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Jeff Francoeur is heading back to the South, as the free-agent outfielder signed a minor league deal with the Atlanta Braves on Monday, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com.

Francoeur was chosen by the Braves in the first round of the 2002 MLB draft and batted .266 in four-and-a-half years with Atlanta. He’s played for six teams in seven years since 2009 and appeared in 119 games with the Philadelphia Phillies last season.

Bowman also noted Francoeur will get an invite to spring training with a chance to make the Braves’ Opening Day roster.

When Francoeur made his big league debut with Atlanta in 2005, he was one of the more durable players in the league. He played all 162 games in 2006 and 2007 and also won his lone Gold Glove in 2007 while batting .293 and driving in 105 runs.

The Braves traded Francoeur to the New York Mets in 2009, and he was an instant upgrade to the Mets offense, batting .311 in 75 games in Queens.

After batting .285 in 2011 with the Kansas City Royals, Francoeur’s offensive production dropped the next three years. The strong-armed outfielder batted .206 while playing for the Royals, San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres.

Francoeur signed a minor league deal with the Phillies in 2014 and had a slight offensive resurgence for the 63-win Philadelphia club. The 6’4″, 220-pound outfielder batted .258 with 13 home runs.

While that may not seem like a large number of homers, Fox 5 in Atlanta puts Francoeur’s numbers in perspective:

Francoeur could have a realistic chance of making the Braves roster. Nick Markakis is listed as the starting right fielder—Francoeur’s main position—and 25-year-old Ender Inciarte is at center.

Left field may be up for grabs, as Atlanta lists Hector Olivera as the starting left fielder on its website. The 30-year-old Olivera, who debuted last year from Cuba, committed four errors in 21 games with the Braves. If the team isn’t satisfied with the production it’s getting from Olivera, Francoeur could be a viable replacement in left field.

The 32-year-old still has a strong arm, and if his time in Philadelphia is any indication, he could be in line for a solid offensive year if called to the majors.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. Braves depth chart courtesy of AtlantaBraves.com.

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For many teams, spring training helps gauge what to expect in the upcoming season. For the Atlanta Braves, however, it’s clear that this spring training is more about the seasons to come.

The Braves are in the midst of a rebuilding project after shipping off major pieces last season and this offseason. They sent young lefty Alex Wood to the Dodgers at the end of July. They traded shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Angels in November. Then they moved All-Star right-hander Shelby Miller to Arizona in December.

Today, Atlanta is a much younger team aiming to be great in 2017 and beyond rather than this season. That can be seen in the abundance of young talent the organization has in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

One of the players creating the most excitement among the fanbase is one who likely won’t even be on the roster for the season opener: last year’s No. 1 overall pick, Dansby Swanson.

Swanson came to Atlanta in the Miller trade. The shortstop grew up in the Atlanta area and went to Marietta High School, not far from where the Braves’ new stadium, SunTrust Park, is being built.

Just like with Jeff Francoeur and Jason Heyward in their early years, there’s a lot of excitement about the hometown prospect coming to play for Atlanta. Swanson told David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he’s excited to play for his hometown team.

The shortstop was one of several position players to arrive early to spring training. He hit .289 with one home run, 11 RBI and a .394 OBP in 22 games with the Hillsboro Hops last year.

Swanson will likely get called up to the majors this season. He already has a pretty swing, as he shows in the Cage Cam video below from the Braves’ Twitter account. That’s a positive sign for a player who’s only 22.

Atlanta also has a wealth of young pitching talent. Matt Wisler, a 23-year-old right-hander, is expected to play a significant role in the Braves’ rotation.

In the video below from Grant McAuley of 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, Wisler is working on his pitch placement. As a control pitcher, that’s the key to his success. If he can continue to improve his accuracy, he could give the Braves a reliable option in the middle of their rotation.

The Braves are also counting on Mike Foltynewicz. The 24-year-old is still working back after blood clots ended his season in September. O’Brien reported that Foltynewicz threw in the bullpen on Sunday morning for the first time since having surgery in December.

