Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos conducted an end-of-season media session with reporters this morning. Most notably, the GM indicated he expected player payroll to increase going into next year. A rising payroll doesn’t mean the Braves will be especially active in free agency, as the club already has a lot of internal commitments.
“It’s gone up each year that I’ve been here,” Anthopoulos said (link via Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). “I know it’s not going to go down, I expect it to rise, but to what level, we’ll spend the offseason going through that. I view it opening day to opening day, because in-season things come up. … Is it a bottomless pit? Is it unlimited? Of course not. But every year we’ve set a new Braves high from a payroll standpoint. … We will be going up, I just can’t give you the amount.”
According to the calculations at Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Braves entered the 2024 season with around $223MM in player salaries. Their estimated luxury tax number was much higher. A team’s tax figure is calculated based on the average annual values of their contracts, leading to a higher tax number than raw payroll for an Atlanta team that has a lot of backloaded extensions. Cot’s estimated the Braves’ tax hit around $279MM, though Anthopoulos confirmed shortly after the trade deadline that Atlanta was narrowly below the $277MM threshold that marks the third tier of penalization. It’s the second straight year in which the Braves will pay the luxury tax.
The Braves seem prepared to go over the threshold for a third consecutive season in 2025. That’d entail paying a higher price for repeat payors. Atlanta would pay a 50% tax on their first $20MM above next year’s $241MM base threshold. That’d jump to 62% for the following $20MM with further penalties if they pushed past the $281MM mark.
According to RosterResource, the Braves already have around $180MM in player salaries (not CBT obligations) on the books for 2025. They’re planning to exercise a trio of club options that’ll tack on another $31.25MM. That puts the team at roughly $211.25MM. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects their arbitration class to add roughly $10MM more — assuming they tender Ramón Laureano and move on from Cavan Biggio. Rounding out the roster with minimum salary players would put them close to last year’s estimated Opening Day payroll before accounting for outside acquisitions.
Anthopoulos and his staff could create some payroll room via trade. Jorge Soler is set for respective $13MM salaries over the next two seasons. Soler hit well down the stretch when the Braves acquired him at the deadline to bolster a scuffling offense. He’s not an ideal fit on a roster that already has Marcell Ozuna locked in at designated hitter, though. Ronald Acuña Jr. should be back early in the season in right field. If the Braves retain Laureano for his final arbitration season, trading Soler and offloading at least a chunk of his contract would make sense.
At the same time, the Braves are going to need some kind of additions. They could lose Max Fried and A.J. Minter to free agency. Charlie Morton is also an impending free agent and might decide to retire. Getting Spencer Strider back midway through the year would help compensate for losing Fried, while the bullpen still looks strong even if Minter departs. Still, there’d be some questions about the rotation depth behind a strong front four of Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Spencer Schwellenbach and (once healthy) Strider.
Atlanta could look for an upgrade over Orlando Arcia at shortstop as well. A free agent splash for Willy Adames would be out of character for a front office that has typically done its heavy lifting via trades and extensions. (Jon Heyman of the New York Post floated the Braves as a possible Adames landing spot earlier this week.) There aren’t many obvious shortstop trade candidates, particularly if the Blue Jays elect to hang onto Bo Bichette for his last year of club control. Anthopoulos and his staff have had a knack for pulling surprise trades over the years, though, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly where they’ll look.
One area that doesn’t seem it’ll have any turnover: the coaching staff. Manager Brian Snitker is under contract through the end of next season. The 68-year-old confirmed right after the team was eliminated in the NL Wild Card Series that he’ll continue managing (X link via Justin Toscano of the Journal-Constitution). Anthopoulos said this morning that he expects the entire coaching staff to remain in place.
Rise or fall, changes need to be made…significant changes that don’t take into account people’s emotional attachment towards certain players.
I have a feeling, the Braves will go deep next season or the start of continual regression of the franchise.
No reason for Mets to trade Luisangel
The payroll going up to offset economic inflation is not the same thing that’s meant when you say the payroll is going up.
Every company’s payroll goes up every year, assuming no personnel changes.
Someone needs to tell the Braves this and stop sending out these intentionally misguiding statements to get the fans thinking they’ll bring players in. I’ve been around long enough to see the Braves play this card many times and it’s just shady politics.
What are you talking about? The payroll is going up, no one even implied they’d be bringing in any big names. Payroll often goes up just from keeping players you already have. Spare us your horrendous takes.
