Braves treatment of Tom Glavine unconscionable
The Atlanta Braves just cut Tom Glavine, moving themselves from my “teams which are kind of annoying” list to my “list of teams I officially hate.”
The Braves are claiming this was all about performance and had nothing to do with the millions of extra dollars Glavine would have been owed for making the major league roster and then staying on it for 30 and 90 days, but that is a blatant falsehood.
The Braves cite Glavine’s fastball velocity in the low 80s as the main reason, but Glavine’s fastball has been in the low 80s for several years now, and was in the low 80s in spring training when Fran Wren was talking up how Glavine was going to be a key piece in the rotation this season.
Glavine worked his ass off after two arm surgeries and did everything the Braves asked, pitching in several minor league rehab starts and continuing to do so even after his arm was all ready to go. Plus he pitched very well, going six scoreless and allowing only 3 hits in his most recent start.
Why make a guy go through surgeries and all that rehab for nothing? Why didn’t the Braves just cut him in spring training? Were they just keeping him around as an insurance policy on Kenshin Kawakami or something?
The only honorable thing for the Braves to have done would have been to call up Glavine and let him either succeed or else pitch his way off the team and into honorable retirement. If Glavine put up a bad start or two, then the Braves would have been perfectly justified in cutting him loose, and everyone would have understood.
Look, it’s really besides the point that cutting Glavine now was probably the “best” move, both baseball-wise with top prospect Tommy Hanson apparently all ready for the show, and money-wise.
Because sometimes penny-wise is pound foolish, and it is foolish to so blatantly ill-treat 300-game winner, future Hall of Famer, and all-around good guy Tom Glavine all to save a few million bucks after all that he has done for your francise over two decades. It tears at the fabric of your success, which is rooted in the adulation of the fans, the respect between your front office and the players on your team and around the league, and your reputation for fair dealing.
Yeah, baseball is a business, but even in business, sometimes the right thing to do is actually do the right thing.
They say Karma can be a bitch – here’s hoping she woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday, because the Braves deserve whatever they have coming.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:55 am
glavine is old and ineffective. he wants to hang around and get paid, while offering nothing in return.
the braves were correct in dumping him, just like glavine was correct in jumping ship for the mets a few years ago to make more money.
let’s not pretend that baseball is anything other than a business.
long term solution – hire glavine as a pitching coach.
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June 4th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I’m not sure Glavine is going to want to work for the Braves after this latest insult.
Moreover, if the Braves thought Glavine was too old to pitch, why make him go through the surgery and the rehab? Why sign him in the first place?
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June 4th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Glavine is no more “old and ineffective” now than he was in Spring Training.
The Braves are a classless organization. their on field performance won’t matter this year anyway, as the Phils and Mets will crush them regardless.
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June 4th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Robert, I’d like to agree with you that the Phils are going to crush the Braves this season. But I think Atlanta has a decent shot at the division, especially if Tommy Hanson lives up to expectations.
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
The Braves have made a lot of strange personnel moves in the last six months….accusing whatsisface (help me here – brain freeze!) of reneging on done deals, failing to come to terms with Smoltz, now this. Why not just try and trade him for – anyone? Anything? Would that really have been so hard?
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
And not surprisingly, Smoltz rips Wren:
http://www.ajc.com/fulton/content/sports/braves/stories/2009/06/04/smoltz_glavine_release.html
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
A once-great, now crummy organization.
A shame they have such a great manager.
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:54 am
so now Tom knows what the Braves felt like when he left them in his dust as he took Route 95N straight up to the big money in NYC. Tom got what he gave
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June 5th, 2009 at 11:54 am
I don’t think it’s the same thing. If Tom had told the Braves to have arm surgery and then told them to go ahead and do months of painful rehab before he signed with the Mets, then that’d be the same.
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June 5th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Tom, come on back to Boston where you belong
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June 6th, 2009 at 10:56 am
To be completely honest with all of you, I’m not upset over this at all. Scoreless innings against A-Ball batters doesn’t mean anything, his stuff does. Not to mention that the “classless” people that pulled the plug on Glavine are the same people that have been running the organization for years: John Schuerholtz, Henry Aaron, and Bobby Cox.
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June 9th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
1) Karma is a bitch, and it finally got Tommy G. This is exactly what he deserves for walking away from us for more money in ‘02. (yeah, the Braves could have paid a few mill more and kept him, but they weren’t going to sign him for as much as Smoltz (30m-3yrs) and had Maddux to sign the next year)
Tommy can go cry to the players union now. You don’t see anyone else lining up to sign him, do ya? No…’cause he has NOTHING left. The Braves knew it before they signed him…but they still gave him a shot. That’s all they owe him.
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