“Folty threw the ball well,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez told O’Brien. “That’s a nice sign, to get on the mound and get going.”

Another healthy young arm will be valuable for the Braves as they continue their rebuild. But it isn’t all young talent making impressions for Atlanta.

Hector Olivera, the 30-year-old acquired by the Braves in that blockbuster trade with the Dodgers last season, has unveiled a simpler swing to start spring training. You can see in this video from MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that his motion is smoother and more relaxed:

O’Brien reported that Olivera began tinkering with his swing during winter league play in Puerto Rico with the help of Atlanta hitting coach Kevin Seitzer.

Olivera’s winter league coach, Alex Cora, told O’Brien that Olivera looks comfortable with the new motion.

“Hector looks, physically, a lot better in that video,” Cora told O’Brien.

The left fielder will be one of the players tasked with keeping Atlanta afloat while the organization develops all its young talent.

It’s clear that the Braves’ 2016 spring training isn’t really about 2016. It’s about the future. As the season opener approaches, they’ll be focused more on the outlook for their young players than the expectations for this season.

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After an offseason spent dealing away several starters, the Atlanta Braves have shown no signs of immediate improvement for the 2016 season.

Spring training could be the only thing Braves fans can look forward to this year, but for now, there’s a sense of optimism and promise for the future.

The 2016 Braves will be a very different team from their 2015 predecessors, and whether that’s a good thing remains to be seen. Center fielder Cameron Maybin, shortstop Andrelton Simmons and pitching ace Shelby Miller have all been traded, and the former two players will likely be replaced by Ender Inciarte and Erick Aybar, respectively.

Atlanta’s most notable free-agent signings included a pair of Georgia natives—Roswell native Tyler Flowers (catcher) and former University of Georgia standout Gordon Beckham (third base)—neither of whom are projected to start at their respective positions.

While these are all players to watch during spring training, the Braves’ top minor league prospects will draw most of the attention and rightfully so. Three of Atlanta’s top prospects—Dansby Swanson, Sean Newcomb and Aaron Blair—received special recognition from Minor League Baseball’s official Twitter page:

After several years of gutting the team’s best players, President of Baseball Operations John Hart has quietly been assembling a deep, talented farm system. In fact, ESPN.com’s Keith Law even named it the No. 1 farm system in all of baseball, and MLB.com placed six Braves prospects on its top 100 prospects list.

Another player to keep an eye on is pitcher Matt Wisler, who should crack the starting rotation again this season. Before the team left for Florida last Friday, he and a few other pitching prospects joined bullpen coach Alan Butts for some long toss:

A rapidly developing storyline this offseason is the possibility of Braves bullpen coach Eddie Perez becoming an MLB manager. Perez coached the Venezuelan national team this offseason, bringing it to the Caribbean World Series championship game.

In an interview with David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former Braves legend Chipper Jones expressed his support for Perez, believing that he will be an MLB manager someday:

I’m not surprised at all of Eddie’s success as a manager. It is just a matter of time before he is experiencing success as a big league manager. He’s learned a ton, as have many coaches, from the great Bobby Cox. Some of the same traits that made him an all-time favorite teammate for countless players, are also what makes him a great manager now, and in the future.

This is a very unique spring training for the Braves; it’s almost as if it has more of an impact on the 2017 season than this upcoming season. We’ve seen what established Braves veterans like Freddie Freeman, A.J. Pierzynski and Nick Markakis can do, and even newcomer veterans like Flowers and Beckham have already shown their modest potential.

Cultivating the young pitching prospects is by far the most important task of spring training. Four of the five projected starting pitchers for the Braves this season will be 25 years old or younger, and they have many more sprinkled throughout their farm system, including Newcomb and Blair. 

Overall, the Braves have shown little reason to believe that they’ll be a winning team this season, much less a playoff team. But with a strong coaching staff, the top farm system in the game, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2016 MLB draft (another pitcher!) and another full season to develop its young players, Atlanta is on the right track to regaining its dominant form of the 1990s and early 2000s.

