The Braves’ rotation has been a talking point in the early days of spring training, with a few injuries already popping up, leading to speculation about the club looking for an external addition. Atlanta has been connected to pitchers like Lucas Giolito and Chris Bassitt this offseason but Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the club’s interest in those two pitchers was overstated. Burns says they did not seriously pursue Bassitt before he signed with the Orioles and have not been involved with Giolito, who remains a free agent.
It’s a curious spot for the club to be in. Injuries to the starting rotation played a huge role in tanking the 2025 season. They went into the campaign as contenders but ended up at 76-86. Just about every starter got hurt, so that the only guy to surpass 126 innings was Bryce Elder, who posted a 5.30 earned run average.
Going into the winter, general manager Alex Anthopoulos said that bolstering the rotation would be a “point of emphasis” but he hasn’t made any significant changes there. He clearly had some money to spend but has invested it elsewhere, having signed outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, infielder Ha-Seong Kim, as well as relievers Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias to eight-figure deals.
That left the rotation looking vulnerable coming into camp and the picture has only gotten worse since then. Spencer Schwellenbach was placed on the 60-day injured list last week due to elbow inflammation. Hurston Waldrep is now getting checked out due to his own elbow soreness.
The rotation still has some upside, in theory, but with question marks everywhere. Chris Sale is the ace but he’s about to turn 37 years old and has been very injury prone in recent years. Spencer Strider missed most of 2024 due to elbow surgery and had lackluster results when he was back on the mound last year. Reynaldo López only made one start last year due to shoulder surgery. Grant Holmes was diagnosed with a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament last year and is currently trying to return while avoiding surgery.
That group could be a strong front four if everyone is healthy and pitching well but that’s a massive if. The depth beyond that group is also questionable. Martín Pérez and Carlos Carrasco are in the organization on minor league deals but neither inspires a ton of confidence. Didier Fuentes is a notable prospect but he’s only 20 years old and got shelled when called up in emergency fashion last year. Jhancarlos Lara and José Suarez are on the roster but seem to be depth/swing types. JR Ritchie is another of the club’s top prospects but he has only 11 Triple-A starts under his belt.
There’s an argument for adding a reliable veteran to strengthen the back of the rotation, even if it doesn’t raise the ceiling much, but Anthopoulos recently said the club is looking for a playoff-caliber starter. Up until fairly recently, the starting pitching market still had a lot of attractive names on it but Atlanta has not pounced on that opportunity. Guys like Bassitt, Zac Gallen, Nick Martinez, Justin Verlander, Jose Quintana, Chris Paddack, José Urquidy, Tomoyuki Sugano, Aaron Civale, Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, Griffin Canning and Germán Márquez have agreed to modest one-year deals in the past week or so.
Perhaps the club will still pivot to add some reliable innings. If they don’t like Giolito, the market still features Zack Littell, Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, Tyler Anderson, Marcus Stroman and others.
It’s also possible the club is out of dry powder. RosterResource projects them for a $264MM payroll and $260MM competitive balance tax number. That payroll is about $50MM above where they finished last year and the CBT number puts them within $4MM of the second tier of the tax, which they may not want to cross.
If it’s the case that there’s no spending capacity left, it looks like a strange offseason for the club. They invested in several areas of the roster but didn’t target the area that was supposed to be a primary focus. Perhaps Anthopoulos can line up a trade of a young pitcher who is cheap and controllable, but the price on such pitchers will be high. Maybe they’ll get lucky and their guys will stay healthier than last year but the injury bug is already biting before spring games have even begun.
Photo courtesy of James A. Pittman, Imagn Images
Anthopolous hates depth. I get it the club is near the luxury tax but how much of these young players’ careers will end his last? The last two off seasons have been borderline dereliction of duty.
*how many years of their careers
Plenty of depth among position players.
Strange because he spent a lot of money on a utility guy, 4th OF, and bullpen but not starting rotation. It sounds to me like he gambled on the starting pitchers being healthy. Doesn’t look good…
Budget Braves back at it again! 4th place it is! And the window will close a little more..
