FanPost

Frank Wren has his flaws but...

So, i've been looking into possible trade scenarios. I just couldn't figure out a scenario where they could take on any salary assuming they are already over budget with Santana's contract. They would need to trade Ervin Santana, CJ, or BJ to take on any prorated salary greater than $1.5 million or in other words a $4 million yearly salary.

Whats that? We shouldn't trade Ervin? No one wants CJ and BJ's contracts at this point? Well, Frank Wren has it all figured out!!!!! (I don't think he does, there is a 80% chance he doesn't acquire any player with 3 or more years service time). He stashed Gavin Floyd in the 15 day disabled list. In the MLB you are allowed to trade injured players. So, Frank can just trade Floyd as a PTBNL or he can activate and trade on the same day.

Why would a team take Floyd?

  1. They could put Floyd on DL as soon as he arrives, so its not like Uggla or any of our bench players, where they take up a roster spot up and steal your money.
  2. By the deadline Floyd will have about $1.4 million left on his EXPIRING contract. Teams would much rather take on $1.4 million in salary than send $1.4 million in cash considerations. Mainly due to accounting purposes. It looks worse on paper, and it would be harder for a losing team to justify sending cash considerations with a good player to ownership.
  3. Wren will probably pay a premium. Most likely, an extra lower level prospect/minor league depth type of player. Or possibly PTBNL/Cash considerations to be executed next year when they have money on their budget.
What does this mean for the Braves? Based on limiting themselves on september call ups to avoid paying some pre arb salaries, moving Floyd, and moving a prospect or two. We might be able to squeeze in about $2 million in salary into the budget. In other words a player with about an $6-7 million dollar yearly salary. If we could move Doumit, Schafer, or even Laird that would be more like $8 million dollar yearly salary.

Other guys that could help us make $$$ space. I think Venters and Laird are the only ones teams would take.
Ryan Doumit= $1.2 million
Jordan Schafer=$.35 million < also has another year of control
Laird=$.5 million
Johnny Venters= $.6 million < another year of control, and low risk high reward asset for a team looking to contend next year. Contending teams could stash on DL for the rest of the year and not push a return on him.


To conclude, I just wanted to give Frank some recognition for a move he made which will give the Braves some room to acquire salary. Most, teams aren't going to send cash with a good player. Its good Frank is keeping Floyd available for any possible trades that could materialize moving forward. I don't think Wren will make any significant moves, especially before the deadline. Maybe during waivers.

P.S. That was longer than I thought it would be. Just something I thought was pretty clever when I realized he wasn't on the 60 day DL despite having no chance of coming back.

P.P.S. Trading injured players is rare, but a couple years ago, the BoSox traded Carl Crawford to the Dodgers 3 days after season ending surgery and Beckett was also on the DL I believe. Thats what made me think of this.

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