Tyler Flowers will don the tomahawk yet again. Despite taking a step back behind the plate last season, the Braves will bring him back to guarantee they have a viable option to man the pitching staff.
Source: The Braves will bring Tyler Flowers back with a 1-year, $4 million deal. Because Flowers' $6M option was declined, he received the $2M buyout. So, he's still getting $6M. It's just an accounting procedure that allows for just $4M to count toward the 2020 payroll.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) November 4, 2019
With the retirement of Brian McCann and Francisco Cervelli now being off the books, this was a priority for the team, and they will continue to search for another backstop to pair him with. Going into the offseason with no catchers on the roster is clearly not an ideal scenario. As Bowman mentioned above, Flowers will still receive $6 million between the buyout and the $4 million contract, but the team has made an accounting procedure to only count $4 million towards this year’s payroll. It will be interesting to see if the team entertains bringing back Cervelli for another year, or if they will go after another option. Stay tuned.