According to Peter Gammons anyway...
Gm post-Uggla:"Braves desperate to get someone to take BJ Upton at almost any cost."
— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) July 19, 2014
Couple of thoughts here:
- As always, these rumors can get twisted with one word, however this sounds definitive. Using "desperate" and "at almost any cost" make the intentions pretty clear. However, you never know what other GMs will put out in the media, it's a powerful tool.
- This could be going back to the plan that was rumored about a month ago - going with a Gattis-Heyward-Upton outfield with Bethancourt behind the plate. The Braves are super high on Bethancourt, so they still could be pushing this plan.
- The Braves could also want Gattis to get some left field exposure. With Bethancourt on the verge of sticking as a regular, and the pending free agency of Justin and Jason, they could want to put him in the outfield going forward. Also would prevent his big frame from breaking down at a quicker rate behind the plate.
- As I mentioned on twitter (half serious/half joking), I would rather see the Braves get rid of Greg Walker and hiring Chipper before getting rid of BJ. The serious part is that I think Chipper could help BJ as he seemed to earlier in the season. Obviously, we don't know the inner workings of the team and this results we saw could have been a mere coincidence over a super small sample - but if there's one thing I do know it is that Chipper was born to be a hitting coach in his post-player life. Obviously it is poor process to base a hire/fire decision around one player. Maybe every other player likes the current coaches in place, one of those things we don't really know.
- Can't help but to laugh that the player they are "desperate to get rid of at almost any cost" is consistently getting the most PAs every game, but those are just minor details, right?
Ok, probably enough speculation for now.