Strong reading comprehension. They drop this statement every year to confuse fans into thinking they will be bringing in players
Did you not see the part where I said it’s normal for it to go up each year for all companies? How slow are you? All you did was regurgitated the same thing I said. The only difference is I’m calling out the Braves for making this some sort of announcement at all like it means anything. It’s completely deceptive and it’s intentional. If you can’t realize that you’re extremely naive.
But you know what let’s hear your take. I actually would like to see it. What do YOU think the reason is for the Braves announcing no their payroll will go up? Please enlighten everyone since you’ve got such a great grasp on this announcement
Wtf are you on about? The Braves are a top 6 payroll team and have been paying the luxury tax as repeat offenders. “The Braves are cheap” narrative needs to stop
Of course its going up some, AA said he had been wanting Soler since he left and the outfield could be crowded if the keep RL. Someone said trade Ozuna. Possible but I don’t think so.. He kept the team afloat most of the year. To me if you want to dump/make room on the payroll Arcia could go and Murphy is not giving his money’s worth. I think Morton will retire and Fried will leave. So possibly they could fill in with AAA starters but it is what it is. Up 10-15 mil in today’s money isn’t a lot.
@Jerry Jackson: Arcia’s only making $2M. Much better to keep him as a cheap utility if’er if they acquire a SS than save a measly $2M.
Well since you asked, it’s barely an announcement at all. This is standard GM speak for any club that is already spending and has an open window for contention. They only tip their hand so much, publicly traded or otherwise. There’s simply no way AA would have said anything else.
Alex is going to stay under the $281 number that starts penalizing draft picks for going under. That’s a very healthy payroll to build on a roster that entered 2024 as the best roster in baseball. It’s the opposite of shady politics. He’s using every penny he can to improve the team without sacrificing draft capital to do it.
Tendering Laureano?? That’s a joke right?
Cleveland tendered him at over $5MM coming off a worse season than the one he just had. He was terrible for the Guardians early this year but hit .296/.327/.505 in 67 games for Atlanta.
I wouldn’t be shocked if he got non-tendered but I think it’s likelier they keep him at around $6MM. He was certainly better down the stretch than Kelenic was.
@anthony. Agreed on the better than kelenic. But, I doubt the Braves believe Laureano can maintain an almost .300 average with his sub 4% bb rate next year and be productive. I’d just be glad we got a good half year and wish him the best moving forward. I bet they move on, especially considering he was pretty terrible on the grass outside of LF.
Yeah that’s fair. I think there’s a chance they find a trade partner too. I’m skeptical they’ll want to play Soler in the outfield for a full season and it’s tough to go back to Kelenic. So if they do cut Laureano, they’ll probably need to throw a few million dollars at left field in either case.
This is just my opinion. Soler should be DH, Ozuna should be traded, Eli White could be the bench outfielder. He’s better on defense and 1/10th the pay vs Laureano. But, I’m going beyond the article. Laureano being traded seems like a stretch. I feel lost team would just wait for the release. Ozuna could get some real trade interest.
Thanks for responding!
They can tender him a contract and still release him in spring training without owing him the full contract. So they probably tender him a contract until they figure out what they want to do with the outfield
Ozuna and soler don’t even compare. Ozuna is almost a 100 points here and brings more to Atlanta. Ozuna will stay and Soler will go if they trade
All I know is that once he got going he was a consistent threat for the rest of the season. Don’t underestimate that he is a talented defender who plays very hard. He would certainly be good for a platoon at least. I mean he was hitting fifth and doing a great job so the suggestion by the one guy that it’s a joke to resign him at 5 mil is odd. At the least you have a very serviceable defensive first 4th outfielder. They brought in a right handed bat in Duvall to platoon with Kelenic so presumably they would be interested in keeping Laureano unless they get an everyday LFer. They’d hardly be expecting he hit 300. He showed impressive opposite field power tho.
@ben. It’s about opportunity cost. You can get more value from Ozuna now than Soler. And who’s to say Ozuna will produce going forward? Ozuna can’t get a QO, Soler can.
@rishi. You are looking at 67 games. He’s been terrible at defense outside of left field. Also he’s hit like 230 since he got popped for peds. If I’m a front office I approach negotiations as if I’m talking to a lifetime .247 batter with sub 5% bb rate. I’m not falling for recency bias
Soler is locked up. He can’t get a QO.
