Atlanta Braves avoid arbitration with pitcher Brandon Beachy

In an off-season checkered with multiple arbitration cases, the Atlanta Braves have achieved at least one semblance of cost certainty.

Brandon Beachy and the team have agreed on a 1-year contract to keep Beachy in the Atlanta rotation, and the deal will be worth a reported $1.45 million. At the moment, Beachy is expected to be a member of the 2014 rotation, but in all fairness to him, he’ll need to establish himself as both healthy and effective before that is a lock.

Beachy, who is now 27 years old, pitched in 5 games last season after recovering from Tommy John in 2012, and he threw 30 innings of 4.50 ball with some semi-encouraging statistics. Prior to the arm trouble, Beachy flashed top-end potential with a 2-year stretch (2011-2012) where he posted over 4 combined WAR in what amounts to 1 full season of innings, and his ability to strike out opposing hitters makes him extremely attractive to the Braves.

As mentioned above, the Braves still have a staggering seven players with arbitration “battles” on the horizon, so this gives them a bit of certainty, even if the $1.45 million number is a bit higher than most projections placed his arbitration value this season. The Braves also acquired the services of Gavin Floyd on Monday, and with both players having Tommy John within a year of each other, the team doctors in Atlanta will be quite busy.