Miami just dumped sure things for younger cheaper more upside. Philly got worse. Mets seem strong though.
Budget Braves?
What do they have, a top 6-8 payroll in all of baseball?
Budget Braves
6th in MLB CBT — But Sure, Tell Me Again About the “Budget Braves.” The Braves are 6th in all of baseball in Competitive Balance Tax payroll. But don’t let facts interrupt the spoiled narrative. Twenty-four other teams would love to be the “budget Braves.” This idea that Atlanta refuses to spend is lazy analysis. They don’t hand out reckless, aging free-agent contracts — that’s not the same thing as not spending. They’ve paid their own stars. They’ve extended elite talent. They’ve invested heavily in the bullpen. That is spending — just intelligently. What some fans really want is splashy. Spend $210 million on a top-flight starter for 6–7 years and hope you get three elite seasons before decline sets in. Maybe he dominates in October for three weeks and that justifies the deal. That’s the ceiling outcome. And the floor? Dead money. Most free agent contracts return maybe 50 cents on the dollar. Would Bassitt or Giolito have “solved” anything? No. The Braves have in-house arms that compare. Adding a mid-rotation innings eater for $18–20 million for six to ten weeks doesn’t suddenly transform the season. Yes, losing Schwellenbach and Waldrep hurts. Of course it does. But is the season over? Absolutely not. Last year, all five Opening Day starters were on the 60-day IL at the same time — something that had never happened in MLB history. The season wasn’t lost because they didn’t sign a flashy free agent. It was lost because the entire lineup went cold at the same time and they dropped 13 straight one-run games — another historical anomaly. If they’re merely average in one-run games, the entire narrative shifts. The real issue wasn’t payroll. It wasn’t “AA asleep at the wheel.” It was collective underperformance at the plate and historically bad variance in close games. Maybe — just maybe — no trade was worth making, and the free agent market was overpriced. That’s not inactivity. That’s discipline. The Braves don’t have a spending problem. Some fans have a patience problem.
For me it’s not how much they spend but how they spend it. We spend $38mm to bolster the bullpen….$11mm for a LF who will only play vs right handed pitchers ..$20mm for an average at best SS and $6mmm for a utility player yet we don’t spend anything to supplement an injury prone starting rotation. Not likely more than two of Sale, Strider, Lopez or Holmes make it to the finish line and yet . NOTHING! Not smart!
@Braves83: Sorry I could only rec this once 83.
Yes,The Braves have spent some money and yes,6th highest payroll but the money they spent,were for the wrong players…20 million for Kim,23 million for Yaz,that money could have been spent for Starting pitching
I understand you may be bummed about the money spent on the pen, They spent 16 for iggy and then signed the future closer for 3 years. Being set at closer and lengthening the pen is a good saving the starter type move. It is not a LF who only plays against righties–a left fielder who can dominate in the field–has one of the strongest arms in the game. If it gets late and it is a close game–Yaz should play and with no real outfield prospects knocking done the door next 2 years–Yaz can hold onto to left for 2 years and 3 if needed. You can get the best of Pro and Yaz. Kim is the 2nd best free agent SS really and if he has a good to great year the pick we get from him is worth the 8-10 so it is more like 10-12 for the 2nd best SS. The Braves need Kim more than the 8 they might have over paid. Dubon the SS you mentioned could be the Prado type player this team needs. He is on a contract year and could very well be a heart beat type guy from the bench that the Braves have not had since Prado. The Starters have had injuries. The Braves need the starters to last about 3 months and then there will be more prospects ready for the mlb. None are top of the line Aces we as fan want, but quality starters who are better or should be than most of the free agent pitchers pitchers out there. I understand the disappointment. The focus I suggest should be on the hitting. The hitting coach spent the winter with Riley and Harris and Albies fingers crossed they find the way back to their respective talent levels. Go Braves.
