Potential Outfield Target: Josh Willingham
October 31, 2011 at 11:06 am by Ben Duronio under Atlanta Braves
This will be the fourth consecutive offseason that I have pushed for the Braves to acquire Josh Willingham, as I noted here at my old blog in May of 2010. Even last year as Willingham was a pending free agent, before the Braves traded for Dan Uggla, he would have been a near perfect fit on a one-year $6m type deal that he signed with Oakland.
Acquiring Willingham will likely cost a bit more this year and probably an additional year on top of the additional money, but he is still a near ideal candidate. Willingham owns a career .862 OPS against left-handed pitching, and has been extremely consistent at the plate in his Major League tenure.
Willingham wRC+ by year
2006: 120
2007: 117
2008: 118
2009: 128
2010: 135
2011: 123
You will get solid offense from the right side of the plate, with relatively little variation when compared to his peers. Willingham is the stereotypical left fielder, which is something the Braves have lacked for the better part of the last decade.
The glove is bad and he has not played more than 133 games since 2007, which are both concerns. Those factors included, a two-year deal in the $15-17m range makes a lot of sense. Willingham’s price could be driven up due to the barren corner outfield market, but I expect him to receive a contract in that range and the Braves can afford that if they move a starter. Right now Willingham should be target A for the Braves, but that has been the case for the past few seasons, in my opinion. This winter the Braves will probably put more emphasis on signing him, but he is not a guarantee for the Atlanta outfield just yet.
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I would like this signing, but I would be surprised if the Braves do anything this offseason except try to dump Derek Lowe and pick up a RH RP. I just don’t see them signing a position player to a significant contract.
Hopefully Frank won’t be too picky with Lowe and will deal him to to the first team willing to pay 5 million.
Hopefully he learned something from the Kawakami debacle of last year. I think the Pirates were willing to take on $2-3M, but Wren balked at that offer.
As predicted, the Braves have exercised their option on Eric Hinske but declined on Nate McLouth.
Baseball America just released their Top 10 Prospects report on the Braves: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/organization-top-10-prospects/2012/2612549.html
How much worse in the field is Willingham compared to Prado?
Significantly. He’s a very bad defender.
Would having a plus defender in center make the effect of his lack of range less?
He’s a Type A free agent in the official Elias rankings just released.
I think the Braves need a SS right now more than a LF. Prado definitely regressed last year, but I still think Gonzalez was even worse. If the Braves can get a solid SS this year while Pastornicky gets ready, that does more for the Braves than putting Prado into a utility role. Prado can’t play SS either, so we would have to have another IF on the bench with Prado if we signed a LF.
[...] Capitol Avenue Club looked at Josh Willingham as a potential outfield target for the Braves. [...]
I say bring Pastornicky up and let him play I mean it worked for Heyward and Freeman, so why not use him as the everyday SS and sign someone like Wilson and use him as a backup infielder or use Hicks.