I mean when his contract is up. Come on son
If one looks at what Soler has done twice now with ATL he plays well for them. He has lots of potential. He is available one more year than Ozuna. He can run a bit more. He has a good arm so while he is bad in left he is at least playable there occasionally which opens up the DH slot now and then. Ozuna has the value right now assuming teams don’t hold his past against him. Trading Soler is gonna get little value as what he’s getting is about what he’d get as a free agent.
People wouldn’t want to pay a ton for a 35 year old DH so Atlanta wouldn’t waste his value for nothing
It’s soler that needs to go because he hits a lot worse than Marcell but is paid as much and is as bad defensively
He has a great arm. It’s the only time he really got to play LF in his career tho. Wouldn’t it make sense that he would be good there. He was once an above average CFer.
Well you say common son but it wasn’t exactly clear. Everyone can get a QO eventually.
@rishi. I never said trade soler. My comment said soler at DH (even occasional OF) and trade Ozuna. What the fudge was the point of that comment? I was arguing why soler should stay and Ozuna go.
I don’t think his value is nothing. Any team that needs hitting could use him. It doesn’t matter how bad Marcell is defensively because they are never gonna play him in the field. Partially because it took so long to get him right they don’t want him thinking about anything but hitting. At least Soler is an option if youre desperate.
I’m speaking about Laureano
You’re not the only one on the thread. I was commenting also to the other chap. I mean why couldn’t I theoretically just be supporting your point tho? Adding to it.
My apologies, mate. The notifications make it seem like you respond to me, but I guess you are just responding within the thread.
Idk why it does that but they need to do something about it.
Idk, I think the Braves might try to keep as many OFFERS as they can next season. Typically, one would think it would make sense for one of Laureano, Soler, or Kelenic to go, especially with Harris and Acuña Jr. entrenched in CF and RF, but I think they might want to hold onto the depth and insurance it offers them in case Acuña reaggrivates something or Harris goes down.
My main concern is their infield depth, and replacing Arcia’s blackhole of a bat in their line-up. He was beyond atrocious hitting with RISP, and I think he ended up barely above .150 or something like that. That has to be historically awful, and there’s no excuse for a team with championship aspirations to go into next season with him being their starting SS.
Baldwin will be solid insurance in case they have an injury at Catcher, but, again, they’re going to need to re-tool their bench spots. I don’t think they want Nacho sitting on the bench when he could be getting more ABs at AAA, but I’m okay with Arcia being the back-up SS. I certainly wouldn’t mind keeping Merrifield around in a UT role, but the SS position is extremely light on potential upgrades, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Braves look to finalize certain parts of their roster.
They’ll need to add an experienced SP to fill put their rotation, and then they’ll have AJSS and Waldrep continuing to mature and grow at AAA in case they’re needed. They’ll also have guys like Anderson and Elder around for depth purposes as well as some younger options like Hackenburg among others that should be ready at some point next season.
I’m not worried about the bullpen at all. The Braves have always been able to put together an extremely solid bullpen, and they already have plenty of pieces in place to have one of the top bullpens again, even if they don’t resign AJ Minter.
Soler is under contract for 2 more years.
i agree with this take of the state of the braves. bullpen and catcher should be settled, one starter should be brought in, the infield bench/SS is an area to address if nacho isn’t the answer. as for the outfield, due to everyones controllable contract situations the best play might be to wait until they actually have a replacement, to offload one of their incumbent guys. trade for a middle of the order bat, or hell, sign someone like teo hernandez or santander? then you can trade one of ozuna or soler, whichever may have the most value compared to their evaluations. miss on them and settle for someone like bellinger(if not FA, trade candidate?), to depth guys like bader or duvall again? and then you can see what the market has to offer for one of kelenic or laureano. they have options and it might be a mistake to move with conviction too early in the offseason
Soler is already signed, he wouldn’t get a QO.
What you guys are overlooking is Acuna returning. I’ve said since they traded for Soler that Ozuna will be gone next season. I could be wrong but I can’t see Acuna coming back after a 2nd knee surgery and playing everyday in the outfield, at least for his first couple months. So if you keep Soler, Ronald and Soler can take turns at DH/RF to keep them both fresh early in the season and keep both of their bats in the lineup. It just does not work as well with Ozuna and Ozuna makes more money and has more trade value. IMO Ozuna is gone.
First of all does ozuna have more trade value? Even after the domestic violence incident?
