The surprising part of the Ryan Doumit trade wasn't that the Atlanta
Braves added another catcher. The surprising part was that they added
another catcher ? a backup, no less ? at the expense of Sean Gilmartin, a
left-handed pitcher who was their Round 1 draftee in June 2011.
Which
tells us: The Braves had seen enough of Gilmartin to believe that he
would never pitch significant innings for them. Otherwise they wouldn't
have given up on a 23-year-old lefty to land a 32-year-old backup
catcher.
Under Frank Wren, the Braves don't mess around with pitchers. If they
decide a guy isn't good enough ? or has topped out, or has lost whatever
it was they thought he had ? they'll get rid of him. They won't keep
Running Him Out There. (They save that approach for underperforming
big-ticket position players.) They'll dump him for whatever they can get
and let him become someone else's project.
ajc.com
Braves added another catcher. The surprising part was that they added
another catcher ? a backup, no less ? at the expense of Sean Gilmartin, a
left-handed pitcher who was their Round 1 draftee in June 2011.
Which
tells us: The Braves had seen enough of Gilmartin to believe that he
would never pitch significant innings for them. Otherwise they wouldn't
have given up on a 23-year-old lefty to land a 32-year-old backup
catcher.
Under Frank Wren, the Braves don't mess around with pitchers. If they
decide a guy isn't good enough ? or has topped out, or has lost whatever
it was they thought he had ? they'll get rid of him. They won't keep
Running Him Out There. (They save that approach for underperforming
big-ticket position players.) They'll dump him for whatever they can get
and let him become someone else's project.
ajc.com
