After re-signing Tyler Flowers this morning to a $4 million deal, the Braves did the same thing with Nick Markakis. Kakes had a $6 million option for 2020, but rather than picking that up, Atlanta will buy him out for $2 million and re-sign him for $4 million. This allows for Markakis to only count for $4 million against the 2020 payroll rather than six.
Correction: #Braves handled Markakis same as Tyler Flowers. Had option with buyout that team declined and then re-signed him. https://t.co/JDfqBVroxF
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 4, 2019
Markakis had a fine year once again for the Braves and is a cheap stopgap option until Drew Waters or Cristian Pache is ready for the bigs. The hope is that one of them will be by the end of 2020, but if the Braves are forced to start Markakis for the entire season at $4 million, they could do much worse. Atlanta’s right fielder hit .285 with a .776 OPS in 116 games last year.