Also why would the braves want to trade the better player when teams have a surplus of players they trade the worst good ones (e.g. Connor norby, Kyle stowers, Joey weimer)
Yes, Ozuna has more value. By that I mean you can easily find someone to pay all of Ozuna’s salary for 2025 without having to throw in a prospect to make it happen. There is zero chance you will find anyone to take the remainder of Soler’s contact unless the Braves do include other players.
@Rishi: Trading Soler wouldn’t be about the return. It’s about dumping as much of the salary as possible so it can be spent elsewhere.
@richardc: Alvarez will never be the Braves starting SS. He played more 3B at Gwinnett when they sent him back down after he showed a total inability to hit ML fastballs. They’ve made a mistake by not trading him already. Prospect luster’s worn off now.
You are crazy if you think Atlanta is interested in moving on from Ozuna. He’s been their best offensive player the last 2 years. There aren’t any impact bats at his price level.
I know that it wouldn’t be about a return. I just like Soler in ATL and Ozuna would get some sort of return. IDC really either way. The guy makes a good point about Acuna getting DH at bats
I should mention that I don’t think they will resign Laureano. I mainly just wanted him as a platoon option. I am just so used to players over the last few decades coming to the Braves and doing better than they have in the recent past. You all may disagree but it’s just one of those teams where people seem comfortable and over perform expectations. On the flip side of that that’s gonna lead me to be bias at times and expect everyone to pan out. My reaction to Laureano was 2 things…I liked how hard he played (again he may be playing for a contract) and there was no source of power they could find for so long that the SLG was a godsent. Again it may be a fluke tho
@pohle
Strider, Sale, Lopez, Schwellenbach, 5th spot one of the young guys.
@Smacky I think you need to go back and look at Matt Olson’s numbers from 2023 before you crown Ozuna the Braves “best offensive player the last two years”.
Did everyone forget Ronald acuna won the mvp last year???
Laureano was a lot of fun to watch when he played in Oakland and was on the juice.
Clueless. Look how valuable he was once he came to the Braves.
Sorry to hurt your feelings, but I enjoyed watching Laureano play for the A’s when he was participating in extracurriculars. It’s a statement of fact.
Not my thoughts, I mean the outfield is crowded already. with Acuna, Soler, Harris, and Kelnic (I personally feel the Kelnic experiment is over for AA). The still have White and Soler is weak defensively but you can only keep so many outfielders. I don’t expect them to keep RL but you never know what AA is thinking, especially since he was cut anyway. My preference would be upgrade at SS and do something with the catching. Of course pitching always takes priority for Atlanta. All I get to do is sit back and complain after the move is made.
I’ll be interested to see what the Braves do with Snitker going into his last year after 3 straight first round playoff exits. I can’t imagine he’d be happy going into 2025 on a lame duck contract after winning it all in 2021, but I also can’t imagine ownership sticking with him if they get bounced immediately in the playoffs again either.
Stinker is a life long Braves guy almost 50 years. Sure he is going stay if he wants too stay longer.
I mean it’s hardly his fault. Every year something happens. Fried got very sick one year, got hit on the hip this year. Strider wasn’t fully stretched out one year and missed this year. Sale couldn’t pitch. They played the doubleheader. I mean the guy hasn’t done anything to be fired. It’s not a lame duck at that age really because most guys are taking it year to year anyway to see how they feel. You can’t fire a manager when the entire team overwhelmingly supports him. It’s not smart.
He is going to retire next year and they need to figure out who could be his replacement.
I keep my fingers crossed that Snitker will retire. The Braves should try to get Ron Washington to come back after his Angels contract is up
Stop it. That would be awful. Replacing an old dummy with an even older coke head.
@Bucsfan4ever: Former Gwinnett manager/current 3B coach Matt Tuiasosopo or Walt Weiss are the two most likely candidates to replace Snitker.
I really don’t think Snitker is an old dummy as far as baseball goes. I also don’t think managerial decisions make that huge of a difference. The main point is to just give the players someone they like (old managers are more respected anyway). I mean have you seen the guys often on Nascar pitcrews, etc. They may look and sound dumb but they know their stuff in their profession. He’s been a coach/manager for so long. There is only so much that goes into it. Especially today when half the decisions are dictated by the FO. Stability is often helpful.
I mean if anyone does a job for 50 years they are gonna get decent at it and it’s gonna become second nature. You could take a complete M0ron and have them run a business for 50 years and they will get good at it. So while I agree he seems like he isn’t a genius I think the manager doesn’t really have to do all that much. So just get a guy who fits in.