We are talking about having quality or decent pitching depth. Not about signing crazy number long term contacts. It’d be different if we were loaded in the minors but we aren’t. Thus all the picking up of waiver and released people that no one wants, the proverbial throwing spaghetti on a wall and see what sticks. When provisions aren’t made, you get last year’s results. Let’s see if we have a year this year, injury wise, that is an anomaly or it’s a continuation of more of the same. I bet we are fighting for 3rd place all year. Too much money was tied up in position players who have underperformed, most all of them. That doesn’t leave much to spend on pitching. And Liberty Media just views us as an investment and/or tax write off and has a non baseball man in charge. AA is a company man because he needs a job.
Giving significant innings to the likes of Elder, Wentz, Suarez, Perez, et al is NOT a championship strategy. Anyone who thinks even two of Sale, Strider, Lopez and Holmes make it to September without spending time on the IL hasn’t been paying attention. Sale has had 8 IL stints since 2020…Strider 4 since 2022…and it’s not clear to me that either Lopez or Holmes can handle starting workloads without going down. And yet we do NOTHING to supplement this rotation except to add a soft tossing lefty at the end of his career(Perez)???? Inexplicable to me…I do believe the offense will be/should be better but run prevention will keep this team in third place all year long unless this rotation is upgraded. Btw .Yaz is unplayable vs lefties(629 career OPS).
After all that said, they should sign 2 of:
Littell
Corbin
Cortez
Scherzer
Anderson
Stroman
in that order.
BINGO!! Well said, Good Sir!
That’s misleading. More than half of their payroll from the last several years was signing homegrown players to extensions/trading for players and giving them extensions. They almost never spend big in Free Agency. At least not on the big name players/stars.
Poor budget allocation Braves at it again
This.
Free agency is worse value for your $
No use talking sense to the “gotta sign free agents to long term deals” types.
I’d just wheel and deal like Brewers Pirates Rays etc and pocket as much $ as I could. Obviously would sign a Harper Soto type since they would make me more $ than I paid them. The 1 and 2 year deal guys can be valuable and necessary to sign. All the in-between are the greatest risk.
Yep handing out $20 mil for a below average SS and $15 mil for a backup catcher will make it tough to have money for other areas.
Baldwin $820K. Heim $1.25M. Murphy $15M. $17M for 3 catchers. What’s the big deal about how it’s allocated. The amount on the position is what matters. Hasn’t stopped them from adding at other positions, but don’t let that stop your tired 3 year long rant—–Braves 2024…..Braves 2025……Braves 2032. Same rant you were posting before you got banned last year.
Same rant huh? You mean the rant that’s been on point and accurate every year… or did we win a WS last year and I somehow missed it.
And pointing to the overall sum spent on catcher is a terrible way of evaluating a team/business. That is some next level cope pretending Murphy wasn’t a massive waste in expenses. Please don’t ever start a business… but if you do I’ll gladly apply for an excessive salary then underperform in my role for you. Let me know what you decide. Thanks!
Tap into the forced 1% Braves Foundation fee they make players “donate.” I’m a Braves fan but if I’m making a bunch of money let me be charitable with it as I want vs. telling me I have to force “donate” a percentage. Nothing against the Braves foundation as a charity, because I’m sure it does good things, but the policy is just forced-icky. And infantilizing.
That said, Is Bartolo or Felix still available? Give them a call.
If you don’t like it, then don’t sign the contract. Pretty simple.
As a Pirate that sounds awful to me. Take what you can and give nothing back! I wouldn’t sign with them unless they gave me at least 3 percent more which is only 2 percent just on principle.
Ok, then you’ll be a Pirate instead of a Brave. Good luck.
Hate to tell you, but we are tied for 1st place right now.
You say Budget Braves like it’s a bad thing. Every team has a budget. The Braves’ budget is higher than most. I think they over-spent to get Yaz, but other than that, I like their moves. One more SP would have been nice. Kim’s injury was a fluke.
So once again the rotation needed attention and again it gets neglected. So we lose the entire rotation last year for extended periods of time because of injury and the plan to rely on the same guys who couldn’t stay healthy? AA what are you doing? The frustrating part is he said it’s “an area of emphasis” then neglects it again.
That’s because he knows how to talk a good game.
