BRAVES NEWS
Kelly Johnson Rejoins The Braves
After 5 years and bouncing around with multiple teams (including every team in the AL East), the Prodigal Son has returned home: Kelly Johnson has signed a minor league deal with the Braves, which includes a Spring Training invite. That type of deal isn't exactly the equivalent of the Braves preparing the fatted calf for his return, but hey: If he makes the team, he could definitely be useful off of the bench, which is basically all you can ask for from the 33-year old at this point in his career.
Rebuilding Braves Looking Forward To Spring Training
With all of the new faces that will be wearing Tomahawks across their chests in 2015, it's reasonable to believe that people who are inside and outside of the organization are going to be intrigued to see how the season pans out for the new-look Braves. While most are expecting these next couple of seasons to be filled with struggle, Alex Wood is projecting confidence.
"For anybody who follows baseball, I think you know that funny things have happened. You never really know how a group of guys is going to mesh and come together as a unit," [Alex Wood] said. "That’s the nice thing about baseball. It’s about as true of a team sport as you can have. ... Anything can happen."
Hart Willing To Take The Heat While Mentoring Coppy
Paul Lebowitz over at allvoices.com is currently taking a look at what baseball's newest GMs have been up to this winter, and he eventually got around to assessing what Braves GM President of Baseball Operations John Hart has been up to. The writer seems to understand what the Braves are going for with the moves they've made this offseason, and he also makes an interesting point: Hart has taken a bit of heat this offseason for his moves, but imagine if John Coppolella was the sole face behind this rebuild. The young GM would catch so much heat from fans and baseball-heads all over that it'd bring new meaning to the term "hot stove," methinks.
Regardless of the perception of the additions and subtractions, Hart had a choice: be safe and essentially use the job as a severance position and tutoring session for Coppolella or actually be the GM and do the things that Coppolella could most definitely not have done and gotten away with.
Hart can handle this level of rebuild and take the torment of a poor season. That’s obviously what the Braves and team president John Schuerholz had in mind when the decision was made to hire Hart over Coppolella.
MLB NEWS
Phillies Might Hold On To Hamels After All
We're getting closer and closer to that magical date when pitchers and catchers report (February 18th for a few teams, February 20th for the Braves, btw), and Cole Hamels is still part of the Philadelphia Phillies. This is despite the fact that there have been plenty of rumors this offseason that the finally-rebuilding Phillies have been looking to trade Hamels for a prospect haul. Indeed, that's probably what Phillies GM Ruben Amaro is waiting for: The prospect haul to end all prospect hauls, apparently.
"I think Cole Hamels is going to be in our uniform, frankly," Amaro said before the annual winter banquet hosted by the Phillies’ double A affiliate in Reading. "I don’t really foresee him being moved. It is possible because we’re literally keeping our minds and eyes and ears open on every player that we have on our roster.
"That said, he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. And so, if we were to move him, we’re going to have to get some of the best prospects in baseball back."