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And now for a message to Atlanta Braves fans who are down in the dumps about the club’s rebuild: Don’t be afraid to get your hopes up.

Just ask any fan of the New York Mets or Chicago Cubs. 

They were once like the Braves. Five years ago, the Mets responded to consecutive losing seasons by pressing the “REBUILD” button. Four years ago, the Cubs followed suit in the wake of their own consecutive losing seasons.

Now look where they are. The Mets just went to the World Series. The Cubs fell one step short of the World Series, and right now they’re probably the best team in Major League Baseball.

Clearly, this proves a full-on rebuild can be worth it if done correctly. But that obviously raises a kinda-sorta important question: If the Mets and Cubs are guiding stars for how to do a National League rebuild, how is Atlanta’s measuring up?

Without getting too spoiler-y, we can say that the Braves’ rebuild closely resembles those of the Mets and Cubs in some ways and is also completely different in others. Though, not in a bad way.

But, for now, let’s start at the beginning.

Phase 1: Regime Change

As the Mets and Cubs can vouch, all rebuilds must start at the top.

It was in October 2010 that the Mets hired Sandy Alderson as their general manager and charged him with remaking a crumbling roster. It was almost exactly a year later that the Cubs hired Theo Epstein as their president of baseball operations and charged him with the same task. 

Such is the drill whenever a rebuild is needed. And just like the Mets and Cubs, the Braves have also followed procedure.

The Braves fired Frank Wren as their general manager in September 2014, replacing him with former Cleveland Indians architect John Hart on an interim basis. When they did, their reasoning was fairly typical: The future just didn’t look bright enough.

So the comparison of the Braves’ regime change to those of the Mets and Cubs at least goes this far. But from here, we get into a big fundamental difference.

Whereas Alderson and Epstein were inheriting rosters that were old and geezerly, Hart was inheriting a roster of a different color. The Braves had won 96 games just a year earlier in 2013 and were still built around the young players who made that possible. 

Freddie Freeman, Andrelton Simmons, Julio Teheran and Craig Kimbrel formed the core that the Braves had locked up long term, and they were flanked by star outfielders Justin Upton and Jason Heyward and additional young talents like Evan Gattis, Alex Wood, Mike Minor and Tommy La Stella.

In retrospect, this makes it easy to second-guess the notion that things were falling apart. You can’t help but wonder if the Braves might have been able to contend in 2015 if they’d kept the band together.

What we can grant, though, is that Heyward’s and Upton’s pending free agency meant that going for it in 2015 likely would have meant going for a last hurrah. With a new ballpark on top for 2017, that was indeed an ominous prospect. Whereas the Mets and Cubs had no choice but to try to build a new future out of the ashes of a broken past, the Braves skipped ahead.

A tough call, to be sure, but one that came with an advantage: Because the Braves’ rebuild began with a strong major league roster, they didn’t have to go the long away when it came to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Breaking Up the Band, Building Up the Farm

To make soap, first you must render fat. To rebuild a broken baseball team, first you must trim fat.

The Mets and Cubs know what that’s like. Over the course of a couple years, Alderson found new homes for Francisco Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran, Angel Pagan and R.A. Dickey. Epstein did the same with Carlos Zambrano, Marlon Byrd, Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza, Alfonso Soriano and Jeff Samardzija.

Trades like these hurt, but they can be worth it. Without trading Beltran or Dickey, the Mets don’t get Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard or Travis d’Arnaud. Without trading Dempster or Samardzija, the Cubs don’t get Kyle Hendricks or Addison Russell. The Cubs also famously turned a low-risk contract for Scott Feldman into 2015 Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta.

Et cetera, et cetera. You get the gist: Jettison veterans and accumulate young, high-ceiling talent. With their rebuilds, the Mets and Cubs provided a proof of concept for the idea.

