Braves sign Nick Markakis to four-year, $44 million deal

Earlier today, we heard that the Braves' talks with OF Nick Markakis were "intensifying," with ESPN's Buster Olney even coming out and saying that the two parties were nearing a 4-year deal worth $45 MM. Now, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the Braves have indeed signed Nick Markakis, and he's reporting the same number of years and a similar amount of money.

Source: OF Nick Markakis agrees to four-year deal with Atlanta Braves. Dollars unclear, but sides discussed a deal in neighborhood of $44M.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 3, 2014

Markakis is coming off of a decent season with the Baltimore Orioles, hitting .276/.342/.386 with 14 HRs, 50 RBI, 106 wRC+, and 2.5 fWAR. He also won a Gold Glove for his efforts in Right Field last season, though defensive metrics don't exactly support the fact that he's as good as that award would seem to indicate, and that's not exactly a part of a baseball player's game that tends to improve with age. Considering that Markakis will be 34 when this contract ends, that's not exactly a comforting thought; One which Ian expanded upon in his article concerning the Braves' pursuit of Markakis.

Nick Markakis would be a great complimentary piece on a good team, but with the Braves seemingly preparing to strip the cupboards a bit (especially as far as the outfield is concerned), he's now one of the best players on a team that probably won't be very good. For Nick Markakis, that's a pretty good deal. For fans of the team, not so much. But he's now a Brave and it's time to hope that he can at least continue to be productive for the team.