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Smoltz admits he may not be an Atlanta Brave when he returns from shoulder surgery next summer.

"I say this for the first time, without reservation, if I'm going to bust my butt and if I feel like I'm good enough and it doesn't work out here, I will be pitching somewhere else ... My dream scenario would be to pitch in the playoffs again, and that's coming from a guy who's been in 13 of them. (Smoltz missed the 2000 playoffs with Tommy John surgery.) To me, that's what I'm about. So if the door gets closed here, it'll have to be explored somewhere else.

"Make no mistake," he said a few minutes later. "I am absolutely, 100 percent committed to playing the rest of my career for the Atlanta Braves. But this can't be my only option ... I may not be in the [Braves'] plans. It's no given right, where I've spent 21 years here and [so] they owe me whatever I want."

Smoltz has an option for the 2009 season in his contract that would have kicked in had he hit 200 innings this year, but the shoulder surgery kept him well short of achieving that. Still, the Braves can pick up the option if they want to, but Frank Wren doesn't plan on making any decisions about 2009 until the end of this season.

John Smoltz May Leave the Atlanta Braves - MLB FanHouse