The Atlanta Braves and free-agent reliever Shane Greene reached an agreement on Sunday, the team announced. Greene posted a 2.60 ERA and a 2.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 27 2/3 innings last season.
An All-Star in 2019, Greene spent the last season-and-a-half in Atlanta after coming over in a trade from Detroit. Greene appeared in 28 games during the abbreviated 2020 season.
Greene, 32, entered the winter ranked by CBS Sports as the 46th-best free agent available. Here's what we wrote at the time:
Timing is everything. Had Greene reeled off this two-season run (during which he accumulated a 199 ERA+ and recorded 23 saves) in, say, 2006 or 2007, then some team would be about to offer him a three- or four-year pact worth $20 million, easy. Teams these days are more likely to dig deeper, and more likely to conclude that Greene's success feels ... well, tenuous. Both his strikeout and walk rates went in the wrong direction last season, and each of his three primary pitches were less likely to generate a swinging strike than in the previous year. You can dig deeper and find reasons for discomfort on a granular level, too. For instance, opponents hit better than .260 against both Greene's sinker and slider, two pitches that accounted for nearly 60 percent of his total offerings. Oh, and don't forget about his career .820 OPS when faced with left-handed hitters -- Lord knows opposing managers won't. Greene's still going to have suitors because of his topline numbers, but there's a real chance he flunks out of high-leverage work.
While it's clear that the league has similar reservations about Greene's likely value heading forward, the Braves were running low on options. Coming into Sunday, Atlanta's bullpen ranked 22nd in the majors with a 4.56 ERA. That's a far cry from the 3.50 mark the Braves posted last season, when they ranked fourth in the majors and trailed only the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League.
