After Jason Heyward was traded to St. Louis on Monday after five seasons with Atlanta, the Gold Glove right fielder said he hoped Braves officials would approach him this offseason to discuss a long-term contract extension, but never did.
Here’s the first questions in Heyward’s conference call Monday afternoon with a few Atlanta reporters, which will be published at myAJC.com in full later Monday.
What’s your reaction to trade, was this something you were expecting at this point?
“I didn’t know what to expect going into the offseason, but as time went and I didn’t ever see anybody reach out to me as far as wanting to discuss an extension to be here longer than next year, I kind of got (the impression) that I would get traded.”
(Braves president of baseball operations) John Hart said since he came in last year he never got an indication other than you would go to free agency, not that a long-term contract extension was something that could be worked out. What’s your view of that?
“To be honest, the Braves front office are the ones that would have to come to me about a deal, about the extension, about me being here longer than 2015, for that to actually happen. And that never took place last offseason. I threw the two-year deal out on the table (that he signed in February 2014) because I didn’t want to go through the arbitration process anymore. I wanted to go play baseball and I didn’t want to come back after another offseason and go OK, we’re once again talking about numbers and performance and this and that (for arbitration). I just wanted to go play. I wanted our next conversation to be about me possibly being in Atlanta for a long time. And that conversation never came about. So I took it as, that’s not what they wanted to happen.”
