How Raw Was Glavine’s Deal?

It was a busy night for sports news in Atlanta. In the span of three hours on Wednesday June 3, 2009, the Atlanta Braves made three separate announcements that will likely set the team back on the path for post-season baseball.  The Braves, desperate to shake up a lack-luster first two months of the season, were one game over .500 and 4 ½ games out of first place.  In rapid succession, the Braves announced that Tom Glavine would be released from his contract, Tommy Hanson would be called up from the minors, and a trade was made with the Pirates acquiring Nate McLouth for Gorkys Hernandez and two other prospects.

Each of the announcements created a  lot of buzz around town, but none incited more emotion than the news about Tom Glavine. In the immediate wake of Glavine’s release from the Braves on Wednesday, Chris Dimino took the mic for his evening pre-game show, “Hardball” on 790 “The Zone” in Atlanta and went on a twenty minute rant lambasting the Braves management for “not doing a solid” to a guy who deserved more.

It got me to thinking, what does any team owe a player they release?

Let’s just run down the Glavine’s recent release: after a mediocre pre-season, Glavine is sent to the DL to take care of his old man’s body.  He makes two mediocre rehab starts in the minors, where he pitches 11 scoreless innings, but is generally not fooling any of the hitters.  Scouts think that there is little difference between his fastball and his change up, and that he won’t be able to make it through any major league lineup a second time.  Glavine is thereby released from his incentive laden contract, saving the Braves the million dollar “show up and pitch in the Majors” bonus.

Forget who he is for a moment.  If this was some young player who was just getting started out in the Bigs, it sounds like that treatment was a little harsh, but hey, that’s baseball.  That poor kid will need to figure out now what he’s going to do instead of baseball for the rest of his life.  On the other hand, if this were some 15-year veteran who played on the same team for his whole career, it would seem like the team was not treating a hometown icon with proper respect.  Although cutting him loose wouldn’t be so bad because the dough he’s probably raked in after a 15 year stint in the Majors has him and his kids set for a long time.

Now let’s sprinkle in a little of what we know about Glavine.  Bottom line is, he’s neither of those two guys.  He could have been the latter, but instead, he was the guy who took a deal to play for the Mets for a boatload more cashish than the Braves were offering.  He’s also the guy who by his own admission (this morning in an interview with Steak Shapiro on 790 The Zone) doesn’t know how much longer his arm will hold up.  He’s taking it “one game at a time.”  To me, this is a guy who has been around a while and knows that baseball is a business.

But are the Braves handling their business? Some have argued recently that they haven’t.  With the recent release of Glavine and Smoltz, die-hard fans are crying foul, wondering where the respect is for the players who gave the Braves their 14 year post-season run. By cutting ties so severely with Glavine, without compensation or offer of a consulting job, many wonder where the heart of the Braves Management really lies.

Braves fans criticize the team’s management for not being able to pull the trigger on the big deals, like not signing Mark Teixeria during his free agency, but rather settling on smaller fish like Casey Kotchman and Garrett “Grandpa” Anderson.  Those are the same fans who jump ugly when they hear about the “mistreatment of Tom Glavine.”  What they aren’t giving credit to are all the recent good acquisitions like Derek Lowe and Javier Vazquez.  Okay, so the jury is still out on Kawakami, but wouldn’t you say the trade for Jurrjens has worked out well? Sure,  a lot of money was wasted on Hampton, and maybe they should have known better, but I’m glad they ponied up the cash for Tim Hudson.

Dimino gets it.  He doesn’t like what happened or how it happened, but he gets it.  He admits that the Braves are a better team now, without Glavine, than they were earlier this season.  He wishes that it could have been handled differently, but he knows that the Braves have a better chance at seeing post-season baseball than they did before.

So what could the Braves really have done better? Would it have been a better public relations move to keep Glavine in the fold, as a part of the Braves family, showing up for appearances and signing autographs?  At first glance you would think, yes, definitely.  The Bravos are bringing Greg Maddox back this summer for a celebration of his career.  Why wouldn’t that be a good idea for Glavine?

I’ll tell you why, and it’s so simple you’ll smack yourself on the head.  Glavine has irritated as many fans as he has endeared.  Glavine is the “class act” people say he is, no argument there.  He is a straight shooter, an honest man, and a good baseball player.  But he’s the “traitor” who left the Braves for their division rival in search of more money.  He’s also the man who was the player’s union rep during the last major baseball strike.  In a non-union city, that and eight bucks will get you a beer at Turner Field.  In fact, many still hold him responsible for the strike, and have yet to forgive him or Major League Baseball for letting it happen. 

Releasing Glavine was the right decision.  Overall, I think that the Braves could and should have done something for Glavine that would have eased the pain of his separation – and not just for Glavine, but for the fans as well.  In a year when it’s difficult to get the butts in the seats, you need to do all that you can to bring people in.  Regardless, it was still the right move and Glavine probably doesn’t need the money he would have made this year.