The lucky break given to Nick Markakis by the Atlanta Braves

Nick Markakis decided to go home.  The Atlanta Braves had already sent a parting gift.

The Atlanta Braves were poised to spend big money in 2020.  Obviously things hadn’t worked out exactly as planned, but some of the planning done for that actually ended up working out well for a player no longer with the team.

Rewind to the end of the 2019 campaign.  That season is done.  Nick Markakis is in contractual limbo for a few days.

He has an option on his deal with Atlanta, one that would pay him $6 million in 2020.  If the team decides to go in another direction, they would owe him a $2 million buyout of that option.

Turns out there was a third choice.  The Braves went to him and effectively offered him both sides of that option.

• Atlanta would ‘decline’ the option and immediately hand him a check for the $2 million buyout.  He would then become a free agent.
• Then they also had a bit more paperwork for him:  a new contract for $4 million that covered the 2020 season.

He would get the full $6 million that the original contract called for had the option be picked up, but it would come in two parts:  the immediate $2 million and the incremental $4 million during the 2020 season.

Why not?  Markakis agreed and he got that $2 million up front.

Then the virus hit the fan.  Players ended up with some stipends to hold them over until the season begins on the 23rd (or 24th), but it wasn’t much.

At $4 million, had Markakis chosen to play out the season, he would be due 37.04% of his contracted salary… $1.48 million.  That’s the amount he left ‘on the table’ by choosing to walk away and stay with his family.

But suppose that the buyout hadn’t been done and that the Braves had simply picked up his option as they normally would have done.  In that event, it would have been 37.04% of $6 million.  That comes to $2.22 million… just 11% above what he’d already put into the bank last December.

Catcher Tyler Flowers had exactly the same contract situation, received the same switcheroo offer, and made the same choice to accept the change.  He’s going to do fairly well:  that $2 million ‘buyout’ plus $1.48 million.

In total, Flowers may effectively end up with $3.48 million for the calendar year, or 58% of the value of that original $6 million contract… a much better rate than his MLB brethren will be taking home this year.

The funny part about all that is that Flowers is the player rep to the MLBPA Union for the Braves.

How did this come about?  The Atlanta Braves were intending to spend big… so big that they did this maneuver with both players to provide some additional “wiggle room” beneath the luxury tax trigger point.

That pair of $2 million buyouts applied to 2019 payroll data, which in turn freed up $4 million of luxury tax space for 2020.  It was a shrewd move by Alex Anthopoulos and his staff… and it also put some early money into the pockets of both players.

Little did any of these parties know that it was the only money that either ballplayer would earn on the field to this point — and the only payout for Markakis at all.  But it still counts.

That’s especially true given that there’s still uncertainty about whether any baseball will be played.  That hypothetical $1.48 million figure is still “zero” right now, and will only inflate that high if a full 60 games are played.

Markakis has managed career earnings of over $120 million to this point.  He’s done very well for himself.  But he can also attribute that last $2 million to being in the right contractual position at the right time.