Now that the world series has concluded, and congratulations to the Giants, the teams have five days (through Sunday) of exclusive negotiation time with their team free agents. Thus, the teams get a 5-day window in which to talk their players into staying with the club and not becoming free agents. The Braves have 3 guys: Derrek Lee, Troy Glaus and Eric Hinske.
It is plainly obvious that Lee and Glaus will not be retained as Freddie Freeman is ready to takeover the first base job. That leaves Eric Hinske. One problem with Hinske is that he is a left handed hitter, and he is limited to outfield (where he has a decent arm and low mobility) or first base (and could play emergency 3B). We really need more right-handed hitters on the team, so the team may not be as interested in retaining him as they would Matt Diaz (who is a righty and plays similar defense). However, everyone loved having Hinske in the clubhouse, and he was clutch as a pinch-hitter. Last year we got him for one year at $1M. If we can re-sign him for anything close to that, I say we do it. It's nice having a LH pinch-hitting specialist on the team, especially one who can play LF, RF and spell Freeman at 1B on occasion. I say we keep him, though I've heard it's unlikely we'll sign him in the 5-day window.
More to come on the Braves offseason later.
I'd like to see us re-sign Hinske. This past season showed us the importance of having depth, and he'd be a great bench/platoon guy to keep around. I'd like to see him back.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the record, I bench 55 lbs.
Hinske was huge for us and I sure as hell would've preferred seeing him at the 1B spot late in the season as opposed to D. Lee. Bring him back!
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