Park next season.