What a day! Braves release 305-game winner Glavine, acquire All-Star OF McLouth from Pirates

Braves dump future Hall of Famer, acquire All-Star

ATLANTA — The Braves headed out to batting practice, but the doors to the Atlanta clubhouse remained shut — the first inkling that something was up.

No one could have envisioned what was coming.

Less than an hour apart Wednesday, the Braves ingloriously dumped Tom Glavine just when it seemed the 305-game winner was set to return from an injury, then completed a trade with Pittsburgh for All-Star center fielder Nate McLouth, a huge boost to a sporadic offense.

General manager Frank Wren believed the team was just a couple of moves away from contending in the NL East, so he acted boldly.

“We didn’t want the season to get too far gone before we made some moves,” he said. “We thought some aggressive moves would put our club in good position.”

The Braves slipped to 5½ games behind NL East-leading Philadelphia with a 3-2, 11-inning loss to the Chicago Cubs that was downright anticlimactic on a day like this. Atlanta hasn’t made the playoffs since 2005, the last of its record 14 straight division titles.

Instead of bringing back Glavine, who made three rehab starts in the minors coming back from shoulder and elbow injuries, the Braves turned to top prospect Tommy Hanson. He’s been dominant at Triple-A Gwinnett, going 3-3 with a 1.49 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 66 1-3 innings.

Everyone in the clubhouse could see the logic of calling up Hanson.

No one expected Glavine’s career in Atlanta to end like this, however.

“This is a good lesson for everybody who doesn’t know better,” third baseman Chipper Jones said. “This is a business, and sometimes it’s harsh.”

The trade for McLouth lightened the mood a little, but not much. Glavine thought he would be pitching in Atlanta by the weekend, only to get summoned to a meeting with Wren, team president John Schuerholz and manager Bobby Cox. They gave him a chance to retire; he asked to be released, giving him the option to hook on with another team.

“He was one of the best teammates I ever had,” said catcher Brian McCann, looking toward the locker right next to his, still with Glavine’s name above it. “He was first class all the way and one of the best pitchers of our time.”

The 43-year-old Glavine threw six scoreless innings in a rehab start for Class-A Rome on Tuesday night and proclaimed himself ready to pitch in the majors again.

Instead, the Braves cut him, another move that figures to draw the ire of Atlanta fans after the team failed to re-sign John Smoltz during the offseason.

Glavine described himself as “very surprised” in a text message to The Associated Press. Atlanta manager Bobby Cox called it “the hardest thing I’ve ever been through.”

The players were most shocked by the timing of the decision: Why was the 305-game winner allowed to make three rehab starts and then told he wouldn’t be pitching anymore for the Braves? Did Atlanta ever have any intention of bringing him back, considering he didn’t allow a run in his last two starts against minor-leaguers?

“We all would have preferred to see it happen sooner because he worked so hard to rehab,” Jones said. “Right when he’s saying he’s ready to come back, he finds out that it’s not going to be here.”

Glavine’s out, McLouth’s in.

The 27-year-old center fielder set career highs last season with a .276 batting average, 26 homers and 94 RBIs. The Braves desperately needed more offense from an outfield that produced only 10 homers through the first 51 games.

Atlanta gave up outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, one of its top prospects, along with pitchers Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke.

McLouth, who is hitting .256 with nine homers and 34 RBIs this season, fills several needs for the Braves. In addition to bolstering the lineup, he won a Gold Glove in 2008 and had 23 stolen bases. Since the start of the ‘05 season, he has the best stolen base percentage (64 of 69) in the majors.

Another plus: McLouth is under contract through at least 2011, having signed a three-year, $15.75 contract in spring training. The deal includes a team option for a fourth year at $10.65 million, with a $1.25 million buyout.

Jones, the senior member of the clubhouse, can certainly understand the cold, hard logic of Wednesday’s moves.

“Sentimentally, it stinks,” Jones said. “But optimistically, looking into the future, it’s a step in the right direction.”

For those who might attribute Glavine’s release to finances, Wren said it had nothing to do with a $1 million bonus Glavine would have received for being placed on the major league roster. Instead, the team felt it had a better chance to win with Hanson, who will make his first start Saturday against Milwaukee.

“This was not a business decision,” Wren said. “This was a performance decision.”

Glavine hasn’t decided if he wants to try to pitch elsewhere. He was still trying to deal with what might be an even more bitter split from the Braves than the one after the 2002 season, when he couldn’t agree on a new contract and signed with the rival New York Mets.

Glavine spent five years in the Big Apple, then reconciled with his original team. He returned last year but pitched in only 13 games, sidelined by the first serious injury of his career. After elbow and shoulder surgery, he signed another one-year deal with Atlanta, only to suffer another setback in April.

After resting for two weeks, he returned to the mound.

But he never made it all the way back to Atlanta.

“It would have been a storybook ending if he got it here,” Jones said. “Emotionally, we all wanted to see Glav come in here and finish up. He’s not going to be allowed to do that.”

Smoltz thinks that’s a shame.

“That ain’t right,” Smoltz said in Detroit, where his Boston Red Sox teammates beat the Tigers. “It’s not how you treat people.”