Braves sign Drew Smyly

[PawPawMaxwell]

Certainly not a major signing but indicates that money may not be an issue. Get one more major piece and indications would be AA is going for it in 2021.

[Carp]

AA and Farhan Zaidi are good friends. I assume AA put his due diligence in here and got a good report on Smyly.

I don't care if every pitching coach in the league told me he was their dark horse to win the 2021 Cy Young. I just can't understand the thought process behind paying Smyly 11 million right now.

11 million after incentives but with a 5-6 million base salary? Sure I could buy that. I wouldn't love it either, but at least that has some risk mitigated.

[ixiXSolidXixi]

11 millions? 😡
Why not Charlie Morton?

We need players with Championship experience....

[bravesfanforlife88]

imo this signals that Braves will march into ST with Riley penciled in at 3B

[Heyward]

11 mil got Smyly in this market seems like a ton. I can only hope AA has more money to spend if he can drop 11 mil on him. There's way better options out there. Smyly had good numbers last year but this is a move that will either look like a genius move or AA will look like an idiot. Only a 1 year deal though.

Offense was a bigger need than the rotation, you could probably trot out Wilson/Wright/Soroka/Fried/Anderson. I can hope AA has more money to spend if he's dropping 11 mil on a rotation this piece, this soon in free agency.

[Super]

Two key words in your post: "we've assumed". Lazy me, but did Smyly not have TJ surgery recently (?)?

June 2017 he did

[CrazyTrain]

lmao

[Super]

i have to believe AA has more money to play with than we've assumed if he's dropping $11M on Drew Smyly at this point in the offseason.

also have to believe the org saw something in his performance last year that made them really want to target him.
even so, i cannot believe there was a robust market for Smyly at around this dollar figure.

if AA fails to add a big bat, this deal will obviously be part of the reason why, and it will look like a massive mistake. maybe there's a trade worked out..

[Carp]

His peripherals were pretty excellent last year. I'll give him that. I just don't see how you can expect to get more than roughly 150 innings out of him, being that the last time he did it was 2016, pre-TJS. How much more than this will Morton eventually accept, because I would much rather pay the extra 5-6 million for the durability he brings.

[PawPawMaxwell]

Wait for the final bell. Only announcement is a Braves press release for $11M. May contain lots of incentives. Budget planning would include the total commitment.

[Super]

if he pitches to his steamer or Depth Charts projections, this would be a fine deal. of course, i'm skeptical.

[bravesfanforlife88]

Soroka
Fried
Anderson
Smyly
Wright/Wilson/Newk/Touki/etc.

If you look at it that way....this move does very little to move the needle. Especially when you factor in his health issues....then paying him $11m, where there are a ton of decent options you could presumably get cheaper....Unless the plan is to use some of our pitching in a trade, I don't like this move.

[chop2chip]

I prefer the Braves targeted a safer lower ceiling starting pitcher given all of the uncertainty in the rotation. But signing someone like Smyly is really the only feasible way the Braves add a potential 3 WAR pitcher without trading top prospects or committing long term salary.

Charlie Morton would have been a similar option.

[Heyward]

also have to believe the org saw something in his performance last year that made them really want to target him.
even so, i cannot believe there was a robust market for Smyly at around this dollar figure.

if AA fails to add a big bat, this deal will obviously be part of the reason why, and it will look like a massive mistake. maybe there's a trade worked out..

Need to see full details though, is it 11 mil base, or 11 mil with incentives. But yeah, if they fail to add a big bat, then this is not a good move. We need at least 2 bats this winter, DH or no DH.

Spotrac has Atlanta at 100 mil but can save 5 mil moving on from Luke, Camargo and Dayton. But even then, if payroll is at 125ish, that leaves like 25 mil for 2 bats, and bullpen depth. Payroll must be higher.

[Tapate50]

Braves signed LHP Drew Smyly to a one-year, $11 million contract.
Can't say we saw this coming, at least as far as the timing is concerned, though the Braves were active early last offseason as well. Still, Smyly is a good gamble. While staying healthy has been an issue, the 31-year-old put up a 3.42 ERA and 42/9 K/BB ratio in 26 1/3 innings over five starts and two relief appearances this past season. He also showed a healthy uptick in velocity compared to previous seasons. The Giants had interest in bringing him back, but they might not have been willing to top this offer after bringing back Kevin Gausman with a one-year, $18.9 million qualifying offer. Smyly will join a Braves' rotation which projects to include Max Fried, Ian Anderson, Kyle Wright, and hopefully Mike Soroka as he returns from an Achilles tear.

[NYCBrave]

I prefer the Braves targeted a safer lower ceiling starting pitcher given all of the uncertainty in the rotation. But signing someone like Smyly is really the only feasible way the Braves add a potential 3 WAR pitcher without trading top prospects or committing long term salary.

Charlie Morton would have been a similar option.

Smyly was worth 0.9 WAR last year and that's with only pitching in 7 games. You can dream on the upside of that over a full season, which would obviously make this contract look like a bargain.

His peripherals took a HUGE step forward last year as mentioned. K/9 at career high of 14.35/9.

Just finding some silver lining. Still seems pretty strange, especially with the type of off season we were anticipating.

[Enscheff]

Smyly doesn't seem like he should be the first SP off the board making $11M in 2021. I was hoping for a much more reliable SP as the main addition to the rotation, and this feels like an overpay that was made way too early.

I'll join others in hoping this is a great sign that AA has a lot more cash to spend than we feared, and that his 2020 numbers hold for 2021.

[chop2chip]

It’s a shame the Braves are committing salary to fill a rotation spot that Newcomb or Folty should have claimed (for clarity I’m referring to what they projected to be a few years ago).

It’s not a franchise altering lack of development by any stretch, but we have had back to back seasons where payroll was spent to fill that rotation void instead of 3B or COF.

[Freshmaker]

imo this signals that Braves will march into ST with Riley penciled in at 3B

And Ender at DH

[Super]

Smyly was worth 0.9 WAR last year and that's with only pitching in 7 games. You can dream on the upside of that over a full season, which would obviously make this contract look like a bargain.

His peripherals took a HUGE step forward last year as mentioned. K/9 at career high of 14.35/9.

Just finding some silver lining. Still seems pretty strange, especially with the type of off season we were anticipating.

he added 2.6 MPH to his fastball per Kiley.