The Braves signed two well known veteran players with recent injury histories to 1 year contracts today. The biggest move was signing 3B Josh Donaldson for $23 M. After 5 consecutive seasons of hitting 24 or more HR's with a peak of 41 in 2015, Donaldson's mustered just 8 in 219 PA over 52 games due to injuries in 2018. What happened here is that the GM who brought Donaldson to the Blue Jays, Alex Anthopoulos, is betting on a rebound season and was willing to over pay for 1 year in order to avoid a multi-year risk. It could turn out to be a great move if Donaldson stays healthy and performs as well as he did when on the field in 2018. Worst case scenario is Donaldson is done and they part ways after the season.
The Braves also reunited with one of their old stars, Brian McCann. McCann was also beset by injuries last season and had just 216 PA's. He will be 35 yo next season and his playing time and performance has been slipping over the last 2-3 seasons. The plan is apparently for him to form a L-R platoon with Tyler Flowers. It may not be a strict platoon though as that would give McCann roughly 75% of the starts on the season and he's probably no longer up to that. At any rate, it's essentially a no-risk deal from the Braves standpoint at 1 year/$2 M.
I would say these moves have no impact on the Giants plans as neither player was one the Giants would likely have any interest in.
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ReplyDelete"Worst case scenario is Donaldson is done and they part ways after the season."
Used to be $23 million was a lot of money, not something easily brushed off!
Times have changed.
Donaldson had some really great years, even good in injured 2017, not so much in 2018 @ 32. Can he come back at 33?
How the hounds would howl here about a $23,000,000 bust!
"Wasting" $3M on Jackson was unforgivable!
The difference is that Austin Jackson was demonstrably not a good player even when fully healthy.
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