Atlanta Braves’ musings about the FanSided Winter Meetings
It’s interesting to watch how fans pursue team building exercises like this. Some things are not like the others.
I do wish I could be a fly on the wall for the meetings that new Atlanta Braves‘ GM Alex Anthopoulos is undoubtedly engaging in between last week and the day the real Winter Meetings start (December 11th).
Being an effective General Manager means that you have to be really good at all of these things:
- Lawyer: understanding the details – not even just the basics – of the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players. It’s 373 pages long.
- Negotiator: President Donald Trump prides himself on deal-making. He’s good, no doubt, but somehow I think the General Managers of major sports teams have to be better to survive.
- Accountant: sure, there’s places like COTS and Sportrac that purport to keep track of payroll, salaries, and the like… but they simply scratch the surface. There’s coaching salaries, minor league pay, operations budgets, scouts, the academies in the Dominican Republic, stadium building, revenues from myriad sources, and way more than that.
- Almanac: on top of those numbers, the GM is expected to at least recognize the name of nearly every professional baseball player in America and most of the up-and-coming prospects… yes: even those not on his team. That’s probably close to 6,000 names.
- Computer: Add to that the idea of knowing contract status, monies paid, performance data and injury history for many of these players and you might be starting to get an idea about what kinds of things a GM has to put together to effectively do his job.
Our poor attempts at team-building
So we have assembled faux general managers to look after the Hot Stove needs of all 30 MLB teams. We have a Commissioner and we have a single person dedicated to the task of receiving and evaluating all free agent contract offers.
That ‘uber agent’ role? That would be me.
Honestly, I’m not sure who has it worse – Fred Owens (who is handling our Braves’ interests as GM for the week) or me… repping 140-odd MLB free agents.
A couple of observations related to the styles I’m seeing:
- The eBay approach. Many seem to be looking at the process of acquiring free agents as kind of an auction. In some ways that’s true (out of necessity due to a limited run time for this event), but I’m trying to dissuade them of that notion. This is more about setting a dollar figure that your team is comfortable with and then sticking with that.
- The ‘Price is Right’ approach. On that game show, there’s often That Guy who bids $1 at the front desk. The purpose is different there, but there are some bidding low on some free agents in the hopes that nobody else will notice. I’ve actually rejected a few of those bids on behalf of my ‘clients’.
- The Just In Case approach. This manifests itself as follows: here, Mr. Agent… I’m giving you 3 bids on 3 different players. If we get the #1 guy, then forget we even talked about #2 and #3. Otherwise, consider them to be ‘contingency’ bids. It’s fun juggling chainsaws, right?
- The Incentives approach. Maybe they think they are sounding real professional and such with these highly-detailed bids. Of course Coppolella did this, too: things like $50K extra for every 8 innings about 100 and things like that. Popular is the ‘MVP’ or ‘Cy Young’ bonus.
- The Santa Clauses. Opt-outs are popular, but so are options. My favorite (not) is the Mutual Option. Sounds nice, but when you stop to think about it, it’s almost completely useless. If my player wants to honor the option, the team probably won’t… and vice versa.
Underway
We’ve been planning – and really starting – this Winter Meetings simulation for the entire month. The ‘official start’ is Monday at Noon eastern time, though I can reveal the following simulated transactions that we’ve made official:
- ORIOLES – have successfully extended the tenure of 3B Manny Machado for a 7 year, $204.5 million deal with an option for year 8 at $28.5 million.
- WHITE SOX – have bought out the last 2 years of control for 1B Jose Abreu and ‘inked’ him to a 5 year, $105 million deal.
- MARINERS – non-tendered Drew Smyly, but come back with a free agent contract offer that he’s mulling over.
- MARINERS – have been selected by Japanese star pitcher/hitter Shohei Ohtani. He will get the $1.6 million they can scrape together from their International monies pool. The Twins were the runner-up; Yankees third.
Free agents getting the most attention so far?
- Tyler Chatwood
- Mike Minor
- Wade Davis
- Jake McGee
What a shock – they’re all pitchers.
When we get to tomorrow, there will be some very interesting trades to report that I understand are already done. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at some of the work that Fred has done.
Next: Bargain Basement Budget Buys
…and with that teaser, I’ll have to leave at that for now: no further comment from the Front Office until then!