I think personally they will go outside the organization but the problem with that is a new manager often wants new coaches and they already have lost so many guys recently and then would have lost Snit too. For all I know Weiss may just be Snits guy. But I’d think he’d be considered.
He’ll be back, unless they think he’s personally responsible for the first-round exits, and they almost assuredly don’t.
Snitker needs to retire. Overrated, over matched, old turtle
To believe AA, you either have to assume that they’ll play brinksmanship with draft penalties again or that he’s got some Rube Goldberg plan (like last offseason) to offload bad contracts by bundling them with expendable prospects.
Sounds like Nacho Alvarez, Baldwin and/or Anderson are going to any team that will take Soler’s contract. Or maybe they try to deal Murphy and a prospect for partial salary relief and a controllable young OF.
Nobody saw Chris Sale trade last year; who knows what he may do. The Braves needs are not much but they could use;
01. More speed in the line up
02. Another relief pitcher
03. Veteran pitcher to eat some innings; no teams makes it though the season with only 5-6 pitchers
And a change in approach at the plate.
An old, past prime, strikeout prone low average hitter? Perfect fit for the mariners DH! We will pay him just like garver!
Seriously though if we got someone like Baldwin on top of soler I’d take it
They value Murphy too much to want to trade an extended guy when his value is lowest from a G1 injury that derailed his season, which was out-of-character based on his career.
Alvarez is expendable, much like Grissom was, they’re hoping his bat will heat up enough to shine the fool’s gold and pawn him off on another team looking for a MI stalwart.
Need to keep Alvarez and Baldwin. Sign Adames and then trade Murphy, Albies and Acuña at trade deadline (if they are healthy and having good years). Braves can balance payroll, clear the way for young talent, restock the farm system and still be competitive enough for at least a wildcard spot. Braves are never going to pay what it will take to extend Acuña and probably not Albies either. Sell while their stock is high. Alvarez can play second and Baldwin is a good catcher. I have watched them in person since they were in High A. The Braves also have some good pitching talent on the way so wish Fried well and Morton too. Wacha would be a good addition though if he doesn’t resign with KC. Also trade Soler and don’t give up on Kelenic. He is still very young and can be at least an average MLB left fielder. Get rid of their hitting coaches at all levels as NONE of the teams from rookie level to the majors hit worth a damn. They need to convince Chipper to take over as the hitting director for the system.
Another trade acuna person…
Sure let’s make a 95 win caliber team into a 70 by having a fire sale for no reason at all and then wasting money at overrated free agents
@Bucsfan: If you’ve been watching Alvarez since high , you should be able to see that he is a terrible SS and can’t hit fastballs. No pull power, punch and judy contact hitter. Almost too late to get anything for him in trade now. He’ll have to be included w/a decent minor league pitcher in a salary dump deal. Trading Acuna w/3 years left on his deal? Nope.
@AtlOriolesfan Baldwin’s the best non-pitching position player in the Braves system. No way he gets included on a salary dump trade. Nacho Alvarez gets dealt in that scenario but not Baldwin. He checks too many Braves plus boxes. Good defensive catcher, excellent power w/a strong hard hit rate.
At the very least, Baldwin is the next tandem with Murph, providing a slow bridge from an inexpensive and productive d’Arnaud (36 y/o for ’25 season). If they keep Soler, DH could be occupied after next season, unless they bring Ozuna back, but I’d be shocked to see d’Arnaud catching more than 35-40% of games going forward when both are healthy.
Braves should for sure replace their good players with worse players.
Just pay guys a dollar today and 100m a year in ten years
The player would have to agree to that. Most wouldn’t.
Braves need to sign Corbin Burns, forget about Fried
This means the braves are going to pay fried just like Aaron Nola a year ago
Man if the braves signed Nola then fried could’ve gone to Philly…
At this point I think they lost in the Sean Murphy trade.
Would hope for Burnes and Adames but they will end up with Wacha and Jose Iglesias. Ugh.
Iglesias is having a total UFO season. He’ll be 35 next season, and was a career 88 OPS+ hitter heading into this year. The Mets should be thankful they got his OMG season, and move on. The Braves should also stay far away.
You’re right but the SS market is really thin. Maybe a trade for Bo Bichette but no clue if he’s available and he wasn’t good at all this season.
