Major League Baseball

Jonny Gomes: Braves are 'Here to win, we're here to win it all'

Published Feb. 25, 2015 11:33 a.m. ET

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Don't tell Jonny Gomes the Atlanta Braves are rebuilding. He's not buying that idea, and refuses to perpetuate the notion that the Braves are weak because the team dealt many of its star players during the offseason.

"I don't think I could look at Bobby Cox walking around and be like 'Hey Bobby, we're trying to go .500," Gomes said as he arrived at the Braves spring training facility on Wednesday. "'What do you think about that?'

"That's not going to work."

Gomes has too much respect for the game, and he has too much respect for his teammates to show up in 2015 and expect to deliver mediocrity. Plus, he's been a part of big achievements in very similar situations to what the Braves are about to go through.

"With my road, my path here in the major leagues, I'm scarred deep to where you've got to set your goals high," said Gomes. "It's not really setting the goals high, it's almost expected."

Gomes recalled several situations where teams he was on put together magical seasons from next to nothing.

The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays had a payroll of $43.8 million, a figure that ranked 29th out of 30 teams. Gomes played in 77 games for that team and helped the Rays win 97 games and make it to the World Series.

Gomes enjoyed one of his best seasons as a major leaguer in 2010 with the Cincinnati Reds. He hit 18 home runs and drove in 86 while batting .266 in 148 games. The Reds won 91 games that season and won the NL Central in what Gomes called "a so-called rebuilding year."

In 2013, Gomes played for the Boston Red Sox, a team that bounced back from a 69-win season the year prior to notch 97 victories, finish best in the AL East for the first time in six years and win the World Series. Gomes played in 116 games for that Red Sox team that improved by 28 games.

No stranger to turning baseball fortunes around quickly, or achieving high marks when the bar was set lower, the most compelling comparison to the situation Gomes is about to embark on in Atlanta happened in 2012 with the Oakland A's.

In the offseason prior to 2012, the A's traded 12-game winner Trevor Cahill, a pitcher that saved 24 games in Andrew Bailey and 16-game winner and All-Star pitcher Gio Gonzalez. In return the A's collected a boat full of prospects.

"I think you saw that here this offseason," Gomes said as he compared the departure of those stars with Evan Gattis, Justin Upton and Jason Heyward being shipped from Atlanta. "Everyone kind of wrote the A's off, and sure enough we hung a banner. We were in first place in 2012 for four innings. You guys remember Game 162, Oakland versus Texas at home? We celebrated back-to-back nights. Going through things like that definitely keeps my head up and pointing north."

Fond memories of that 2012 Oakland team sit in the front of Gomes' mind as a reminder that overhauling a clubhouse doesn't take long at all. He applauded Director of Baseball Operations John Hart for his work in bringing in a "bunch of talent."

And manager Fredi Gonzalez heaped praise on Gomes, excited to see how his new outfielder could become a spark in the clubhouse.

"He's good and he's productive," said Gonzalez. "You can be old and unproductive and not really have a voice or don't feel like you have a voice. It's a little harder that way. (He's) a guy that can play every day. He's got that fire and he's got that passion for the game and I think that stuff is contagious.”

As Gomes familiarized himself with a new clubhouse and new teammates, he looked around the room and even over to the non-roster invitees and was impressed with depth.

"We've got some dudes not on the 40-man that John Hart went ahead and reloaded," said Gomes in response to names like Wandy Rodriguez, Eric Stults and John Buck. "That's one of the ways you've got to win is with depth. I saw two or three dudes that I totally forgot signed here that are over on the minor league side of things which is going to create a whole lot of competition."

Another way to win is to start building an expectation of accountability that begins as soon as a player arrives at spring training. Games aren't unimportant in March, they're exactly when a team lays the foundation for a winning atmosphere, according to Gomes. Every time a player puts on a uniform, there's a reason behind the act. The quicker players buy in to that mentality, the quicker competitive teams can appear from nowhere.

This is especially true for the 2015 Braves, a team that knows how to win but is going to have to find new ways to score runs. Gone are 62 home runs from the bats of Gattis, Justin Upton and Heyward. No longer in Atlanta are three of the top four batting averages from a year ago, and three of the top five on-base percentages.

Instead of those big bats are prospects and journeymen like Gomes, who won't call himself a nomad, but has seen a great many things in his 12 years in the league with five different teams. The Braves will be his sixth team, and a stop where he will try and nudge this hodgepodge group into a focused band of brothers that could replicate the success of the 2012 A's, the 2008 Rays or even the champion 2013 Red Sox.

"We're here to win, we're here to win it all," said Gomes, refusing to consider a season where .500 is the goal. "That's where I'm at."

Gomes said he isn't sure how get these Braves on the same track as so many of the other successful teams from his past. "If that book could be written, said Gomes, "it would have already been written. It's not."

It hasn't been written because the perfect person to author that tome hasn't come around yet. Not until now.

Gomes is the right guy to create the outline that takes a group of baseball players than few believe in and build a winning team. He's been there and done that so many times that his ability to help spark some sort of hidden talent to overachieve on the diamond may be more cliche than the phrase that's been printed on millions of t-shirts.

It seems like Gomes is the kind of guy that will only need a few weeks to instill the courage and tenacity needed to help turn things around for the Braves. Gomes said it's all about creating an identity, creating an attitude.

If he helps the Braves push into the playoffs, Gomes had better get to creating that book.

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