No other team besides the Dodgers could stomach losing their entire rotation.
Gio would fit right in.
Yes, right into the broken bin of Braves’ SP
Give Kent Mercker a call!
Rick Mahler is sitting in a BarcaLounger, patiently waiting to hear his Snoopy phone ring.
He wouldn’t much; he died in 2005.
I had no idea.
Is Charley Hough still alive? You could probably pencil him for 300 innings if he isn’t dead.
And 150 if he is
Interesting you mention a knuckleballer, since the greatest of them all pitched for the Braves for many years. He gets no respect though, despite 96 career War.
Niekro would be good for a few innings! Guy pitched for 24 years or something.
Phil Niekro could probably give you 300 innings. He passed a while back. Brother Joe alive? He wasn’t quite as good but he would give you 200.
ATL going to sign MadMax for a cheap 1 yr MLB deal with big incentives.
He won’t go there
An area of emphasis so important that it is not addressed over a questionable Outfielder signing and paying way more for an injury prone shortstop. After already agreeing to a deal with a cheaper costing one. So he’s just hoping that everyone manages to stay healthy or someone is willing to give the Braves an ace and pay most of his salary in the trade too.
Too bad AA didn’t have a low power utility player to send to Boston.
@AI: Nacho Alvarez fits that bill but the rest of the league is on notice not to fall for AA offering him for anything of value.
Dubon is not a cheaper option SS. He is a utility player now being forced to an everyday SS role which is less than ideal.
Don’t forget trading for and extending a backup catcher to a massive contract.
Imagine still having William Contreras for $6 mil less. Not only do you have your DH spot filled you get an extra $6 mil to spend as a bonus.
AA ran this team into the ground sadly. It had so much talent but he has no idea what he’s doing. Even the WS run was him blindly throwing darts at a bunch of low rent guys. He struck lightening out of sheer blind luck and everyone has praised him ever since. It’s like praising the guy who bought ten lottery tickets that all hit as a savant. Never mistake an unfathomable amount of good fortune for quality GM decisions.
He’s getting exposed now though.
He made Freddie cry though. I enjoyed that.
Braves fans wrote them off after Acuna injury. Wanted to sell at deadline. AA doesn’t get enough praise. That should bought him a long leash heck even a shock collar so he could roam free.
It did AI. He’s signed through 2030.
I used to think highly of AA. Still do but not as highly maybe. I dunno. Braves fans are welcome to name better gms and I will be able to tell if AA is that weak or they are just delusional. A lot of new gms it’s hard to evaluate. But some gm owner signed Baez Bryant Strasburg Rendon Bogarts. Someone traded a cy young caliber starter for a quad A 2b. Someone took on Soler contract. 9 teams passed on KG the best player in the draft. 5 teams passed on SH the best player in the draft.
Ok, let’s just start with Sam Fuld who actually got promoted he was so good at GM
Completely flipped a team around to being a WS contender within a year compared to inheriting a plethora of assets, not to mention torched us in the playoffs twice in his short but impressive stint.
And trust me I hate the Phillies so it hurts badly to have to type all of this out but facts are facts and I don’t play with anything less than the truth no matter how bad it hurts.
I didn’t like the fa market. No one great. Mets paid a ton for peralta. Be nice to make a trade with the pirates but if not looks like stuck with what we have
Pirates are done trading unless someone has a young cheap good 3b and they would give you Bart and some prospects who aren’t mlb ready.
Mets just unloaded their spare leftovers for Peralta. Top 100 ish not top 50 prospects. Kept the ones they need and the best ones. Braves don’t have that kind of farm system but teams that do will easily make that trade. Didn’t pay a ton at all. They did the minimum to have it a fair trade. Cabrera was very affordable. Oviedo cost 1 borderline top 100. Free agent pitching class was good and deep. Braves just didn’t do what you wanted but there was plenty of options available. Still is. I’d bet on Corbin having 1 more year in him. Have no idea but so cheap it doesn’t matter. Padres in all their moves mathematically should find someone.
Mets did all that just to LOLMets again and miss the playoffs.
