Troy Glaus Signing: Atlanta Braves Get the Right-Handed Bat They Need

The Atlanta Braves needed a right-handed power bat and a first baseman. In one signing today, they accomplished both.

According to FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal, the Braves have signed Troy Glaus to a one-year contract.

Terms of this deal have not been disclosed yet, but it seems to be a very incentive-laden deal.

I really like this move by the Braves.

I had Glaus as my second best low-risk, high-reward hitter of the offseason. Here is what I wrote about Glaus in my free agent primer:

"Glaus is relatively young at 33 and just two years ago hit 27 home runs and had an .856 OPS. Can he play third at this point in his career? Probably not.

"But he can probably play first or DH and still be a power threat at a very low cost.”

Glaus will play first for the Braves and be the right-handed power source they have needed in that lineup. He has only played six career games at first base in his 12-year career, so there is some risk on whether or not Glaus can make the adjustment from first to third.

However, I have a theory on that: If you can play third, then you can play first, and if you can play second, then you can play short.

I don’t foresee a problem with Glaus making the adjustment.

The signing of Glaus ends the Adam LaRoche era in Atlanta yet again. The Braves didn’t look into re-signing LaRoche because he was reportedly asking for too much money. I think LaRoche and his agent really messed this one up.

Atlanta was LaRoche’s best chance at getting what he determined as “fair market value.” Now that Atlanta is out of the picture, where is he going to go where a team is going to pay him what he thinks he is worth? I don’t see it happening.

My guess is LaRoche is going to wait and wait and end up signing a one-year deal with a team he has very little interest in playing for. LaRoche really overplayed his had with this one.

I will say LaRoche ends up with the Kansas City Royals to replace the departed Mike Jacobs.

Glaus is a career .255 hitter with a .359 OBP and 304 home runs in 12 seasons with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, and St. Louis Cardinals.

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