Braves Avoid Arbitration With All But Prado
January 18, 2013 at 8:49 pm by Andrew Sisson under Atlanta Braves
The Braves were able to avoid arbitration with five of their six remaining arbitration eligible players. Coming into the off-season, the Braves had 10 players eligible. Since then, Jair Jurrjens and Peter Moylan have been non-tendered, Tommy Hanson has been traded and Paul Janish was signed to a deal earlier in the off-season.
All of the remaining players were signed Friday aside from Martin Prado. Here is the breakdown compared to the MLB Trade Rumors projected salaries.
Overall, the total package was a bit more than MLBTR had projected, fairly close though. Martinez number hasn’t been released yet, but it shouldn’t be too far off. I’ll update when figures are released.
According to Mark Bowman, Prado filed for $7.05M while the Braves offered $6.65M (average in table). All things considered, a 400K difference isn’t a wide gap (Chase Headley and Padres separated by more than $3M) and is actually a decent amount lower than projected. The Braves openly announce they have a “file and trial” policy, but it’s odd the Braves wouldn’t be willing to fork over an extra 400K. As always, it’s hard to know what goes on behind the scenes.
As for his future, at this point, a long-term deal seems unlikely. Prado will likely head into free agency after season’s end. You can understand where Prado is coming from, it seems he wants to stick and stay at one position. If the Braves cannot guarantee him that at the right price, he has surely earned the right to test the free agent waters. Like I said, we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes with Wren, Prado, and his agent, but things do appear tense. Maybe it is a carry over from the strong pursuit last off-season to trade him? Or maybe it is just business as usual. Lots of explanations and theories have already been thrown around Twitter, so feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section for discussion.
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I don’t think people should read too far into this. Players go to hearings and sign deals later frequently. Ryan Howard comes to mind off the top of my head. Given the in flux nature of 3B right now (you don’t want Juan hitting lefties) Prado’s gonna get a multi-year offer from Atlanta.
The small gap between Prado’s filing and the Braves offer led me to believe they are in the process of working out an extension, but maybe I’m naive because I want him extended so badly. I honestly don’t believe the trade rumors from last year are a hamper, Prado has repeatedly expressed his admiration for the Braves system, the only club he has ever been a part of. I really think he would prefer to sign long term with the Braves if offered even a decently competitive contract.
As an aside, since the braves are a file and trial team, I really don’t see them going to a hearing with Prado. They would effectively have to make the case that Prado is less valuable than his 7.05 million request. That’s not a case they want to make, nor is it one they’re likely to win. I’m really hoping the only thing to come out of this is an extension
Well, the Braves have dicked him around quite a bit. Considering his willingness to move around (and cost himself money he would have received as a full-time 2B), a half-mil seems trivial.
OT, anyone else pissed about our (yet again) weak WBC roster? Vogelsong and Pettite have no business starting. I would like to see our truly elite players compete for once. This tournament is becoming an embarrassment. Venezuela and the DR have better rosters, and that’s only because I don’t follow Japan/Korea/Cuba, all of whom will probably beat us.
I don’t get worked up about exhibition games.
Any hopeful signs in the tea leaves, insofar as the Braves and Heyward were able to avoid arbitration? Or is that pretty standard for the Braves and first-year arb guys?
@anon21 Prado was the first Braves arb case since John Rocker in 2001.
I’m a big Prado fan. I’d like to seem him extended and playing 3B with and outfield of Upton/Upton/Heyward for the next several years. And, I know we were spoiled with Chipper, but I’d love to see guys like Heyward, Freeman, Medlen, Kimbrel and Prado become Braves for life. Very difficult for me to imagine any of them playing for anyone else.
