Frank Wren’s Braves tenure was a mixed bag. The Braves were never a bad team under him, except for in his first full season, but they never got further than the NL Division Series in the playoffs, losing both appearances and dropping the NL Wild Card round in another. Under his reign, the Braves collapsed twice: in 2011, in one of the worst collapses in baseball history, and in 2014, when the Braves were in first place as late as July 20 and now are seemingly set to finish the year with a losing record after an abysmal second half. The team was always in the mix, but could never quite get it together.
Frank Wren wasn’t awful, but enough of his moves were
There were highlights and highs, but Frank Wren’s Braves never took things to that next level thanks to many lows.
That’s not all Wren’s fault, as there were plenty of injuries that helped dismantle what had been an impressive array of rotation depth, but he didn’t work well within the payroll limitations set by owners Liberty Media. Under Wren, the Braves had an average payroll of $95.7 million -- that’s not all that much more than what the Royals and Padres spent in 2014. The Braves’ $112 million Opening Day payroll this season -- a possibility thanks to the new ballpark coming for the Braves later on this decade -- was still just around the median for the league.
That put the Braves in a spot where they could spend money, but they didn’t have much room for error within that. Signing the 31-year-old Dan Uggla to a five-year extension before the 2011 season was a move destined to burn the Braves. He was a second baseman, a position that notoriously ages poorly, and he had old player skills before he was even considered an old player. Now, in 2014, he’s been bounced around the league looking for work while batting .149/.229/.213 with nothing in the way of defensive skills to make up for any of that. The Braves not only spent 145 precious plate appearances on Uggla in 2014, but also over $13 million, and will do that again in 2015 before finally finding themselves free of that burden.
Signing B.J. Upton was at least a defensible move, but it’s worked out about as well. He was a high-quality defender in center whom the Braves felt could see a boost in his offense getting out of pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, and moving to the less difficult league would probably also contribute to making this a success for Atlanta. Instead, Upton cratered almost immediately, and he’s hit .197/.276/.311 for the Braves over two seasons, making him a sub-replacement-level player in each of those years. He’s the Braves’ highest-paid player as of this writing for both 2015 and 2016, at $15.1 million then $16.1 million, and he’ll earn $17.1 million in the final year of this pact.
Mistakes like Upton happen even if they don’t look like they will -- that’s just the nature of baseball and of free agency, and a risk that exists anytime a club spends money. With the Braves’ relatively limited resources, though, it’s difficult to work around this kind of mistake, especially when said mistake is actively hurting your team’s chance to win by contributing 1,000 worthless plate appearances over two years. If not for Uggla’s salary -- and similar uselessness on the field -- the Braves could have maybe put a better overall product on the field, added an additional piece at this year’s deadline, and so on. With both Upton and Uggla around, this became nearly impossible within the limitations of their payroll.
Similarly, Chris Johnson’s extension that paid him $4.75 million in 2014 doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but he too was one of the worst lineup regulars, and will get a raise each of the next two years, contributing to the potential dead money on the roster. Craig Kimbrel is amazing and his extension -- signed under Wren -- should be lauded as it’s likely a value deal given his historic abilities, but it looks like a luxury the Braves maybe can’t afford given all the other monetary issues on hand. Case in point: the Braves are losing Ervin Santana to free agency and still need answers to the questions Uggla and Upton couldn’t solve, yet they’re are already on the books for $80 million in 2015. And that’s before you take into account that they have seven arbitration-eligible players on the roster, and plenty of pre-arb guys who will end up accounting for another flurry of millions.
Baseball quotable
The Braves might have to risk non-tendering Tommy John recipient Kris Medlen since he’s going into his third and final year of arbitration and was paid almost $6 million in 2014. They might end up needing to trade Kimbrel to fill holes elsewhere and open up some payroll space to make up for the dead funds Upton and Uggla receive. Those are two legitimate talents the Braves might end up without because of the poor moves Wren made in his time as general manager, very likely the poor moves that ended up costing him his job.
His tenure was not without its high points, though. The Braves might have collapsed on more than one occasion, but they were always competitive, even as they lost star free agents like Brian McCann to financial juggernauts, saw Chipper Jones and Billy Wagner retire while both were still performing at a high level, and had to deal with the fallout of serious injuries to homegrown talents like Jason Heyward, Medlen, Jonny Venters, Mike Minor and more.
Young impact players like Freddie Freeman, Andrelton Simmons and Kimbrel were not only developed, but were locked up for reasonable -- yet lucrative -- prices. Justin Upton was all but stolen from the Diamondbacks, which had a little something to do with Kevin Towers, but Wren deserves credit for pouncing. The Braves’ future isn’t dim, and there are ways to work around the mistakes of Wren, but the man himself could never quite figure out how to do it effectively. That task now falls to his successor.
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