But if that’s all they did, what we’ve seen is the Braves perfect the idea.

With an assist from MLB Trade Rumors, here’s how many players the Braves have traded: Heyward, Upton, Kimbrel, Simmons, Gattis, La Stella, Wood, David Carpenter, Chasen Shreve, Melvin Upton, Phil Gosselin, Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Jim Johnson, Chris Johnson, Cameron Maybin, Shelby Miller and Christian Bethancourt.

All this has taken place over the course of a year. And though a 95-loss season took place in the middle of it, there’s no ignoring what these trades have meant for Atlanta’s foundation.

Going off MLB.com’s rankings, nine of the Braves’ top 12 prospects have been acquired in the last year’s trades. The big prize is shortstop Dansby Swanson, who was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks just months after he was drafted No. 1 overall. He’s one of the 10 best prospects in MLB, and pitchers Sean Newcomb, Aaron Blair and Touki Toussaint are three more top-100 guys acquired in trades.

This is a stunning turnaround. In the estimation of MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, the Braves have taken “what was one of baseball’s worst farm systems into one of the best.” 

And there’s more! Atlanta’s trades have also added core pieces such as outfielders Ender Inciarte and Hector Olivera, second baseman Jace Peterson and pitchers Matt Wisler and Mike Foltynewicz to the club’s major league roster. In Casey Kelly and Arodys Vizcaino, the Braves have also picked up a couple of former top prospects who, with enough luck, could pull an Arrieta.

In all likelihood, all this young talent isn’t going to stop the Braves from having another lousy season in 2016. But contenders by 2017? That’s possible.

“We have what it takes to be what I call dangerous,” Hart told David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution at last week’s winter meetings. “You know why you’re dangerous? When you’ve got young players ready to go, ready to rock, that are Braves down to their core, that have had a chance to come (through the system), and you’ve got money. And we’re going to have both in ’17, boys.”

Relative to those of the Mets and Cubs, this is where the Braves’ rebuild has an advantage. Because the Mets and Cubs started with so little exchangeable talent, it took years for their rebuilds to come together. The Braves’ rebuild has been an all-out blitz that has gained steam in mere months.

And as things stand now, it’s not hard to see where the Braves want to go with their rebuild.

Phase 3: Choose Your Weapon

At heart, the idea of every rebuild is to acquire young talent and to use it to build a dynasty. What flavor of young talent and what kind of dynasty, however, can vary.

The Cubs, for example, responded to the modern game’s emphasis on pitching by loading up on bats. Hence the swap of Andrew Cashner for Anthony Rizzo and the drafting of Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber. Several years later, it’s not by accident that their lineup is absolutely loaded.

The Mets, on the other hand, have embraced the modern game’s emphasis on pitching. Alderson’s system has developed Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia, and his trade for Syndergaard is looking like one of the steals of the last decade.

The Cubs showed in 2015 that an emphasis on bats can work wonders, and the Mets showed that an emphasis on arms can work wonders. It’s almost as if there’s more than one way to build a winner.

It’s clear, though, that the Braves are taking after the Mets.

The Braves have been collecting young pitchers like middle-aged geeks collect Star Wars action figures. Nine of the top 11 players in their aforementioned awesome farm system are pitchers, and that’s not counting top-prospects-turned-major-leaguers like Wisler and Foltynewicz and former top prospects like Vizcaino and Kelly.

Mind you, Zach Dilllard of Fox Sports South pointed out that Atlanta’s young pitching didn’t bear immediate results in 2015. But at the same time, former Braves manager Bobby Cox has a good reason for advising patience.

“They were getting their feet wet last year,” said Cox of Atlanta’s young pitchers in 2015, adding: “It takes time. (Greg) Maddux didn’t do it in one year. (Tom) Glavine didn’t do it one year, neither did (John) Smoltz.”

This is all true. And just as the Braves were able to build a pitching-based dynasty around those three, maybe they’ll do the same with the pitchers they’ve accumulated over the last year.

