AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2006 > August > 06
Sunday, August 6, 2006
The last word (please) on Andruw
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So I’ve been up in the Canadian Rockies a few days, out of cell-phone range (or Verizon Broadband laptop communications range). Anything happen?
Kidding, folks. (We who either cover or pull for the Braves still can smile, joke and discuss matters with something other than grave tones, right? Good).
Anyway, back to the fine denizens of the blogosphere. Scanning the weekend’s posts, it appears some of you have either pawned your computers or turned attention to college football or the Falcons.
For those still out there, it’s good to be back. Hopefully you’re just dormant and will return in force for these final seven weeks of ‘ball before the postseason (hey, I didn’t say Braves postseason).
By the way, I saw one of the greatest concerts of my life last week _ Tom Waits at the Tabernacle. Phenomenal in every sense (but we’ll avoid music today, because of the noted music-hater who’s a regular here and said last week he has his reasons to hate music and comes here to get away from it. Pity the person who hates music, but whatever. We’ll give it a rest _ for today, at least).
Anyway, I’d known Andruw Waivergate was going to be blown out of proportion into the biggest headline-making matter since Smoltz Asked To Be Traded To Detroit (wink), I’d have scheduled to work this road trip and took a different one off.
That, plus I missed the discussion of banana pudding. (People, you can’t be serious if you don’t line it with ‘Nilla wavers and serve it warm, with merinque on top, just like my momma did)
But understand, I’ve got to pick about 20 games out of 81 road games to miss each year, and Pittsburgh and Cincinnati in August are always going to be high on my list of NL cities to avoid if at all possible.
So anyway, what did I think of Andruw and waivers? As I offered in one post early in the week _ before the thing was stoked into such a perfect storm that I opted to stay out until it diminished _ this simply was not a major story. At least not nearly as huge as some made it out to be.
As has been pointed out by everyone savvy in these matters, most players, including star players, have been put on waivers and cleared waivers more than once in their careers. That includes, yes, Chipper and Smoltz.
The thing that made Andruw’s case different and newsworthy was the confluence of the waivers filing coming two weeks before Andruw gets his 10/5 status and ability to veto trades, and its coming on the heels of last week’s Red Sox trade “talks” _ which, as pointed out several times here, were initiated by Boston’s Theo Eptstein, and involved one phone call to John Schuerholz, who ran down the king’s ransom that it would take to get Andruw. End of that call.
The Braves’ only mistake, in my view, was not calling Andruw when this firestorm spread, when he was clearly peeved. The Braves’ front office (Schuerholz) can be stubborn and set in its ways, perhaps a byproduct of 14 consecutive division titles and operating under a cloak of secrecy on all matters.
I don’t fault them, usually, for that approach. But in this case, as Andruw said, make a call to the man. It seems like it just would’ve made good sense.
Call your perennial Gold Glove center fielder _ ask him to please keep the phone call’s contents private, if you must _ and explain to him that waivers are supposed to confidential, and that it has little to do with their desire to move him and instead is a business decision designed to cover their butts just in case there’s somebody desperate out there ready to fork over that king’s ransom _ or more _ that Schuerholz told the Red Sox it would take to get Andruw.
Before some knee-jerk reactionaries howl about what I just said, and twist that into a Braves-dissed-Andruw-and-I’m-drinking-the-Kool Aid stance, let me ask: Would it make much sense for the Braves to simply say, we love Andruw too much to ask waivers on him?
Then what if the Red Sox became desperate after, say, a season-ending injury to Manny Ramirez this week? What if they called the Braves back and said, “We’ll not only give you all you asked for last week in exchange for Andruw Jones _ top 22-year-old lefty starter Jon Lester (no longer merely a prospect, by the way, but a good young pitcher in the major league rotation), plus Coco Crisp and 22-year-old rookie reliever Craig Hansen _ we’ll also throw in (fill in the blank with two other top prospects)?”
Because the Red Sox suddenly might do that, if they needed a big bat to replace Manny (don’t ask me what they’d do in LF; this is just hypothetical, OK?).
Anyway, what if that happened? If Andruw hadn’t been through waivers, the Braves would have to tell Epstein, “We’d like to do it, but first we’ll have to try to put Andruw through waivers.” Now, given the New York Yankees’ fiscal position and disdain for rival Boston, do you not think they’d put in a claim to block Andruw from going to Boston after figuring they might try to get him to replace Manny?
Yes, they would. And then if the Yankees didn’t want to make a deal, they could offer nothing of value for Andruw and the Braves could do nothing but pull him back off waivers and not trade him to the Sox or anyone else this season.
Was that likely to happen? No, but it certainly could have.
Manny could get hurt, or Johnny Damon, Vlad Guerrero … any free-spending contender could have a major injury to a key run produceer and get desperate this week _ before Andruw is a 10/5 player _ and be ready to offer far more than they would under normal circumstances in order to get a replacement. Andruw, perhaps, if he’d gotten through waivers.
I should point out, that Red Sox trade proposal wouldn’t happen in August, at least involving Lester, Hansen and Crisp, because all of those guys would be claimed on waivers, certainly the young pitchers would be claimed immediately, without question.
The only reasonable hypothetical involving Andruw being dealt after July 31 would’ve involved another player from another team with a huge salary, perhaps with that team picking up some of that other player’s salary, etc. Something unusual like that. Again, the team would have to be desperate and see Andruw as the perfect guy to fill a huge void immediately.
But it doesn’t matter now, because Andruw was pulled back from waivers. So he’s not going to be traded the rest of the season, and in the future if he’s traded at all, he’ll have to approve the deal now, because he’ll be a 10/5 guy on Aug. 15.