Will be funny for non Mets fans. I think they did so much it’s going to be hard but here’s to hoping to have a good chuckle.
Good to see Braves making it easy for rest of NL East
Mets best bet to win east. NL East competition is the NL Central.
Mets rotation and bullpen are bigger question marks than the Braves and their line up is also full of uncertainties
Mets seem pretty stacked to me not that Atlanta is bad just not that level.
I am higher on the Phillies than Mets.
I am not surprised. Nah Philly can be better. They lost a pitcher. Their big names are another year older. Soto is another year older too but probably won’t factor in as much as it could with JTR. Think NY had much better off season. Think NY has better farm for deadline. Atl Mia can be better. Just I’d bet on Mets.
I just see them falling apart again. Polanco is no Alonso. Getting Bichette improved them. That outfield is suspect. Peralta was a good trade. I guess Bichette and Peralta together make them better than my initial thoughts anyways. Roberts could be garbage.
Phillies stood pat and lost pitching so no argument. They just seem more reliable?
Braves could go either way. Talented team that seems to have bad injury luck.
Miami got rid of a ton of pitching and I don’t know how much of the return we will see this year.
The NL Central is the most interesting to me so far this year. Cubs look strong. Brewers are always winners. Reds improved with E. Suarez. Pirates made a bunch of moves. The Cards are the only obvious weaklings.
Roberts is already good ? Is will he be healthy or great. If not they have a top prospect to try out. Polanco doesn’t have to be better than Alonso. Polanco Bichette Roberts Peralta need to be better than Alonso.
Brewers are just as good actually better. Might not win more or as many games because of luck and other teams got better. Better for longer as well. Pirates look like 4th best but could be better than that even win division. They weren’t nearly as bad as people think. Every single person I seen say something about them just looked at their season win loss record which tells you absolutely nothing as far as evaluating predicting 2026.
Don’t kid yourself. The annual Mets collapse will still happen in September to the Phillies. Or if not the Phillies the Marlins will find a way. Regardless, the Mets will be sure to choke is the main point here.
Could happen. It’s not so much they choke It’s just they do big flashy exciting things but not as useful to building a winning baseball team as they seem to most people. This year they actually built a good team. Not without risk though. But it’s a tuff business. Have to take risk.
AA has done exactly what BAL did last year – failed to address the screaming need that is the rotation, and we see how that turned out.
Braves used 19 different starting pitchers last year. Everyone in this article may get a chance.
Tanked?…. Definitely wouldn’t classify it as tanking with all the injuries!
Tanking I wouldn’t have claimed the ss. Would have given closer away. Given ozuna away.
Has a major league team lied to their fans more than this group? “We will be a top 5 payroll team.” “We will prioritize starting pitching.” Either way, they are grossly incompetent and when they are throwing bullpen games every 4th and 5th day by June, they will have nobody to blame but themselves.
Not nice and professional of them.
They’re close to being a top 5 payroll team McTroll. Your troll act on every Braves article is thin.
LAD NY NY easily obviously clearly better markets. Although Cohen didn’t buy the tv contract but he’ll get it soon enough. cubs Bos better. So we are talking 6th highest at best. With some maybe better or equal or not far off. Braves in top 10 is spending $.
Hey Jeff. I think they’re 8th now but a pretty wide distance between them and 5th. How have you been?
Fine Buck. Yourself? AI search says they currently have the 6th highest projected payroll for 2026. Ranked 5th in total cash spend at $276M. But that’s AI, so who knows for sure at this point.
spotrac.com/mlb/tax
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/breakdowns/payroll
There’s two popular ones. I never cared enough to verify which one is more accurate. #1 is easier on the eyes though so good enough for me. 6 or 8th who really cares? Numbers are going to change. Gotta look at bigger picture than a single year.
The optimism surrounding this team is odd to me. The rotation is a five alarm fire at this point. Sale and Strider should be ok, but Lopez is not an innings guy, and everyone else is hurt or bad (Elder). I don’t see them being as bad as last year, but they spend a lot of money on position players and should have added at least 1-2 arms they can count on.