I am a lifelong Braves fan and I believe Frank Wren has done a nice job, on balance, with the resources available to him. So this is not a dig, just an observation. Unmentioned in all of this is the so-called “elephant in the living room”. Dan Uggla was acquired and extended because the Braves needed a righthanded power bat in the middle of their order. That move pushed Prado to LF. For purposes of making this point, it doesn’t matter whether Prado is an average defensive second baseman since, in truth, Prado is at least as good there defensively as Uggla. Anyway, Uggla has been so bad that he is untradeable. This isn’t Wren’s fault, but it is THE reason why Prado isn’t playing the position he played when he came to the majors. I don’t blame the Braves for wanting to give Juan Francisco a shot at 3B. They gave up a solid young pitcher to acquire Francisco, and he is out of options. He has worked himself into shape this summer, and if he works out he would give them another effective power bat. That’s smart. But Francisco hasn’t hit lefties well, and that leaves Prado in the LF-3B swing role, given their current roster. My uneducated guess is that Prado, being a team player, understands all of this. It is quite likely that Prado would prefer to be extended and remain a Brave, but won’t accept an extension in the prime of his career that under-pays him based on his value. So my interpretation of events is that Prado and the Braves are probably negotiating an extension but haven’t agreed on the final numbers yet. And in the meantime, Prado submitted a modest arbitration offer that the Braves were apparently not willing to meet for whatever reason. All of this just looks like a negotation posture on both sides. While everything else is being worked out, turning down a low arbitration offer seems like the only smart move Prado could make, even if the difference is small. I still think he will be extended. That’s my guess and my hope.
good take on things. i had forgotten how awful uggla was last year, thanks for the reminder!
3.5 WAR last year is hardly terrible he was the 7th most valuable 2nd baseman in MLB…..
Prado came up as a utility infielder and actually played more games at 3rd in 2008. In 2009, Kelly Johnson was hitting slump resulted in his benching in favor of Prado (hot bat, hot hand theory).
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=3312&position=2B/3B/OF
“in a hitting slump”… so Ipad technology
Long term deal in the works hopefully
Any deal Prado makes would include incentives such as all star. He can’t make the AS team while switching positions. That is part of the problem.
good point, although omar infante made the all-star team solely bc he played multiple positions. it’s becoming more common nowadays to have a utility-type guy on the roster for the mid-summer classic. might not matter.
It would be a HUGE mistake to go to a hearing with Prado over $400k. He is a key component of this team. I don’t care if the Braves are a “file and trial” team or not.
Pay the man.
hate to question braves’ front office because they tend to do such a great job with roster turnover and overall stability of the franchise………..BUT……..hard to fathom that you wouldn’t want to keep guys like bourn and prado long term.
I get waiting until the last possible minute to commit, and i get prado’s desires as well…..but seriously…..an outfield of haywood/upton/bourn is beyond elite. If you can’t get the deal done for the other upton, you HAVE TO give bourn a 1 year deal at least. I would much rather have bourn than the other upton to be honest.
Lead off hitters are severely undervalued in today’s game. As is base running.
I would love to have Bourn back on a one year deal as well, but its not really a “front office just needs to get it done” thing. We only have ~$10 mil left for his salary (already turned down 13) and he is looking for a multi-year deal.
Also he is not exactly the model of a lead-off hitter. Low OBP and BA + high strike outs.
Perosonally I think that Simmons is our best option for lead-off. Although we don’t have a large sample in the majors, I think he is going to be a great contact, ball in play, speed guy.
After what Prado has done for the Braves over the past seasons, you would think it would be a no brainer. Among the best averages and among hit leaders every year. Very rarely on the DL and overall a very good attitude and willing to move positions for the good of the team.
The Braves are SO lucky that just as one of the all-time great third basemen retires, they have somebody as good as Prado they can plug in to that position. He may not be 1999 Chipper, but he is certainly an adequate replacement for 2012 Chipper.
With a solution that elegant and simple staring us in the face, I don’t know why anybody is even thinking about starting Francisco at third.
Sign Prado to a long-term deal as our new third baseman, make the trade for Justin Upton, and dominate the National League for the next 3-5 years.
Why is this so hard?
Because of this minor thing called money. But hey, dont let that get in your way of your dreams! /sarcasm off
I swear, its like some people dont even read the articles here, just randomly post things.
SANDWICHES!!!!!!!
We could definitely make the money work…
The current budget factors in giving Prado ~ 7 million. Resigning him to a LTD could reasonably have a salary around that number for the first year (maybe closer to 8 mil). And Upton’s salary is only 8.5 mil for this year (McCann’s salary is most likely coming off the books next year). At the very least they could trade O’Flaherty and get it done.
Atlanta is said to be aggressive about acquiring Upton and they’re likely the frontrunner for the outfielder if he is dealt. The D’Backs have been reviewing the Braves’ offer and some folks involved believe that it’s a strong proposal, according to Olney.
If these goes through my vote on a nick name is “Up Up and a Hey”.