Atlanta Braves add a total wild card in Scott Kazmir

One of the fallout pieces of today’s complex deal includes something that sounds great – acquiring a lefty, veteran starting pitcher. Beyond that…

A couple of years ago, I was all in favor of the Atlanta Braves taking a flier on Scott Kazmir. At that point, he had just completed a decent stint with Oakland and Houston in 2015 in which he had seemingly resurrected his career after being ‘paid to go away’ from the Angels in 2011.

The years after LA helped rebuild his value to the point that the Dodgers threw money at him after that 2015 season: 3 years and $48 million. Nice money… and too rich for the Braves.

Unfortunately for both the nearly 34-year-old Texas native and for the Dodgers, Kazmir has become a poster child for the riskiness of pitcher contracts – even shorter contracts. Good thing that the Braves didn’t go there.

In 2016, Kazmir was only able to manage 136 innings for his new club (at a 4.56 ERA – well above what he’d done since leaving the Angels) and none at all in 2017.

Fred hinted at his medical issues earlier, but here’s what I’ve been able to piece together.

Aug 23, 2016 – placed on DL with what was described as ‘neck inflammation’
Sept 7, 2016 – reassigned to Oklahoma City for rehab starts
Sept. 23, 2016 – activated
April 2, 2017 – placed on DL: strained left hip
May 26, 2017 – transferred to 60-day DL
June 26, 2017 – reassigned to Rancho Cucamonga for rehab
(you’ll notice that he wasn’t activated)
Sept. 4, 2017 – back to Rancho Cucamonga
Sept. 9, 2017 – exactly the same transaction entry

Then there’s this from back in September of 2016, courtesy of MLBTR and various media:

"SATURDAY [Sept 10]: Kazmir has been diagnosed with thoracic spine inflammation, tweets Plunkett, who adds that there’s no timetable for his return.FRIDAY: Kazmir will undergo a bone scan in the “thoracic region,” Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register was among those to report (links to Twitter). While results aren’t yet known, skipper Dave Roberts suggested that the lefty will require a “shutdown period” of “a couple weeks.” With less than a month left in the season, it seems uncertain at this point whether Kazmir will be able to return in 2016."

So he gets over that over the 2016-17 off-season, and then reports to Spring Training in Arizona. But then his hip started acting up, and that ended up sidelining him for the remainder of the season.

It was noted during brief rehab stints in 2017 that Kazmir’s velocity was actually right at his normal 90-92 mph form, so it should be encouraging that there seems to be nothing wrong with either his shoulder or his arm. The rest of his body? That’s an unknown.

So for the Braves, the question will be whether they can get anything out of him next Spring… a year removed from the eruption of this hip issue.

Honestly, though? Expectations should be at rock bottom, and thus anything Atlanta can get out of him is gravy.

Might Have Seen This Coming

It was just a week ago that MLBTR repeated this curious tidbit about the Dodgers and their tepid pursuit of Giancarlo Stanton:

"Sending Stanton to the Dodgers would have required the Marlins to take on more bad contracts than they were “comfortable with,” according to Sherman, who reports that LA wanted Miami to accept one or both of Adrian Gonzalez or Scott Kazmir and absorb $30MM of Stanton’s contract. The Marlins found acquiring Starlin Castro from the Yankees much more appealing, as he’s someone they could slot in at second base or flip elsewhere."

Enter Alex Anthopoulos, who was willing and able to hand the Dodgers a large contract spread over 2 years whilst LA handed back two of similar size, though just one more year of duration.

More from Tomahawk Take

Atlanta was in the position of being able to write a big check – one they might have needed to write regardless – but in this way they get it done with 2 vets that might be able to give them some innings around the kids.

So whatever happens with Kazmir – and for the sake of his health, we obviously hope for the best – the Braves have to be thinking “why not?”

This was supposed to be the really hard task for GM Anthopoulos: finding a way to get a taker for Matt Kemp… somehow, some way. In the process, they received a guy who’s been the ‘Comeback Player of the Year‘ once already.

Next: Yes, it's True... Matt Kemp is a Dodger again

Here’s hoping for a repeat winner of that award in the person of (a healthy) Scott Kazmir. But if not – no big deal.

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