Urquidy was a bargain. Corbin might be and is still available. I like Perez but no reason to stop there. At least have a rotation with 2 or 3 5th starters to hang around until trade deadline. Padres are trying that so see how it goes. I’d take Corbin over some of their guys.
Lopez “not an inning guy”? with already 3 x 135+ IP seasons (2 at 180 IP) while a couple serving as RP. They still could add an arm, but top prospects JR Ritchie is almost ready while Martín Perez could get some looks.
Before all the injuries it looked pretty good, Lopez put up those totals before 2020. He was really good two years ago, I have my doubts on getting 30 starts from him.
I just thought they’d have learned from last season. Right now they have a lot more to choose from instead of last season when it was all but over and they were plucking every life body off waivers.
Even guys like Tyler Anderson, Corbin, and the Padres guys they should have been in on.
Learned from last season where he had 1 GS? He hasn’t always been that injured, but this team can definitely use 29 or less GS from him, esp. if it’s anywhere near the results of 2 years ago (5.1-bWAR season).
I didn’t just mean about him, about the rotation in general. They should have brought in more options since they had to scramble for starts last season.
The 2/23 they gave yesterzrmski might have gotten Giolito at this point
If $ is a problem that was a waste. Corner outfielders are one of the easiest things to find. Another easy thing to find is relievers. Maybe the starting pitching is great. And it is if this happens and this guy doesn’t decline this guy bounces back this guy doesn’t need his arm cut off.
I doubt that would have gotten Giolito based on his predicted contract, esp early in the offseason. Yaz will see serious reps in LF and is a do-over from Profar who should see more DH duty and LHP ABs. I wonder if they signed Yaz when they found out about Profar’s offseason surgery just reported. If Yaz is anything like how he looked much in KC, he can be a nice find.
@kyle: They signed Yaz to improve the corner outfield defense and as insurance against Profar’s hernia surgery and Acuna’s balky knees. Why are people still ranting about signing Giolito? He couldn’t make it through last September or onto the BoSox playoff roster because of forearm and elbow trouble. How would adding another injury risk to the rotation—for the ridiculous salary Giolito’s probably demanding—-make any sense? Has anyone noticed that, at this point, no other team wants him?
Corbin > Gio
Might be just because he can walk to the mound and pitch. Giolito on the IL is useless.
I’m thinking he should be cheaper. Yes seems less injury risk. Probably won’t be better but better $ to performance ratio.
Yeah, Corbin probably signs for $3M or less and I’m probably high on the $3M.
The Gio love confuses me. Bassitt i fully was in on, veteran arm who’s always solid to above avg.
Yeah, Bassitt would’ve been a good fit. 1 year at $18.5 is a good deal for the O’s. Got the feeling they’re going to add a starter via trade before the end of ST. If not, it’s possible they trade Murphy if he comes back healthy. Maybe they can find a taker for Bummer, but it’s going to take a team that really needs a lefty in their pen to take on his $9.5M salary. Not much point in dealing him if they have to eat too much of it. Seems they won’t go over the 2nd luxury tax level to add—-right now anyway.
The window to win another championship is gonna shut close when Ronnie leaves town. Sale might have 2 years left as an ace. Olson and Riley are the cornerstones that will be left. Drake has the potential to be a third star. Harris is who he is, a streaky player with a great glove. There’s not much in the way of potential major league position players in the minors. The rotation has talent but it’s also a bunch of guys whose arms are set to explode at any moment. AA, do whatever you can to go get us a pitcher. Trade some of these prospects for someone who can help get this team back to playoffs.
Chris Sale going to be a hot commodity at trade deadline
Go get Littell or Corbin and hope for the best. Alex can’t hold the blame all himself. People calling for a change in general managers for the Braves have to realize you still have penny pinching Terry McGuirk in charge
A 260m payroll is penny pinching? You and I have different definitions on that. Yes though we need another innings eater to take some of the load.
As someone who’s worked for Terry as an intern yes he’s a penny pincher. Yes the Braves have a very big payroll but Terry only allows money to be spent where he deems necessary.
