The End of the Tom Glavine Era

It is a sad day for baseball fans as the Atlanta Braves have officially released future hall of famer Tom Glavine. The organization let Glavine know what his season was over on Wednesday just as he arrived at storied Turner Field. In February the team signed Glavine to a contract worth $1 million that stipulated he would receive another million when he was added to the 25 man roster.

The organization came out with a statement that reflected how happy they were to have had Glavine on the team for so many years and that they are saddened to see him walk off into the sunset. In all honesty the Braves would not really have had the success that they did without Glavine and his remarkable career.

However, the Braves did not really treat Glavine with the respect that he truly deserves. Glavine worked hard in minor league ball this year and pitched 6 scoreless innings in a game on Tuesday. After the game he declared that he was fit and ready to be added to the MLB roster, but it seems that the Braves found that they were in fact not ready. Not only was it about the extra $1 million dollars, but the team also did not want to slow down the progress of highly touted prospect Tommy Hanson. When Hanson is ready the team wants to be able to bring him up right away. Having Glavine on the roster would force the team to release or send down another player, and they just are not ready to do that.

Tom Glavine first joined the team in 1987 and played for the team for most of his career excluding five years with the New York Mets in between. With his loyalty to the team, he deserved better than this. The Braves kept telling him that once he was finished his rehab and proved he was ready that he would be given his shot. He was called up on Wednesday only to be told that his services would not be needed anymore. It is a disappointing end to an excellent career.

There has been no word from Tom Glavine yet on what his next move will be, but he will probably not retire just yet. He has too much pride and has put too much work into this season to just walk away now. And there is little doubt that he will want to prove the Braves wrong this year and show that he can still handle the rigors of the league. If he does return, it will probably be in the NL and he would be looking to go to a team that is on the cusp of playoff contention. As long as Glavine is in fact healthy and willing to play, he could be a great pick up for any team that is looking to make a push towards the playoffs for the 2009 season. Possibly a team like the Philadelphia Phillies, who could just be one quality starter away from making a deep playoff run.