Braves release Tom Glavine

The Atlanta Braves announced June 3 that pitcher Tom Glavine has been released. Glavine, 43, underwent left elbow surgery on August 15, 2008 and signed a one-year contract with the Braves on February 20th for the 2009 season.

Following surgery late in the 2008 season, Glavine attempted to rehabilitate his surgically repaired left elbow during the offseason and followed that with four rehabilitation starts in 2009.

"We appreciate and respect everything Tom has done for and brought to the Atlanta Braves organization and our fans," said Executive Vice President and General Manager Frank Wren. "His accomplishments for our club during his hall of fame career is a measure of his dedication that we will always respect and admire. We wish him nothing but the very best."

A two-time National League Cy Young Award winner (1991 & 1998) and a 10-time N.L. All-Star, Glavine returned to the Braves in 2008 after pitching five seasons (2003-07) for the New York Mets. He went 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA and started just 13 games in an injury-shortened campaign in 2008. Glavine owns a 305-203 career record and a 3.54 ERA in 682 games (all starts). He has compiled 244 of his wins in a Braves uniform. Glavine helped Atlanta to five World Series appearances in the 1990s and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1995 World Series, when the Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians.

A five-time 20-game winner, the 42-year-old Glavine joined an elite fraternity of pitchers when he posted the 300th victory of his career on August 5, 2007, at Chicago. Only 22 other pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball have reached that plateau, and all but two (Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux) are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Glavine ranks as the fourth-winningest left-handed pitcher in history, behind Warren Spahn (363), Steve Carlton (329) and Eddie Plank (326).

Selected by the Braves in the second round of the 1984 draft, Glavine made his Major League debut in 1987. He won his first Cy Young Award in 1991, when he went 20-11 and helped the Braves win the first of five N.L. pennants in a nine-year period. Glavine earned his second Cy Young Award in 1998, leading the league with a 20-6 record, ranking third with a 2.47 ERA and again helping the Braves to an N.L. pennant.

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