Jason Heyward was traded four months ago, but it wasn’t until they saw the big right fielder in a red Cardinals uniform Saturday morning that it seemed to hit home for some Braves.
“I went to dinner a lot with him before spring training, but it’s different when you see him in another uniform,” said Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, who considers Heyward his best friend in baseball “without a doubt.”
During batting practice a procession of Braves took turns hugging Heyward, who faced them for the first time since being traded in November. He hadn’t made an earlier trip to face the Braves in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
“It’s cool, it’s good to see them,” Heyward said, “because I know we won’t see each other a whole lot anymore. It’s just good to say hello and catch up with them.”
But that red cap and Cardinals-red shirt …. it was a jolt initially for the Braves, as it has been for fans who’ve seen Heyward this spring.
“I watched him running around and doing his pregame stuff, and it’s a little awkward,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “I talked to some of their coaching staff and he’s already made a presence in their locker room. No surprise there. He’s a solid baseball guy and they love him.”
Freeman said, “Hopefully they’ll love him as much as we love him. They will. When you play the game right and treat people the right way…. He’s a special human being.”
The Braves traded the Gold Glover in November for pitcher Shelby Miller and pitching prospect Tyrell Jenkins. Atlanta included reliever Jordan Walden in that deal, but Heyward — a popular player from the Atlanta area, drafted and developed by the Braves – was the part of that deal, and the winter, that stung the most for many fans.
Heyward, 25, was set to make $8.3 million this year and be eligible for free agency after the season, and Braves officials determined he was looking for a long-term contract worth well beyond what they were willing to pay.
After the trade, Heyward initially made comments about what he saw as an unwillingness or lack of effort by Braves officials to seriously discuss a long-term extension. He has also been quoted as saying that he thought batting leadoff for much of two seasons had an adverse affect on his power numbers.
But after spending more than a month at spring training with his new team, Heyward no longer bitter about the trade.
“This (Cardinals) is one of the model organizations,” he said. “The grass isn’t greener everywhere. I would say there’s not a ‘best’ place to play, but this is one of them. You run off a list of the top five or 10, and this is one of those easily.”
Asked if he felt like he’d now been with two such organizations, he said, “Exactly. So I’m not complaining. Everything happens for a reason.”
He was upbeat Saturday when asked about his time with the Braves.
“I was telling somebody earlier today, I only played in one week of games that didn’t count, and that was last year,” Heyward said, meaning that the Braves had not been eliminated from postseason contention before the of the season any other year he played for Atlanta. “I’m not here to complain about anything, man. I’ve had a good introduction (to St. Louis) and it’s a nice place here to keep the ball rolling, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
The previous Braves front-office regime of general manager Frank Wren – fired in September – failed to sign Heyward to a long-term extension when it might have been possible at a fair price for both parties, such as after Heyward’s All-Star rookie season or his disappointing second season in 2011.
The new regime led by John Hart and John Coppolella determined it was too late to get him for anything less than full-market free-agent value, and others in the baseball industry agreed there was no reason to think Heyward would sign a club-friendly long-term extension so close to free agency.
Regarded as the finest defensive right fielder in the game, Heyward showed his power potential in a 27-homer season in 2012, but not much since. He hit hit .271 with a .351 OBP and 20 stolen bases in 2014, while posting career lows in home runs (11) and slugging percentage (.384). He has a .262 average and .351 OBP with 84 homers in five seasons.
After playing for a Braves team that scored the second-fewest runs in the majors last season and had only a couple of big-time hitters, Justin Upton and Freeman, in their everyday lineup, Heyward is now penciled in to bat second in a loaded Cardinals lineup. He’ll be between leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter, a two-time All-Star with 88 doubles the past two seasons, and Matt Holliday, a .308 career hitter who’s driven in 90 or more runs in four of the past five seasons.
“He’s got Carpenter hitting in front of him and Holliday hitting behind him,” said Freeman, who thinks Heyard batting second for St. Louis makes sense. “In that lineup, yeah. In my opinion, he’s still a 3, 4 or 5 hitter. I think he just needs another year to prove that he is. Because he tried to hit leadoff for us for a year-and-a-half, people kind of forget what kind of potential he has. We got to see it in 2012, the power.
“We got forced into a situation where we didn’t have a leadoff hitter in 2013. I think once baseball sees the power again, he’ll be back in the middle of the lineup where he belongs. In my opinion he’s a guy that’s going to hit .280 to .300 with 30 (homers) and 100 (RBIs). That’s the kind of potential he has.”
Another bonus of the Cardinals situation: Heyward isn’t expected to be The Man, just a piece in the machine. A big piece, yes. But this is a team with the likes of Carpenter, Holliday, Yadier Molina, Jhonny Peralta and Matt Adams in its lineup, and Adam Wainwright as the ace.
“They kind of preach that — it’s not one person, it doesn’t have to be one person’s job to get everything done,” Heyward said. “It’s more like, hey, we’ve got a group of guys, everybody’s going to pull their weight, we hold ourselves accountable, and then just have fun doing that. Enjoy the grind and have fun playing the game the right way.
And, Heyward insisted, he doesn’t feel added pressure in the last year of his contract, coming to a new team.
“No pressure,” he said. “You’ve got too many good guys in the clubhouse for that, guys who’ve been in my position, and other guys that I’m going to pull for throughout the year. So there’s no pressure. Other than the pressure that you want, which is to try and win a World Series.”