If so, the Braves should soon find themselves tasting the same kind of success that the Mets and Cubs tasted in 2015. And again, the key word is “soon.” The Braves have stuck to the same basic broad strokes of the Mets’ and Cubs’ rebuild, but at a much quicker pace. They’re only a year away from moving into their new stadium and may only be a year away from being contenders again.

Whenever the Braves become contenders again, one thing’s already for sure: It’ll be a while before their next rebuild.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Three years of retirement was apparently enough for Chipper Jones, as the former All-Star will return to the Atlanta Braves in their front office.

The Braves’ official Twitter account announced Thursday that Jones will be working as a special assistant to baseball operations.

Per Kevin McAlpin of 680 The Fan, Jones said it was time for him to get back into the sport he spent 19 years playing as a professional:

It’s unclear what exactly Jones’ new role will entail, though positions that include the label of “special assistant” are often given to historic figures in franchise history.

For instance, on the Braves’ official website, Fred McGriff is also listed as a special assistant to baseball operations, and Bobby Cox is a special assistant to the general manager. It’s a way to keep marquee names around an organization to make public appearances around the city and at the stadium.

Jones last played in 2012 at the age of 40, when injuries prevented him from staying on the field. He was still a productive hitter in his final season with a .287/.377/.455 line.

If Jones were ever going to work in baseball, the Braves would be the team to make it happen. He is one of the greatest players in franchise history, spending his entire career in Atlanta, winning an NL MVP award in 1999 and helping lead the team to a World Series win in 1995.

The Braves are going through a massive rebuilding phase right now, so having Jones around the team to work with the young position players already in the big leagues and coming through the farm system will certainly help teach them about hitting and the grind of a full season.

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The Atlanta Braves continue to make the long-term future their focus after trading Shelby Miller and Gabe Speier to the Arizona Diamondbacks for 2015 No. 1 overall pick Dansby Swanson, outfielder Ender Inciarte and pitching prospect Aaron Blair. 

It’s been no secret that the Braves are trying to build for the future. They have already traded Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels this offseason, so general manager John Coppolella left no doubt the “For Sale” sign was on the front yard. 

Fortunately for the Braves, Coppolella didn’t sell short on Miller. He got a tremendous haul for Miller, who was coming off his best season in the big leagues with a 3.02 ERA and 171 strikeouts in 205.1 innings pitched. 

Inciarte, who has five years of team control left, is the only player with big league experience Arizona got back. He’s a unique player because his value is tied so heavily into his outfield defense, though he has at least 547 innings at all three positions since 2014. 

The question for Inciarte will be if he can keep his hitting stats up moving away from hitter-friendly Chase Field, where his career OPS is 120 points higher (.781) than on the road (.661). 

Because of the Braves’ plan for the future, Swanson and Blair are the two keys to the deal. Here is what they are bringing to Atlanta’s system. 

Dansby Swanson

Swanson is the name fans will know by virtue of being the first pick in June’s draft. He was also on the national stage during the last two College World Series with Vanderbilt. 

Prior to 2014, Swanson was a disappointing player for the Commodores because injuries kept him off the field. He suffered a broken bone in his left foot and suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder that limited him to 11 games in 2013. 

Swanson has remained healthy the last two years, playing in 143 games, and has done nothing but hit, with 78 extra-base hits and a strong 108-84 strikeout-to-walk total against mostly SEC competition. 

In his scouting profile, Andrew Simon of MLB.com graded Swanson out with four above-average-to-plus tools (hit, run, arm field) and praised his work ethic:

Most scouts believe he has the quickness and arm strength to stay at the position (shortstop) long term, even though he hadn’t played there since he was a Georgia high schooler in 2012, when the Rockies drafted him in the 38th round. Swanson is a technically sound hitter who fits at the top of his lineup with his on-base ability and speed. While he’s not a big home run threat, he can drive the ball into the gaps. His makeup is off the charts and universally praised by coaches and scouts.

