Wren: "No Comment" On Glavine Grievance Idea

((HT: ESPN))

Atlanta Braves general manager Frank Wren said Sunday he had no comment on a report Tom Glavine may file a grievance against the team following his release on Wednesday.

Glavine said Friday he believes he was released for financial reasons and to clear a roster spot for Tommy Hanson, who made his major league debut Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Wren, team chairman Terry McGuirk and president John Schuerholz said Glavine was released because they did not believe the 43-year-old left-hander would make a successful return from surgery on his elbow and shoulder.

"It was purely and only on the merits of what gave us the best chance to win, no financial interest whatsoever involved," McGuirk said.

FoxSports.com reported Saturday that Glavine's agent, Gregg Clifton, is exploring filing a grievance.

Glavine would have received a $1 million bonus if he had been activated from the disabled list for Sunday's start, as he expected.

"I don't believe for a minute that it was totally a performance-related issue, which I'm totally fine with, but I would have appreciated the honesty," Glavine said Friday.

According to the collective-bargaining agreement, players can't be released because of financial reasons.

Schuerholz issued an apology Friday for "the environment and the tone and the manner" of the release.

Schuerholz said he should have better explained the decision to Glavine.

"I, as the president of the club, could have taken more time to explain not only the circumstances around the decision, although we made that decision in unanimous fashion, but to explain to Tommy our high regard for him," Schuerholz said, adding he hopes the organization can maintain "some sort of relationship" with Glavine.

"But I don't feel like I really expressed myself as completely and as fully and to the level that somebody like Tommy deserves," Schuerholz said.

Glavine and Clifton did not respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment about the possible grievance.

More On The Schuerholz Apology

((HT: AJC/Rogers))

Braves president John Schuerholz issued a public apology to Tom Glavine ((pictured, thanks AJC/Curtis Compton)) on Friday afternoon, in the wake of Glavine’s angry comments over his release.

Schuerholz said that in the meeting that he, manager Bobby Cox and general manager Frank Wren had with Glavine on Wednesday, Schuerholz didn’t say enough to explain to Glavine how much he has meant to the organization.

“I want to offer an apology to Tommy,” Schuerholz said. “We made our decision, but the environment and the tone and the manner at the end of it didn’t feel comfortable to me. I tossed and turned pretty much all night long really, after we finished our meeting with Tommy, thinking about here’s this guy who has meant so much to our franchise, to the game of baseball, Hall of Famer, represented our city in grand fashion, and the meeting ended in a way that didn’t make me feel good. I felt like I owed Tommy an apology on behalf of our organization and from me.”

Hear the apology from the afternoon press conference from Schuerholz:

Thanks to our friends at 680theFan in Atlanta

He said he left Glavine a voicemail apologizing and said Glavine had reached out in return. Schuerholz said he hopes to speak to Glavine personally in the few days.

Schuerholz didn’t back down from the decision to release Glavine but regretted not expressing the respect the Braves have for him and the vision they have to keep him “in some sort of relationship” with the organization.

He did not want to address specific complaints from Glavine that he had been blindsided and misled by the Braves.

“I’m talking about my feelings,” Schuerholz said. “Tommy has his, and they’re all real and valid. There’s no disputing how he feels. I can understand a lot of that, or all of it, actually. This was a tough thing. I would have felt better when I thought about it afterward if I’d done a better job in portraying our respect for him in the midst of all that decision-making.”

Frank Wren Addresses Media On Glavine

((HT: AJC/Bradley))



It was a grim and defensive Wren who faced the press, and sure enough the question arose: Given that John Smoltz was allowed to sign elsewhere and that Glavine has been cut, was he worried about appearances?

“Obviously you’re concerned about everything,” Wren said, “but at the end of the day fans want to win, to be in the playoff hunt … If we have to deal with the consequences of a public-relations backlash, that’s part of doing business.”

Then this: “My duty is to give the 25 players in that clubhouse the best chance to win and the best chance to be playing in October.”