After an impressive bounce-back season, Michael Brantley is on the MLB free agent market, and with plenty of teams looking to improve their outfields it won’t be long before someone snatches him up.
MLB free agent Michael Brantley is going to have a chance to define himself next season.
Right now the jury is still out on Brantley. In 2016 and 2017 he only played in a combined 101 games, and it seemed like his value might be permanently damaged by injury. In 2018 he bounced back, ending the year with 631 plate appearances and a strong OPS+ of 123.
It’s not entirely clear which one of these versions of Brantley we should expect in 2019. If he can return to his 2014 form, a year where he slashed .327/.385/.506 and came third in MVP voting, he will be one of the most valuable free agents in this year’s class. If he is bit again by the injury bug, he could be one of the biggest busts.
Complicating things is the fact that according to David O’Brien of the Athletic Brantley wants a pretty sizable contract despite his perceived injury risk.
I get impression that they’d like to have Brantley and might offer three years to him, but not at the $20M or so annually that it’s believed he’s looking for. I think it’d probably have to be significantly lower AAV for Braves to be in on him for deal that long. https://t.co/pVDhCBAb1d
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) December 6, 2018
It’s impossible to know how firm Brantley and his team are about this number until we see where he signs. His MLB free agent asking price certainly isn’t big enough to stop organizations from inquiring about him for 2019, and there’s plenty of teams who could use his great bat and solid glove. Let’s check some of them out.