The Braves felt their lineup was too right-handed and that they did not have enough players who battled in at-bats.
They feel they addressed both of those issues while potentially making it easier to trade Justin Upton with the signing Wednesday of Nick Markakis to a four-year, $44 million contract.
Braves general manager John Hart told me earlier this offseason he would like to try the defensively suspect Evan Gattis in left field next year to get his bat in the lineup daily. Markakis is a Gold Glove right fielder. That would leave no corner outfield slot for Upton, whom the Braves are openly marketing after already trading long-time right fielder Jason Heyward.
Like Heyward, Upton is a free agent after next season and the Braves are trying to think about accumulating talent to be as strong as possible when they move into a new stadium in 2017.
Markakis was the longest-tenured Oriole. He is known to grind out at-bats and had a .342 on-base percentage last year with 62 walks against 84 strikeouts.
The Orioles have now lost Markakis and Nelson Cruz in the same week from an AL East champion roster. Andrew Miller very well could exit in the coming days, too.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports first reported Markakis had agreed with the Braves.