Still, I hope I’ve made my point: The Braves wouldn’t have been very savvy if they hadn’t performed the simple step of seeing if they could get him through waivers. If for no other reason than to get a better idea of just how much interest there might be in him should they decide to trade him later.
There was nothing to lose, except potential harm in their relationship with Andruw, which they could have avoided by simply telling him what was going on, especially after word of his being put on waivers was leaked and he voiced his displeasure.
Then, it wouldn’t have mattered if the story was overblown in the media and fans were stirred into a frenzy, because ultimately all that mattered was/is Jones’ relationshp with the team when it comes time to try and re-sign him.
Judging from Andruw’s comment Saturday, about it being no big deal in the end because he wasn’t traded, tells me that he probably won’t hold it against them. He’s not that type of guy, and he does love playing in Atlanta for Bobby Cox.
And Scott Boras doesn’t seem to have quite the same influence on Andruw that he has on most of his other clients, as Andruw demonstrated when he worked out his last contract with his dad’s assistance, rather than Boras driving it as high as it could possibly go with the Braves.
Which brings me to one other important matter: Do the Braves plan to re-sign Andruw?
Though some of you might believe otherwise, the Braves will try to retain him, barring an unexpected development such as a huge payroll slashing by new ownership if and when that group takes over.
But the Braves simply don’t know yet what Andruw’s going to ask for, and where the market is going to go. That’s just the way it is. The unanswerable question, at this stage of the game.
We’re going to have to wait, if not until next year, then at least until this winter when the likes of Carlos Lee hit the free-agent market. Then perhaps the Braves have at least a better idea where the market could be headed a year later and if they should listen to offers for Andruw this winter or wait until next summer, or perhaps sign him to an extension before it even comes to that.
The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels drive the market each offseason, with a suddenly big-spending team like Toronto or the Mets getting into the mix when a new ballpark, TV deal or eager owner comes along looking to make a splash.
So as much as Jones would stay with Atlanta if all things were equal, and perhaps if they were even reasonably close to equal, the Braves don’t expect to keep him if some team suddenly decides to raise the bar and offer Jones $20 mill a year for 4-5 years.
While the Yankees have Johnny Damon tied to a huge contract that might keep them out of the potential Andruw sweepstakes, the Red Sox and White Sox are two teams that have talked to the Braves in recent years about trading for Jones. So those two teams might get involved in the bidding, and two deep-pockets teams and Scott Boras can make for a huge bidding war in a hurry.
That said, the Braves are not at all conceding that Jones will be impossible to sign. Despite speculation _ and it’s just that, nothing but speculation _ from fans and some media, Braves front-office officials have been given no reason to believe that Liberty Media would significantly alter their payroll if and when they take over as owners.
This is based on recent conversations I’ve had with more than one Braves and/or Turner officials. Very recent conversations. The Braves are not in rebuilding mode, and don’t anticipate anything less than going into next season with their usual goals of playing for a division title and more (hey, that’s their stance, don’t jump on me for relaying it).
The $80 mill payroll is very reasonable for an established team with a good stadium lease and attendance that stopped its decline last year and is actually up slightly this season (despite predicitions otherwise, this bad season on the field hasn’t been reflected in attendance figures).
The Braves have long-term commitments to only four players beyond next season: Mike Hampton, Tim Hudson, Chipper Jones and Edgar Renteria, and those commitments total about $47 million in 2008 (using the $8 million figure the Braves apply for their annual commitment to Hampton, and $6 million for Edgar Renteria, the amount they’re paying on his contract annually).
There is room, if the Braves decide to go that direction, to fit $15 million or maybe even slightly more for Andruw Jones, especially if the salary is somewhat backloaded. And especially since their only current commitments for 2009 are to Hudson and a vesting-option year for Chipper Jones (if Hudson ever pitched like the old Hudson again for any length, he’d be tradeable if necessary. I know, big if.)
Chipper’s restructed deal that he did last winter includes a vesting option year in 2009 worth between $8 milland $11 mill, the amount to be determined according to performance levels in 2007-08.
If the Braves decide that Andruw Jones should stay productive for several more years, they will try to keep him. But at some point, they have to draw a line.
That’s what I don’t understand about the type of reasoning that I heard from a couple of radio guys the other day, who said flatly that successful teams keep their best, most productive players. Really? So, if the Red Sox offer Andruw a four-year, $80 mill contract, the Braves should offer him at least a four-year, $76 mill deal and hope he’ll give them a “discount?” Even if that’s a quarter of their annual payroll? Is there no reasonable limit to what they should offer?
I’m sure if the Braves did that, if they met or matched any offer to keep Andruw, and then he slipped a bit three years from now, then those same guys wouldn’t be critical at all of the Braves having a quarter of their payroll tied up in one guy. Riiiiight. No, no one would criticize that, would they?
They have Andruw under contract at $13.5 mill next season (2007), and he’s been durable and avoided any significant injury so far in his career.
While he can veto any trade after becoming a 10/5 guy, Andruw, like Chipper, isn’t likely to veto a deal if the Braves came to him and told him they wouldn’t be able to re-sign him and that so-and-so contending team wants him badly and probably would re-sign him to a lucrative extension.
In the interim, the Braves were only being smart trying to get him through waivers, because if he made it through, it would’ve allow the team to be nimble and consider a potential over-the-top trade offer before he becomes a 10/5 guy.
Their mistake _ and it was an easily avoidable one _ was in not simply making a private call to Andruw and explaining to him exactly what they were doing. Far as I can tell, there was no excuse for not doing that.
And no excuse for outsiders to not accept the fact that waivers are part of the game, for almost every player who wears a uniform. Put aside the passion for a moment and view the procedural move for what it was.
Sorry for beating this horse, if it’s dead already. Just wanted to offer by 2 cents (or 2,000 cents, given the length of the post).
