Atlanta Braves land Nick Markakis with four year deal

Nick Markakis has been a Baltimore Oriole for his whole MLB career, until Wednesday when he and the Atlanta Braves agreed to a four-year deal worth approximately $44 million dollars. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports first reported the news of the deal, along with the local connection Markakis has with his new MLB stopping place. While Markakis was in his teenage years, he lived 20 minutes outside the site of the team’s new ballpark in Cobb County. The $672 million dollar stadium will be ready by 2017.

Markakis, 31, is a two-time Gold Glove award winner and has shown to be a consistent hitter throughout his nine years in Baltimore. The veteran right fielder has shockingly never been voted to an All Star game, but has proved he is one of baseball’s most under-appreciated hitters. During his time in Baltimore, Markakis hit .290/.358/.435 to go with a career 141 home runs and 658 RBI.

This winter the Orioles had key free agents to sign and have lost out on two already. Nelson Cruz recently signed a four-year $57 million dollar deal with the Seattle Mariners on Monday. Cruz hit a league leading 40 home runs this year and carried the Orioles to a AL East division crown and their second playoff appearance in the last three years. The Orioles had tough decisions to make this offseason, and it seems as if they weren’t willing to give Cruz nor Markakis the desired asking price.

After the trade that sent the promising young talent of Jason Heyward to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Braves were in need of a right fielder and a left-handed bat. This fits perfectly for Atlanta, where they have strikeout problems over the past few seasons. They ranked 27th in 2014 with 1,369 team strikeouts and a eye-popping 8.45 strikeouts per game. Markakis still has gas left in the tank to be a defensive outfielder and his sharp contact hitting will help produce some offense as well.