Swanson is currently ranked 10th on MLB.com’s Top 100 Prospects list. He doesn’t have one elite-level tool, but he is one of those players who does everything well. 

Given Swanson’s strong work ethic and present speed, he’s got a chance to stay at shortstop. Eric Longenhagen of ESPN.com had no concerns about his ability to stick there while also offering a strong package of tools while acknowledging one potential flaw.

“He’s going to get on base, swipe some bags and hit for power while playing solid defense at shortstop despite an average arm,” Longenhagen wrote. “He should move quickly, though don’t be surprised if he swings and misses a bit.”

Even if there’s some minor concern about Swanson’s contact rate, the replacement value for shortstops is so low that a potentially average defender with a good eye at the plate is going to be a solid regular for a long time. 

Aaron Blair

Inciarte could be joined on Atlanta’s Opening Day roster by Blair, who spent half of last year with Triple-A Reno and posted very good numbers—3.16 ERA, 67 hits allowed in 77 innings—especially considering the Pacific Coast League is a hitting paradise. 

Blair, who was taken out of Marshall by the Diamondbacks 36th overall in 2013, is not an overpowering pitcher. He did have more strikeouts (171) than innings pitched (154.1) in 2014 largely because he was a polished college pitcher going against mostly younger, unpolished hitters in A-ball. 

Last year, Blair finished with 120 strikeouts in 160.1 innings pitched over 26 appearances (25 starts) between Double-A and Triple-A. His best asset is being able to induce weak contact and changing speed, as evidenced by the 137 hits allowed. 

MLB.com has Blair listed No. 61 on the Top 100 Prospects list based largely on the quality of his stuff:

Blair’s above-average fastball will touch at least 95 mph, sitting in the low 90s, with good running movement. He has very good feel for a mid-80s changeup and his curveball has improved and could be better than Major League average when all is said and done. Scouts like how quickly Blair works and he goes right after hitters. As effective as Blair was at missing bats in 2014, he also didn’t hurt himself with walks.

Blair doesn’t have outstanding control, though it is solid. MLB.com grades it as average (50) on the 20-80 scouting scale. He can get wild at times around the zone and hitters at the MLB level will be able to lay off close pitches or drive balls to the fence that minor leaguers can’t get to. 

The ultimate ceiling for Blair is a No. 3 starter as long as he can refine his command, but in a worst-case scenario, he’s probably a No. 4 or No. 5. Given how often he’s around the strike zone, it’s not hard to see him reaching that ceiling, though there will be growing pains with the Braves when he initially gets brought up. 

Final Thoughts

Considering Miller’s advanced numbers on FanGraphs (3.45 FIP, 4.07 xFIP) are substantially higher than his 2015 ERA, he’s had problems finding the strike zone at times with 73 walks in each of the last two seasons and he’s moving to a hitter-friendly park in Arizona, the Braves did very well in this deal. 

Swanson and Blair ranked No. 1 and 3 on MLB.com’s Top 30 Prospects list for the Diamondbacks, and at worst Inciarte is an elite defensive outfielder who will hit enough to be worth one or two wins per season. 

There are flaws with all of the players Atlanta got back in the deal, but the total package is very good considering Blair is nearly MLB ready, and Swanson can be a starting shortstop at the highest level before the 2017 All-Star break who is under team control for six full seasons after that. 

Stats per Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted

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Adding depth to their catching stable, the Atlanta Braves agreed to a deal with veteran Tyler Flowers on Tuesday.    

According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Flowers’ deal with the Braves is for $5 million through 2017 with a $4 million option for 2018. 

With A.J. Pierzynski also signed to a deal this offseason, Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted this doesn’t bode well for Christian Bethancourt:

The 29-year-old Flowers has played his entire Major League Baseball career with the Chicago White Sox. His calling card is strong defense behind the plate, with StatCorner rating him as the No. 2 overall catcher with 22.5 runs above average and eighth in strike percentage called outside of the zone (9.9). 

