ATLANTA -- After months of speculation, the Braves have opted not to offer contracts to Brandon Beachy and Kris Medlen ahead of Tuesday's 11:59 p.m. deadline.
The pitches, both of whom are coming off their second Tommy John surgeries, are now free agents, along with Gus Schlosser.
Atlanta could still agree to extensions with any of those players and rumors have persisted that the team has been in talks with both Beachy and Medlen about incentive-laden deals.
With Tuesday's announcement, the Braves still have three arbitration-eligible players in left-handed starter Mike Minor and relievers David Carpenter and James Russell.
Beachy and Medlen left starts within 24 hours of each other this past spring, leading to surgeries that prompted the Braves to sign Ervin Santana and Aaron Harang to one-year contracts. Despite that upheaval, Atlanta posted a 3.42 ERA -- fourth in the National League and sixth in the majors -- and had the third-highest total in franchise history with 110 quality starts.
Medlen, 29, went 15-12 in 31 starts in 2013 and in 61 career starts (all with the Braves), is 34-20 with a 2.95 ERA.
The right-hander had a breakout year in '11, posting a 1.57 ERA in going 10-1 and setting a MLB record as the team won 23 straight games he started.
While he became a stalwart of the rotation, a decision to non-tender him wasn't all that surprising considering he avoided arbitration a year ago with a $5.8 million salary as a second-year eligible player. The Collective Bargaining Agreement states that if the team would have tendered Medlen, they could offer no lower than 80 percent of his previous year's salary ($4.74 million).
The 28-year-old Beachy has made just five starts June 12, 2012, when the righty left a start against the Orioles with elbow soreness.
At the time, Beachy led the NL with a 2.00 ERA, but couldn't rekindle that magic when he returned after the '13 All-Star break, going 2-1 in five starts with a 4.50 ERA in 30 innings.
Beachy was awarded $1.45 million in '13 in his first arbitration-eligible year. Not allowing him to become a free agent would have forced the Braves to offer at least $1.16 million.
The Braves opted not to return Harang and Santana, and while they obtained starter Shelby Miller in a four-player November deal with the Cardinals that sent right fielder Jason Heyward and reliever Jordan Walden to St. Louis, there remains a question as to whom will round out a rotation that includes Miller, Minor, Julio Teheran and Alex Wood.