If I had to guess, and that’s all we can do here, is Bichette won’t be available. The Blue Jays will try and do some restructuring to compete, and Bichette will need to be part of that. I don’t see them selling low. Maybe they can work out a trade with the Mets for Ronald Acuna’s brother. That would be fun, but it’s likely the Mets have him ticketed for 2B to replace Iglesias. Maybe they can see if they can strike gold twice with the Red Sox, and trade for Trevor Story on a bounce back. The Red Sox would need to throw in a bunch of cash. I don’t think Story is done.
All I know is we have to make a splash to have a balanced SS. Fans completely overhype the value of Arcia’s defense. He’s pure trash hitting, literally one of the worst qualified hitters in the league and his glove barely makes him a positive war player. And I agree, his glove is great… but that just proves how terrible his bat is to make him a .06 WAR. There have to be options out there in terms of prospect capital for FA that can provide more balance value as a player than Arcia does. There are at least two FA and I’m sure a few trade candidates. Listen, there is a reason Arcia is paid like a backup… because the Braves value him as a backup. So he should remain a bench piece. Once everyone returns healthy, if we upgrade SS and put Soler in LF… I mean… that line is scary and pitching is legit also
How about Sonny Gray and 20 million for either Waldrep or Shawver.
Not only no, Hell No!! No trading of young pitching talent.
The Braves are looking really good long term with their pitching. They can afford to trade from that depth.
No one would trade a top prospect for an old expensive pitcher (that isn’t named JV or mad max)
Isn’t that exactly what the Braves did when they traded for Sale last offseason?
Grissom was only a “top prospect” to those who paid no attention to his total inability to play SS. They also didn’t acknowledge that he’s a punch and judy poke hitter w/no power. The Braves know their own prospects.
Braves have $70 million coming off the book and down to $200m. Still a lot on the books but most pieces are there except for bench depth. Another starting pitcher should be added . Not good to see when certain coaches are returning when the Braves didn’t hit well or run the bases well.
Well, they are one of the few teams for certain getting that local TV cash, so not surprising.
If the Braves are going to trade for a SS it should be Ha Seong Kim, excellent plate discipline, will hit his fair share of HR’s, can steal bases, his defense is excellent, and he won’t be up there just waving the bat at anything out of the zone, but I doubt AA goes for him due to the Boras factor unfortunately.
True assessment of Murphy comes in 25 provided he doesn’t miss 2 months of time, I believe he can hit a lot better than he did, but missing 2 months essentially stifled his season.
I can’t believe some people talking about Laureano’s defense, the guy is a very good outfielder, with a cannon of an arm. He hit .296 obp .327 with the Braves. Of course I don’t see him hitting that for a full season, but he can hit in the range of .250 – .270 which is above league average. There’s obviously a logjam in the OF with Laureano, Soler, Kelenic, so it will be interesting to see what plays out. The key is to have pitching depth, and again use the 6 man rotation during the season to keep everyone as healthy as possible.
It’s interesting that so many trolls turn up on Braves articles, they’re not worth responding to.
Be interesting to see what the Braves do for pitching for both 2025 and later. Max Fried is likely gone, Chris Sale may or may not be able to repeat 2024, but his injury history makes that doubtful. Charlie Morton may be gone, and the injuries to others like Strider means the rotation looks nothing like in did this April. Weak rotations destroy bullpens, no matter how good the bullpen is to start the season. I wonder how the WC would have went if Chris Sale was pitching in Game 2 of the season-finale doubleheader.
With the Phillies and Mets where they are, the Braves are likely to regress in the standings. The Marlins may be a mess, but the Nationals will be back fairly soon. Times are looking tougher for the Atlanta front office.
It would have gone much the same way…ATL’s problem was scoring enough runs. Their record was abysmal if opposition scored 4-5 runs/game.
ATL is likely to regress returning healthy star players after making the playoffs without most of them??
@Run: Guess he thinks that Acuna, Riley, and healthy seasons from Harris II and Albies would make them a worse team, lol.
Orioles need a rh dh that could careless about the OPACY leftfield wall dimensions. Someone who gets his hacks in. Soler?
Like to see the Braves trade Soler to your Orioles for a good, close to MLB ready mil SS.
Braves need to go get bauer for 2-3/5mm deal to replace morton. Morton was an inning eating vet. and also would save tons of money for a SS. I would trade the overrated pitching prospects for possible OF and/or SS. Pitching isnt the problem. You cant live off the long ball, u need to be able to manufacture runs. Fried coming off the books is a huge help to find a low year/ high salary guy or go try NPB. Guys like sasaki or Yamashita which would bring high talented players and also marketing. Remember mlb is a business