Considering how wild the throws made by Pena, Bregman, and Altuve have always kind of been, I do wonder how much Yuli's defense covered up those issues... Point is, Abreu may not be that bad in receiving throws, this is on the rest of the infield.
I highly doubt Click would have given him 3 years at this rate. Crane went in and got the deal done in a hurry last season. I imagine Click would have been more conservative and gotten him at a lesser rate or missed out entirely and settled for Josh Bell (who has sucked plenty in his own right, but still cheaper and better)
I think he would struggle against AA pitching at this point in his career. He would succeed in A ball only because he would have a super high walk rate.
About as sickening as McCullers missing most of last year and most of this year by trying to rehab so long without surgery. I don't know what's going on with Abreu this year. It's crazy how bad he has been batting.
It's becoming cringe worth every time he steps in the box, I tend to go refill my drink or go to the bathroom as I know how it will end. I am sure he is putting pressure on himself and I am sure he feels the anger...........The front office should work with him and come up with an injury and let the guy go clear his head for 15 days. You can't have a guy in the line up hitting .082
Not uncommon for guys his age to just completely fall off. This talk from the front office about the back of the baseball card for Abreu and all that nonsense…is nonsense. They need to just admit their mistake and cut their losses. Yuli went from winning the batting title to being awful a year later and now is out of the game. Paul Goldschmidt looks like another example. Won the MVP in 2022 then posted his worst OPS of his career last year. He’s hitting .178 with a .520 OPS right now.
The thing with Abreu is it’s not like this is a regular slump players go through. This is a complete breakdown of a player. I’m not sure if it’s Father Time or an injury we’re not being told about… but one thing is clear: Abreu is cooked. Just look at the eye test. He can’t even connect on a 89 mph fastball against a pitcher who’s been in the league for 17 years. There’s NOTHING about his 49 at bats this year that show signs of promise. HES DONE. And I’m not sure if it truly is Crane that’s being stubborn, but if it is then thats pathetic. He should not be playing Major League Baseball anymore.
It’s definitely not Espada, just by his actions (PH for him in the 10th, benching him several games, dropping him to 8th) you can tell he doesn’t think he’s going to just start magically hitting. My guess is it’s Crane and Bagwell.
Cutting him loose and bringing up Loperfido (or whichever other prospect) would be compounding their mistake; they shouldn’t derail Loperfido’s development just because Jose Abreu sucks. Just like with the SP, they are in a tough spot. They don’t have any awesome options, and they don’t want to eat $30M+. Assuming they can’t put Abreu on the IL, they are handling this close to correctly; I would be playing Singleton a lot more to get him 100-150 pa to make a final decision on him while Abreu rests and works in the cage, getting pinch hit opportunities when it makes sense and giving Singleton a rest once a week. Once we get into June, they’ll know where they stand a lot better; both in terms of team performance but also what their internal options can be expected to do. By June they’ll know if Singleton can be an answer or if Loperfido is ready, or which trade options will be available in July. Or they could just trade for Luis Arraez or Jake Cronenworth in a massive overpay.
Yuli is not quite done, yet. Braves just signed him to a minor league deal and he should report to AAA Gwinnett this week.
I agree with this. Even if he's not really hurt, a stint on the DL let's him save face to maybe work on whatever the hell it is that's going on with him. Even if it's just mental. He's unplayable right now. Some time away might do him good.
If he is hurt and is trying to macho his way then he is killing his career and being an idiot. How I would deal with him....1) IL stint, 2) hit in 8th hole, 3) if he improves he can earn his way to keeping playing time or moving up in order, 4) if still lousy, DFA.
I can only assume that the brass talk about this every single day. It must come up every time they evaluate the team. How long of a leash does he have? The bottom line that he costs $19.5M If the team waives Abreu and replaces him with Loperfido, Cabbage, Hensley, or anyone currently in the organization - it costs you $19.5M because Jose will sign for the min w/ somebody. But at least there is some hope and upside.
