Braves Agree to Terms With Free Agent OF Nick Markakis

ATLANTA, Ga. – The Atlanta Braves announced this evening that they have agreed to terms with free-agent outfielder Nick Markakis on a four-year Major League contract, pending a physical exam. Financial terms of the deal were not announced.

Markakis, who turned 31 last month, has played his entire nine-year career with the Baltimore Orioles.  He was selected by the Orioles in the first round (seventh overall) of the 2003 First-Year Player draft out of Young Harris College. He attended Woodstock (Ga.) High School. 

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound lefthander played in 155 games for the Orioles in 2014, when he hit .276 with 14 home runs and 50 RBI for the American League East Division champion Orioles.

Markakis has played at least 155 games in seven of his nine Major League seasons and has compiled a .290 career batting average with 749 runs scored, 316 doubles, 141 home runs and 658 RBI in 1,365 games.  He has averaged 89 runs, 38 doubles, 17 home runs and 78 RBI per 162 games played over his career.

A two-time Gold Glove Award winner (2011 and 2014), Markakis ended the 2014 season with 328 consecutive errorless games in the outfield (dating back to August 11, 2012).  He was just eight games shy of Rich Amaral’s (1995-2000) American League record of 336 straight errorless contests.  The Major League record for an outfielder is 392 straight games, set by Darren Lewis (1990-94).

Markakis finished the 2014 season among Baltimore’s all-time franchise leaders in games (10th), at-bats (9th – 5,331), runs (8th), hits (6th – 1,547), doubles (6th), RBI (9th), walks (9th – 553), batting average (5th), on-base percentage (9th – .358), total bases (6th – 2,318), and multi-hit games (4th – 435).  He is the all-time leader in Oriole Park at Camden Yards history in at-bats (2,646) and hits (762).

                               NICK MARKAKIS’ MAJOR LEAGUE RECORD

YEAR TEAM            G    AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO   AVG   OBP   SLG

2006 Baltimore     147   491   72  143  25   2  16   62   43   72  .291  .351  .448

2007 Baltimore     161   637   97  191  43   3  23  112   61  112  .300  .362  .485

2008 Baltimore     157   595  106  182  48   1  20   87   99  113  .306  .406  .491

2009 Baltimore     161   642   94  188  45   2  18  101   56   98  .293  .347  .453

2010 Baltimore     160   629   79  187  45   3  12   60   73   93  .297  .370  .436

2011 Baltimore     160   641   72  182  31   1  15   73   62   75  .284  .351  .406

2012 Baltimore     104   420   59  125  28   3  13   54   42   51  .298  .363  .471

2013 Baltimore     160   634   89  172  24   0  10   59   55   76  .271  .329  .356

2014 Baltimore     155   642   81  177  27   1  14   50   62   84  .276  .342  .386

TOTALS            1365  5331  749 1547 316  16 141  658  553  774  .290  .358  .435