I see and hear many contradictions on what Anthopoulos has been saying. The Braves have been spending heavily this off-season, and have improved their depth in the outfield, infield, catcher and the bullpen. So, it makes absolutely no sense that they haven’t added a starter all winter, even before the injuries to Schwellenbach and Waldrep. It sounds nice that they want to add a “playoff caliber” starter, but they will have a hard time even making the playoffs if these starting rotation injuries keep piling up.
Sho lie ohtani, oh well. I still collect his cards.
The Dodgers are ruining baseball yet again…🙈
Yeah, it’s not pretty. Hopefully they add another SP.
Atlanta fans, does your system have a high-upside outfield prospect that’s ready for the show but is blocked?
If so, let the Royals know. Our GM also hasn’t delivered on his promise to add a l strong OF bat this off season, and we have SP to spare. It looks like the perfect way for our GMs to each follow through on their promises.
We wouldn’t have signed Yaz or Profar last year if we had an OF prospect ready to contribute.
Good point. I guess we’ll just have to take Acuña then. I mean, his cousin Maikel is on our team, so it only makes sense.
Sure. Send Witt Jr, your top two starters and top 3 prospects. Acuna’s yours.
Jeff, thank you for seeing my joke and raising by ten times! 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄
Thought I raised more than that, lol.
Should have just traded your garbage Acuna to the sox for Roberts like the Mets did!
Or traded one of your excess pitchers to Boston for the blocked password like the Pirates did.
Or to Houston so Tampa could send you Mangum like Pirates did.
Or signed Yaz.
Or just signed Tauchman
Or ohearn
Or Garcia
Or Refsnyder
Or Hays
Tommy Pham is still available I believe
The Braves farm system is quite weak, Most prospect analyzers rate it 25th or lower. But the position player side of their farm system is even weaker. It might be the worst in baseball
Yet it graduates a player every season that helps the MLB club.
Big baseball fan, remember watching TBS Braves games decades ago and watching at how AWFUL their pitching staff was through the 80s, then they went all in on pitching and have been really dominant most of the years since then regarding pitching. So, it’s like a flashback to see them be so bad last year.
Roght now the Braves are tied for 1st place. What flashback?
When did they go “all in” on pitching? Maddux was the only one they signed as a free agent. The rest came up through their system.
And man did they use that system well during the 90’s and early 2k’s.
It was amazing to see them trade some of the guys they did…it always seemed to work.
What if the Reds send Lodolo, Steer, and Lowder to ATL and they send Harris Jr back?
Yeah it hurts but it gives both teams control, flexibility and what they need to win now and in the future.
They’d have to include at least Green as well. We’re not talking Harris Sr here or even Franco. We’re talking Harris freaking Jr! Are we sure we want to call Cincinnati though? Cause I am thinking Pittsburgh and yes Skenes.
Wow! No thanks.
I think the worst thing you can say about Anthopoulous is that he’s a bad resource manager.
Absolutely everything that could go wrong did last year. I don’t think him relying on Holmaes and Lopez is due solely to bad resource management. I think he genuinely thinks they’re good pitchers. And they can be.. The eternal pessimism is just assuming that Murphy’s Law is happening again and he has to counter that right now; everyone just seems to know that either or both of them are going to get hurt and one needs to be replaced before they do. You even see that line of thinking on normal Braves fans.
What I can say for sure is that it’s incredibly shortsighted to act like the team is on a Marlins-style shoestring budget. They have the sixth-highest payroll in the sport at $262 million, with $192 million of that money committed to 11 players – 1 catcher, 3 infielders, 2 outfielders, 3 starters and 2 relievers. If anything, that’s what you put the blame on: betting on the wrong horse so you don’t have the money to fix the problems that actually come up.
Talk about bad resource management, that whole string of Kelenic-related transactions was a little bizarre. Other than that, I think he’s done a pretty good job.
