It seems like just two weeks ago that the Braves had pulled off the biggest deal of the off-season thus far, but that masterful Dan Uggla trade was obliterated yesterday by some less-than-masterful and "ugly" deals. My eyes bulged with the rest of the collective baseball world when it was revealed what Jayson Werth would be making and how long he'd be making it for -- $18 mil a year for 7 years is mind-boggling.
I was interested to see the Adrian Gonzalez to Boston deal, and not surprised that the extension fell through. I fear that after Werth we haven't seen the end of mind-numbingly large contracts. Makes me worry what our own Jason will get when it's time to negotiate his contract. As for Gonzalez, a lot of folks think that makes Jacoby Ellsbury more available, but I don't see it. If it does, fan-tastic, but I'm guessing no. While I'd love to get a more reliable center fielder, I just don't see the Braves spending on one right now without being able to completely rid themselves of Nate McLouth, and I just don't see a team in their right mind taking McLouth.
While I'm sure we'd like the Braves to make some big move to add another major piece, that just isn't going to happen right now. Atlanta is going to wait until Spring Training and see if Chipper Jones can return to a full-time role. Only then will they decide if a move needs to be made.
The best we can hope for from these meetings is addition by subtraction, namely the subtraction of the Ostracized Oriental, Kenshin Kawakami (I'm going to start calling him OO instead of KK; OO also sounds like ut-oh, so that works in more ways than one). My guess is that they'll be some fruitful discussions about OO, but no movement yet. Teams are going to wait until the big name starters sign before moving on any other free agents, and the Braves will have to wait for the bulk of that second tier of free agent starters to go off the board before teams will start getting desperate and calling about OO.
The only way we move him now would be to swap him for another bad contract. I had thought that the Orioles would be a good fit if Koji "Lt. Uhura" Uehara, who emerged as their closer, wasn't a free agent. We could still match up pretty well with bad contracts, sending them OO in exchange for Mike Gonzalez, if they are regretting that Gonzalez contract already.
Anyway, I hope it's an exciting day of Hot Stove action. Use this as an open thread for meeting-related chatter. We'll post any major stories as they happen.