Braves will try to get Uggla and B.J. back on track

When discussing the Braves’ plans for 2014, the two-headed elephant in the room is Dan Uggla and B.J. Upton.

They are far and away the team’s highest-paid returners and in 2013, they combined for an incomprehensibly awful .181 batting average with 31 homers, 121 walks and 322 strikeouts in 839 at-bats.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez and general manager Frank Wren made it clear at the Winter Meetings on Tuesday that Uggla and Upton would not merely be left to their own devices this winter in hopes they can figure out how to get back on track. There will be plans designed for each, worked out between the players and hitting coaches Greg Walker and assistant Scott Fletcher.

“They’re two different situations, two different people, so you’ve got to approach it two different ways,” Gonzalez said.

Unless the Braves are able to trade Uggla this winter, they will pay him $13 million in the fourth year of a five-year contract. He hit .179, worst among major league qualifiers, with career-lows in on-base percentage (.309) and slugging percentage (.362). He broke his own franchise strikeout record with 171 in a career-low 537 plate appearances.

“We’ve got to get him fixed,” Gonzalez said. “Here’s a guy that in his first five seasons did something that no other second baseman had ever done (154 home runs in his first five seasons). And this year when he hit (.179), he still hit 20 home runs and walked a bunch. So it’s still there. He’s a guy that Walk and Feltch, we’re going to have to get him straightened out.

“But the first contact has to be by me, work that relationship and get that straightened out.”

Gonzalez will meet with Uggla to hash things out. They haven’t talked since Uggla reacted angrily over being left off the playoff roster in October.

“He’s a competitor and I think he’ll be fine,” Gonzalez said. “He just got married last weekend and he’s on his honeymoon, so I’m going to leave him alone for seven, eight, 10 days. Whether it’s the beginning of the year or after Christmas, we’ll make contact. Sit him down and talk to him and try to fix him.”

Uggla had Lasik surgery last summer and the Braves hope a few offseason months will help the second baseman adjust to the vision corrections. They also want him to make changes in his free-swinging approach.

All the while, they will try to deal Uggla, no small task considering the $26 million he’s owed over the next two seasons.

Upton recently began offseason hitting work at home in Tampa. Braves hitting coaches will soon discuss with him a plan they hope will help the center fielder get back to being the hitter he was a few years ago.

Upton, 29, has a $13.45 million salary in 2014, the second in of a five-year, $75.25 million contract.

His .184 average was 53 points below his previous low and his OBP (.268) and slugging percentage (.289) were 68 and 133 points below his averages in those categories over eight seasons with Tampa Bay before he signed the largest free-agent contract in Braves history.

“There is a lot of talent there, a lot of tools, a lot of potential still,” Gonzalez said. “So we’re going to try to get him (to be) what he was in Tampa again, the guy that we wanted. … He’s still a young guy. We’ll get him going again.”

O'Flaherty update: Wren said he had "good conversations" with the representative for Braves free-agent reliever Eric O'Flaherty, one of the majors' top setup men, who was limited to 19 appearances in 2013 before Tommy John elbow surgery. The Nationals are among the other teams pursuing O'Flaherty, who could be ready to pitch by May.

Bisher is runner-up: The late Furman Bisher, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist for 59 years, finished second to Roger Angell in balloting for the 2014 J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritous contributions to baseball writing. Angell, 93, will be presented the award July 26 during Hall of Fame induction weekend at Cooperstown, N.Y.