Braves could trade pitcher for power bat

By David O'Brien

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Twenty-one major league teams hit more homers than the Braves this season, but not a single team had a better earned run average from its starting pitchers.

That, plus the fact the Braves finished the year with more proven starting pitchers (six) than a rotation can accommodate, makes it less than surprising that some time this winter, they might trade one of those pitchers for a slugger.

But if it’s Javier Vazquez, who has one year at $11.5 million remaining on his contract, general manager Frank Wren had best prepare to be second-guessed by more than fans.

“I’m not going to play GM. I’m just going to give you my opinion on it – Javier Vazquez needs to be on this team next year,” third baseman Chipper Jones said. “I think we’d all be disappointed if he wasn’t.”

Manager Bobby Cox said: “I haven’t thought about ever trading him. I know we’ve got him for one more year. Damn, you’d have to get an awful lot.”

The starting pitcher surplus, along with the closer and first-base situations and immediate future of uber-prospect Jason Heyward, are compelling offseason situations for Wren. He wants to add here without subtracting too much there in an effort to end the club's four-year postseason drought.

“It’s an obvious area of strength,” Wren said of the pitching depth. “And when you improve your club, you’re looking at where you can afford to improve it at the expense of some other area.”

The Braves’ payroll is expected to remain in the $92-95 million range and how much they can spend on a power bat could depend on whether they bring back starter Tim Hudson, first baseman Adam LaRoche or one their closers, pending free agents Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez.

All of that and more will be discussed at the Braves organizational meetings Oct. 13-16 in Orlando, where Wren and staff gather with Cox and scouts to plan how to keep the team going forward after a 14-win improvement in 2009.

“We’ve got six starters, depending on what we do with Tim,” Cox said. “Most clubs can’t say that.”

The Braves finished 86-76, closing with a six-game losing skid after a 15-2 surge brought them within 2 games of the wild-card lead.

“We sat here a year ago and talked about getting back to the formula that helped win 14 divisions in a row – starting pitching,” Wren said. “We have that now. ... We’re a lot closer than we were a year ago. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re a lot closer.”

The Braves had just one 20-homer hitter (Brian McCann) from their opening-day lineup and added two (LaRoche and Nate McLouth) via midseason trades. LaRoche is a free agent and the Braves might not make him a multi-year offer for fear of blocking prospect Freddie Freeman in a year or two.

If LaRoche moves on, it’s more crucial to add a 30-40 homer hitter to a middle order that features 37-year-old Jones and McCann, who’s out of the lineup once or twice a week as a catcher. (The Braves aren’t going to move McCann to first base and have no plans to ask Jones to move across the infield either.)

At closer, Gonzalez seems a more likely candidate than Soriano to be offered arbitration, since the team could better absorb the jump in salary from the $3.45 million Gonzalez made in 2009 (Soriano made $6.1 million). Setup man Peter Moylan has not been effective enough against lefties to close.

Left fielder Garret Anderson will leave as a free agent and the Braves need a bigger bat in an outfield that had the third-fewest homers (45) in the NL and was 29th in the majors in slugging (.393).

Jones, coming off one of the worst seasons of his career (18 homers, 71 RBI), is excited about the Braves’ chances in 2010, primarily because of their pitching depth.

“I think they are dead-set on going out and getting a right-handed bat that has some power, to break up our left-heavy lineup,” he said. “And if you have a surplus of pitching, you don’t necessarily have to go out and sign a guy [as a free agent]. You can make a trade. And our minor league stable is pretty full, so we have got some pieces to play with.”

Wren pulled off a rotation reconstruction last winter by trading for Vazquez and signing Derek Lowe (four years, $60 million) and Kenshin Kawakami (three years, $23 million).

Hudson made seven late-season starts – he looked good in a few – after returning from a year-long recovery following elbow surgery.

They’d like to bring back Hudson, 34, at a salary lower than his $12 million option for 2010. He and Wren are Peachtree City neighbors and both expressed optimism about a possible deal.

Braves starters had a majors-leading 3.52 ERA and aces Vazquez (15-10, 2.87 ERA) and Jurrjens (14-10, 2.60 ERA) could have won 18  to 20 games apiece with good run support.

Lowe (15-10) has a big contract and an uncharacteristically high 4.67 ERA that could make him tough to trade, if the Braves want a hitter in return and not just a salary dump.

The Braves won’t trade Tommy Hanson (11-4, 2.89 ERA) and presumably not Jurrjens, both elite young talents.

Vazquez outperformed all but a few NL starters. Kawakami was better than his 7-12 record indicated; his 3.86 ERA was clearly superior to Lowe’s, but his run support was about half of Lowe’s.

The Braves bumped Kawakami, 34, to the bullpen in September to make room for Hudson, but Wren said Kawakami had a solid season.

“We wanted to obviously get Tim Hudson back in the rotation and get some starts under his belt,” said Wren, adding that the Braves also wanted to monitor Kawakami late in his first season in the majors, since pitchers in Japan typically start once a week in six-man rotations.

“I think for his first year here, he gave us probably more than we expected," Wren said. "He went up against some of the best pitchers in baseball and beat them. ... We were more than satisfied with the progress he showed. It’s a big cultural adjustment and he’s handled it extremely well.”