Why Did the Braves Let Freddie Walk?

Yesterday, the Braves sent four of their top fourteen players to the Oakland A’s for Matt Olson? Don’t get me wrong, Matt Olsen is an extraordinary player, but Freddie is “extraordinaire!” The Braves are making a lot of money. They are way under the Salary Cap (yes, I know they say it is not a salary cap). Olson makes about $18 Million less a year than Freeman and is controlled through 2024. Freddie is arguably the best First-Basemen in baseball TODAY, but Olson is close, and while both are Gold Glovers, Olson is better.

Are the Braves banking on Olson getting even better? Do the Braves believe that Freeman is not going to age well? Is it just all about the money? Why would the Braves be willing to gut the farm of four really top prospects, when they could have kept Freeman AND the prospects, thus keeping the farm system stronger for the future? Before the trade, the Braves Farm System was ranked #22 by Baseball America. Now, they are close to the bottom. I think there were two (2) factors that caused the Braves to let Freeman walk and they go hand-in-hand.

#1 – I think Braves ownership did not want to spend the money. They could have signed Freeman and traded for Olson and been a powerhouse, and still be under the Salary Cap.

#2 – I believe that many people think that (the soon-to-be 33-year-old) will not age well and that past age 36, he might decline rapidly. I hope the Dodgers think that as well. A four-year deal would be ideal. Five-years? Not so much. Six-years? No way!

That said, Freddie played for Team Canada in 2017 and has dual citizenship in both the US and Canada… and the Blue Jays are also interested. Freddies parents are Canadian, even though he was born in Villa Park, California, and still lives in California. Whether he wants to play for the Blue Jays could boil down to his political preference. I am not against Freddie Freeman – it just does not seem like a Dodger move, but I would be overjoyed for two or three years if he becomes a Dodger. It is more likely today that Freddie Freeman will be a Dodger than it was yesterday, but strange things can happen (Yankees or Angels). I have heard that the Dodgers offer to Freeman was four years with opt-outs, but it’s not from a highly reliable source.

However, the Red Sox are also interested, in addition to the Yankees, the Rays, the Dodgers, and Blue Jays. Freddie is going to get paid. He would put up some eye-popping numbers in NY or Boston!

Julio Urias – Future Ace?

Julio Urias is noticeably slimmer (as pointed out by Bobby yesterday). I think he gave his fat to Clayton Kershaw who is as fat as me. People close to the game say that Julio is motivated to be as good as he can possibly be. I think this year he will challenge Striker Buehler as the Dodgers’ Ace. Showing up in great shape is an excellent start. In the past, Buehler did not have a great reputation as a player who works hard in the offseason. Here’s a video of Julio yesterday.

https://youtu.be/mb7LN-9vR4k

While we are at it, Victor Gonzalez also has slimmed down. We heard about it over the winter, but now we can see it for ourselves:

Minor Leage Profile: Diego Cartaya

Most people agree that Diego Cartaya is the Dodger’s top prospect. His advancement is the reason that the Dodgers were willing to trade former top prospect Keibert Ruiz. Ruiz will be a very good MLB Catcher, but Diego has the ability to be the best catcher in baseball – hands down! I am not anointing him that as yet, but his skills are off-the-charts crazy! He’s a year to two away, but the tools are obvious, including prodigious power, and every day he shows signs that his pitch recognition and strike zone judgment are improving considerably. His catching skills are sick and I dare you to find anyone who thinks he will not be an All-Star! Here’s one of his Bombs:

#Dodgers top prospect Diego Cartaya just hit one to the parking lot pic.twitter.com/DaV2aIgcSQ

— Juan Toribio (@juanctoribio) March 5, 2022

 Adley Rutschman is the only Catching Prospect ranked higher, but that is solely based upon the fact that he is 24 years old, while Cartaya is still just 20. Diego was born in Maracay, Venezula. Maracay is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of Girardot Municipality. The population of Maracay and its surroundings in the 2011 census was 955,362. 95% of Venezuelans are living in extreme poverty.

Diego Cartaya is the only child of Jesus Cartaya and Mery Larez, whom he has not seen in almost two years, although he does video chatting with them before every game. When spring training shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic, so too did the airports in Venezuela. Cartaya couldn’t fly home if he wanted to. What followed was a total immersion in American culture, catching, and the culture of an organization that lavished a $2.5 million bonus on him in 2018, when he was the top catching prospect on baseball’s international amateur market.

“It’s difficult,” Cartaya said of the time away from home. “I would like to see my family. But I know that at some point I’ll be able to, and just think that I’m doing all of this for them.” During the pandemic, Diego lived with the family of Travis Barbary, the manager of the Dodgers’ top minor league affiliate, including his 24-year-old son, Chase, a catcher in the Dodgers’ organization. Cartaya said he needed only a day to feel comfortable in his adopted home. “They’re really nice,” he said of the Barbarys. “They take care of me. I feel like they’re my family.”

Travis Barbary was the Dodgers’ catching coordinator before he began managing in Triple-A. That made him a natural mentor to his young charge. He also has experience housing teenage Venezuelan catching prospects; Keibert Ruiz spent his first offseason in the United States with the Barbary family five years ago. Now it was Cartaya’s turn.

The Dodgers don’t just require their Latin American catchers to learn English. they also require the Dodgers’ English-speaking receivers to learn Spanish. Cartaya, effectively bilingual at age 20, already has a leg up on many of his peers… and he says, “I like country music because it’s slow.”

Fearless Prediction: Diego Cartaya will be the Dodgers starting catcher by 2024 with Will Smith Moving to 3B. He should start the season at Great Lakes and move rapidly to Tulsa. The Loons have a 5 game series with Peoria (IL) in Mid-May (it’s a 2-1/2 hour drive for me) and I need to go to a couple of the games.

For Diego: Tennessee Whiskey