Good morning. This is LEADOFF, today’s early look inside Atlanta sports.
When Braves pitchers and catchers reported to spring training one year ago, three veteran pitchers acquired for a combined $32.5 million in one-year commitments commanded a lot of attention.
So where are Bartolo Colon, R.A. Dickey and Jaime Garcia now?
> Colon, 44, is headed to spring training with the Texas Rangers on a minor-league contract after finishing last season with the Minnesota Twins. He’ll get a one-year, $1.75-million big-league contract, plus incentives, if he makes the Texas team.
> Dickey, 43, the only one of the three who spent all of last season with the Braves, has seriously considered retiring, but hasn't officially done so. A free agent, he has left open the possibility of pitching again at some point this season, telling the Chattanooga Times Free Press in late January: "I would be available for a team around the All-Star break, when teams are looking for trades and veteran leadership and guys who can eat innings to protect some younger guys. I don't know if the itch is completely out of me, but I know that God has called me with conviction to step away from it in the early months of spring and summer to be with my family."
> Garcia, 31, became a free agent after finishing last season with the New York Yankees, and he remains on the market, as do many free agents because of a slow offseason market. Look for him to sign with some team needing an economical, back-of-the-rotation left arm.
Colon, Dickey and Garcia were three-fifths of the Braves’ starting rotation at the outset of last season, billed as a “bridge” to allow the organization’s touted pitching prospects time to develop. Colon was gone by the end of June and Garcia by the end of July, and the Braves declined a 2018 option on Dickey’s contract in October.
Braves pitchers and catchers report to Disney today, with promise of a younger rotation this time around.
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MORNING READING ...
> Gabriel Burns takes a look at the Braves' third-base situation, and David O'Brien looks at the left-field picture.
> Numbers released by the Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee provide a pretty good measure of what Atlanta can expect when the big game comes here next year.
> Why did it go wrong for Mark Fox? And where might UGA turn next? Mark Bradley examines those questions.
> Will the state of Georgia be shut out of the NCAA men's basketball tournament once again? Maybe not, Jeff Schultz writes.
