BRAVES RELEASE SOUTHPAW PITCHING LEGEND GLAVINE

Tom Glavine has spent the early part of the 2009 MLB season trying to rehab from shoulder and elbow surgery with one goal—to end his Hall of Fame career with the Atlanta Braves.  Glavine appeared to be on the verge of a return to the club after completing six scoreless innings in a rehab start for Class A Rome (GA).  The Braves, however, had other ideas and in a surprising move released the 43 year old lefthander.  Instead, the Braves called up prospect Tommy Hanson who will start on Saturday against Milwaukee.

The move was yet another slap in the face to the loyal fans of the team, and caught both Glavine and the rest of the Braves players by surprise.  The Atlanta fanbase was already upset with the team’s failure to re-sign John Smoltz during the off-season, and they’re none too happy about the loss of another icon from the franchise’s dominant years.   Braves manager Bobby Cox called the situation: “the hardest thing I've ever been through." Glavine indicated that he was ‘very surprised’ by the release and wasn’t immediately sure about his interest in playing for another team.  Later in the day, his agent Gregg Clifton indicated that his client was looking forward to pitching somewhere—even if it won’t be Atlanta:

"He wants to pitch. He feels great. He's still shocked about being released by a team he's been a member of, and he's not prepared to retire. He looks forward to pitching again in 2009. Tom is extremely disappointed. He agreed to return to the Atlanta Braves at a drastic discount, and assume all the risk for his 2009 contract, except for a base salary. He has fulfilled his obligations and rehabbed diligently to return to the Braves' staff, and to not have that opportunity at this time is extremely disappointing for a Hall of Fame player like Tom Glavine.”

The timing of the Braves’ move was also puzzling to many—Glavine had been given no indication that the team was thinking about cutting him loose, and had made three rehab starts in preparation for a return to the majors.  Chipper Jones tried to take a diplomatic position, but was clearly wondering this himself:

"We all would have preferred to see it happen sooner because he worked so hard to rehab. Right when he's saying he's ready to come back, he finds out that it's not going to be here. None of us saw it coming.  It would have been a storybook ending if he got it here. Emotionally, we all wanted to see Glav come in here and finish up. He's not going to be allowed to do that."

Long time Braves teammate John Smoltz, who now pitches for the Boston Red Sox, was much more critical in his assessment of the move:

"That ain't right. I just feel bad for a teammate of mine that I had for a long time.  That’s not how you treat people. He didn't have a chance to fail at that level, if that was the issue or concern. It's just too bad for a guy. First time working his way back and he pitched fairly well. They talked about his velocity being kind of funny, but no one's ever talked about his velocity before."

One theory suggests that it may have been a financial decision on part of Braves management.  The team would have owed Glavine a $1 million bonus had he been placed on the Major League roster.  Braves GM Frank Wren dismissed that notion:

"This was not a business decision. This was a performance decision."

His terse response evokes the old saying that when someone says ‘it’s not about the money’ you can be sure that it is about the money.    He continued to rationalize the decision by suggesting that his solid performance in his rehab assignments was of little relevance:

"We've been evaluating him the last four weeks and everyone felt we had a better chance to win at the major league level with one of our younger pitchers. The pitching line is irrelevant when you're pitching in low A-ball.  The comeback was not working. Our evaluation was he would not be successful."

Wren also indicated that they gave Glavine the option of retiring as a Brave rather than being released:

"We gave him the option, 'If you want to retire, you can retire as a Brave. He asked us to release him."

Glavine has yet to comment publically on his release beyond a few text messages to media.  There are reports that the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers have expressed some preliminary interest in his services.