Flowers doesn’t offer a lot with the bat, owning a career slash line of .223/.289/.376, but the value he adds behind the plate is difficult to find. He’s also going back to the first professional organization he ever knew, as the Braves made him a 33rd-round pick in 2005. 

The Braves dealt Flowers to the White Sox in 2008 as part of the package that brought Javier Vazquez to Atlanta.

Even though the front office has undergone some changes in the seven years since, current Braves general manager John Coppolella has been with the team since after the 2006 season and likely knows what Flowers brings to the table. 

While the Braves are building for the future, it’s always crucial to have an experienced catcher who can work with young pitchers and help develop them. Flowers will be a piece of their development plan for the next two years. 

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Gordon Beckham is headed back to the Peach State.

The former Georgia Bulldogs star and veteran Chicago White Sox infielder inked a one-year major league deal with the Atlanta Braves, the team announced Friday. The deal is worth $1.25 million with $500,000 in incentives, according to Mark Bowman of MLB.com.

Beckham tweeted his enthusiasm about returning to his hometown following the announcement:

Beckham, a flashy defender, will give the Braves a platoon option alongside starting second baseman Jace Peterson and third baseman Adonis Garcia.

Braves special assistant and former White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker told Bowman he sees potential for an upward trend for the veteran Beckham.

“I think it’s a good fit,” he said. “He’s still very positive about his offensive potential, and his defense is a given. He can play a variety of positions and you don’t worry about him at all with the glove. His makeup is off the charts.”

Beckham, who attended Westminster High School in suburban Atlanta, led the Bulldogs to the College World Series in 2008, and the White Sox selected him with the eighth overall pick in the MLB first-year player draft later that summer.

He spent his first five-and-a-half seasons with the South Siders before the team traded him to the Los Angeles Angels prior to the 2014 non-waiver deadline. He then re-signed with the White Sox in the offseason last year.

His offensive numbers have steadily declined since his standout rookie season in 2009, in which he belted 14 home runs and a career-best 63 RBI.

He’s coming off a career-worst season in which both he and the White Sox struggled, finishing at 76-86 despite lofty expectations after an aggressive offseason.

Beckham posted career lows in extra-base hits (eight), RBI (20), stolen bases (zero), walks (19), batting average (.209), slugging percentage (.332), OPS (.607) and games played (100) in 2015.

The Braves are in the midst of a massive rebuild that has seen staples Jason Heyward, Justin Upton, Evan Gattis, Andrelton Simmons and others depart since the end of the 2014 season.

Beckham’s one-year deal shows he’s likely coming in as a temporary fixture while the farm system continues to develop to give the Braves a chance to return to relevancy by the time their new stadium opens in 2017. But if he finds an awakening in Atlanta, he could become a part of the Braves’ long-term plans.

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The Atlanta Braves announced Monday they have agreed to a one-year contract to bring back right-handed reliever Jim Johnson, who will earn $2.5 million in 2016, according to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman.

Johnson signed with the Braves nearly a year ago to the day and found a haven in Atlanta, with a 2.25 ERA and opposing slash line of .256/.311/.635 over 48 innings in 49 appearances before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline.

His tenure in Atlanta was sandwiched between an abysmal 2014—in which he posted a 7.09 ERA and 1.950 WHIP, both career highs, with the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers—and a 10.13 ERA in 18.2 innings over 23 appearances with the Dodgers to finish 2015.

As Dave Brown of FanGraphs noted, the Braves were the benefactors in that exchange—a three-team, 13-player trade that also sent starter Alex Wood to L.A.:             

Despite claims to the contrary, the Braves are in the midst of a massive rebuild that has seen staples such as Andrelton Simmons, Craig Kimbrel and Jason Heyward traded in the past 12 months as the team continues to load up on prospects for a hopeful playoff run by the time it moves into its new stadium in 2017.

