#24

The 2012 offseason looks to be the most interesting (at least in terms of player movement) for the Braves since 2009. That said, anything would be more interesting than last year where Derek Lowe was traded on Halloween and the biggest moves made in November-March was signing Jack Wilson. I'll provide a detailed look at next years obligations shortly.

Extra payroll flexibility will allow Frank Wren to be more forthright in his dealings. He can go out and spend on a free agent rather than concocting schemes (trades, bargain barrel signings) to keep us within a razor tight payroll as he’s done for most of his tenure. That’s not to say he can’t use creativity with next year’s budget. Here are a few ideas I think might work.

Go cheap at catcher

Brian McCann is having easily the worst year of his career, despite this exercising his 12,000,000.00 option for 2012 is often seen as a given. But the question of whether McCann could get 12 million on the free agent market is puzzling. An option for the Braves would be to decline the option and see if McCann would sign a cheaper deal. My guess is that he would not- the odds of him rebuilding his star level value is worth the risk of going year to year. If he decided to leave the Braves could do a tag-team approach at catcher- two guys worth a few million a year. David Ross and a Ramon Hernandez  type. If McCann’s offense rebounds it would be a blow, but the 2013 tag-team numbers would likely not be much worse than in 2012, plus a drastic improvement on defense would be nice. Hopefully they’d hold down the fort until Christian Bethancourt was ready. The money saved would be used to address other issues.

Make Francisco the third baseman

Juan’s numbers recently and against righties have been solid and the defense seems passable. My idea would be to platoon Francisco with a right handed utility infielder who could mash lefties and come in late for defense. The combo could both solidify the bench and provide a spot to save money. Ty Wigginton and Ryan Roberts are a few names that come to mind but I’m sure there are better options. Again, money saved would address other issues.

Go big on a starter

The Braves most glaring weakness for the past few years has been the lack of a dominant frontline starting pitcher. Winning a championship with a staff full of #3 starters is a nearly impossible feat (although the Rangers came close last year). Acquiring an ace is both impossibly difficult and incredibly expensive. Wren could go all in this winter, paying more than he (or I) wanted for Greinke or make a trade that hurts (Teheran and then a lot more) to get a stud. My next idea plays in to that….

Sell high (or where I get lynched)

The Dan Uggla contract is an albatross we’re going to have to deal with for quite some time. There are two options - try to trade him for someone else’s bad contract or make do with what we have and hope he figures it out. Assuming we can’t pull a deal, the next step is to try and makes lemons from lemonade. A way to defray loss would be to limit him as a defensive liability. One proposal would be to shift Uggla to first and move Prado back there or get a second baseman. While Uggla’s numbers would rank near the bottom of all first basemen, we have to put him somewhere and would recoup some of the loss by having an improved fielding middle infield.

But what of the current Braves first baseman, you say? Trade him. Or at least ask for the moon and hope someone gives it to you. Freeman’s value- a pre arbitration masher that will likely improve and cost very little- may never be higher. Put him on the open market and ask for something big, a legitimate middle of the order run producer or an ace starting pitcher (we’ll throw in a pitching process or take on a big contract) and see what you can get. A Freeman-Teheran type package could bring a very interesting haul. If we don’t get exactly what we want, don’t deal him. Trading a young vibrant player would hurt, but to get something big you have to give the same.