The Braves should have just done nothing. Signing an aging right fielder to play in Turner Field – and this one, Nick Markakis.
Good grief. We get it. The Braves are going to deal Justin Upton. They continue to field offers for Upton but to replace him with Markakis? Get real.
There has always been a debate to determine the true worth of a player but the standard numbers do it all in this case. Markakis appeared in 155 games last season for the Orioles hitting just .276/.342/.386 with 14 home runs and 81 runs scored.
It has been half a decade since Markakis mattered. Gone are his days of being the 20-home run, 30 double machine that could swipe bases. Instead we now have a guy who has come to rely on drawling the occasional walk to get on base. Worse? They gave him four years for a total of $44 million.
Some deals you can spot as awful from the start. This is one of them. I suspect any extension for Jeff Samardzija will be another, but again at-least he is at his peak. Markakis is long past that point.
The groans are loud. Think about this. Upton – the player the Braves are trying to hard to trade – will make just $14.5 million and would at-least net the Braves draft pick compensation at the end of the year.