The Braves had the majors’ second-worst bullpen ERA last year (4.69) and have made revamping their relieving corps a priority, though Johnson’s fit remains to be seen. Arodys Vizcaino finished 2015 as the team’s closer, but perhaps a strong spring to follow a great run, albeit brief, a year ago will be enough for Johnson to contend for the job. 

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The Atlanta Braves started the process a year ago.

The plan, wisely implemented and shrewdly executed by a new front-office regime led by president of baseball operations John Hart and general manager John Coppolella, was to build the franchise into a youthful contender by the time it opened its new suburban stadium in 2017. That meant trading away much of the club’s core and stockpiling young pitching.

Gone are Jason Heyward, Justin Upton, Evan Gattis, Craig Kimbrel and now shortstop Andrelton Simmons, a defensive wizard and fan favorite who hauled in two pitching prospects from the Los Angeles Angels. All the moves were necessary for this rebuild, and a couple of others may be on the horizon as the Braves still have coveted pieces in first baseman Freddie Freeman and right-hander Julio Teheran.

“The focus for me is to get really good talent,” Coppolella told reporters after the Simmons trade last week. “I’d be happy if we got arms in every deal. We’re built around pitching and defense. The more arms we can get, the better off we’re going to be.”

Freeman has questions surrounding him regarding a lingering wrist injury, but he is just 26 years old, could eventually be a 30-home run bat and has a 140 OPS+ over the last three seasons. Those are reasons why Freeman possibly being on the trade market was “the talk of the [Arizona] Fall League,” as one club official told Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

Rosenthal also said officials from three teams told him the Braves are shopping their first baseman. However, Coppolella shot down that report Sunday, telling David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he has no intention to trade Freeman or Teheran.

I asked again about Freeman and Teheran, was told no talks and no intentions to move either of them. https://t.co/e9eJWd8LyZ

— David O’Brien (@DOBrienAJC) November 15, 2015

Teheran also would carry huge value. He will be 25 next season, has been durable and in 2014 had a 2.89 ERA. Even though he had a down year in 2015, he is under control through 2019 at $29.6 million, so his contract is quite manageable.

Also, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported there is “a good chance” the Braves make Teheran available at some point during this offseason.

If the Braves were to move out Freeman, who is owed $118.5 million over the next six years, or Teheran they could certainly ask for more pitching prospects in return. That would add to what is already recognized as the deepest pool of pitching talent in the game.

Rosenthal’s report also quoted another team official as saying the Braves are “shopping everyone owed money.” That would mean players like Nick Markakis, Cameron Maybin, Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn might be dangled. O’Brien speculated the Baltimore Orioles might have interest in bringing back Markakis, and Roch Kubatko of MASN reports people within Baltimore’s organization have interest in broaching the subject with the Braves.

The problem with such a sell-off is that Coppolella has already told reporters he wants the team to be competitive next season. He believes the Simmons trade makes the Braves better because pitching prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis could be in the rotation in 2016 and shortstop Erick Aybar, also acquired in the deal, is an offensive upgrade.

“We can’t have a year like we had last year,” Coppolella told reporters, referring to the team’s 95 losses.

That makes it possible that the Braves do not deal Freeman or Teheran and instead flirt with free agents, especially if they shed the contracts of guys like Swisher and Bourn. It would be feasible for the team to add payroll in free agency since chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk said the Braves could end up with a top-10 payroll by the time they open their new ballpark in 2017, according to Phil W. Hudson of the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

However, because the Braves have the third overall pick in next June’s draft, they likely will not want to sign a free agent tied to draft-pick compensation. And if they decide to deal a player like Freeman, it would put them in line for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft as 100 losses could be a serious reality.

The Braves are clearly building around pitching, much like they did in the 1990s when they eventually won 14 division titles and a World Series. The Simmons trade showed they were committed to that plan, and the next deal or deals they make are likely intended to do the same.

They are clearly in full rebuild mode now, and while they might publicly say they aren’t willing to trade Freeman or Teheran, everyone can be had for a price. If a team comes calling for either, they better be prepared to offer top pitching prospects in return.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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