Doom, despair, and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all
Doom, despair, and agony on me
Because of all of the injury question marks there probably isn’t a team that needs to deploy a 6 man rotation more than the Braves, so I’d argue they need to sign 2 quality SPs, not just one. AA really dropped the ball here. Lots of good budget friendly options have been available. Guys like Urquidy, Buehler, etc. Low-cost, high upside. If the Yaz signing is what is preventing going after multiple additional SPs, that’s borderline criminal resource management.
They signed Yaz as necessary insurance against Profar’s hernia surgery and Acuna’s bum knees. Yaz also improves the corner outfield defense. Good sign. Using Buehler and “good” in the same thought process……yikes. Urquidy at that price…yeah, I would’ve liked that.
Seems like the Padres are scooping up ALL the Starting pitchers left on the market leaving the Braves holding the bag…an empty bag!
With all of the Starters they lost to injury last year, seem like they would have done a better job tightening up their Starting pitching on the roster.
Now, this year the dominos are already starting to fall with Schwellenbach & Waldrep already having arm/elbow problems plus Holmes is coming back from a partial tear in his UCL without any surgery or anything but rest.
If they are counting on Bryce Elder to tighten any slack, they are in for trouble. A.J.Prellar just got an extention with the Padres and it looks like he is earning it while the Braves are doing nothing! It has been stated they only want a Playoff ready starter. Well remember last year, you have to make the Play-offs first! Teams can’t win without Starting pitching period! They did get bullpen help, but you got to have someone get you through 2/3rds of the game to get to the bullpen. 4-5 innings is just going to wear down the bullpen arms!
All I can say is: The well is drying up, so you better do something,…Anything!
I believe in Elder .
I’ll believe in him more if Weiss only uses him twice through the order. Like him even better if they’d use an opener for him. Won’t hate him if he ends up as the swing man in the last pen spot either.
I saw a match in a Red Sox trade. Although I’d be hesitant dealing with them again and having that player turn into a Cy Young winner in our face again.
That’s Breslow fault. He was a cy young capable talent as a red sox. Soon as he got healthy they for some reason decided to trade him for a quad A 2b. This season they decided to trade a young mid rotation starter for 3 utility players. Boston should maybe not trade with anyone. Did alright with Pittsburgh since they don’t really have a spot for password and he may strike out too much. Contreras seemed fine. Gray wasn’t bad.
AA is a master of delivering lines rather than results. Every year there’s some flashy line about spending or filling a need, but more often than not, it’s a flat lie. The excuses come then, “Couldn’t find value”, etc. I know we as fans can’t do it, but maybe it’s time to find a new GM if he can’t help the team win.
Braves have made the playoffs 7 of his first 8 seasons w/a World Series win. That’s not helping the team win and delivering results? You’re ready to dump him because they suffered unprecedented injuries to the pitching staff last season?
These Braves fans I dunno. High standards or delusional? Seem a bit too obsessed with the Mets. Jeff do you feel like a super genius or far to modest to answer?
I’m no genius, but some of the takes on the Braves leave me smh. Try to be as realistic as possible, but don’t blame folks for disagreeing w/me. Nobody’s “right” about everything, lol. Guess there are casual fans of every franchise who think like some of these guys. As far as viewing other teams, I think some let their fandom cloud their ability to be honest about what they’re seeing.
“Nobody’s “right” about everything”
I personally vehemently disagree with that statement!
You’re too modest!
This site is becoming just as bad as Reddit with the unrealistic whining
I used to follow the Braves closely. Loved to tell them how drastically overrated Pache was. Farm system got weak as it should have so I moved my attention elsewhere. Cut down on baseball consumption in general. I did like his post trade deadline interview. Brutally honest about lack of offers might as well just keep them. I liked that.
They traded Pache, so apparently they didn’t over-rate him.
Not the Braves but the ranking sites that fans follow. Although maybe the Braves. They went to trade him and were stunned how other teams valued him. I would think not but have no idea. I once seen a team think a quad A 2b was worth a cy young pitcher.
How do these red Sox fans not all block me Hank?
Because they know you’re right about that Grissom/Sale deal lol. Plenty of them say the same thing—–some after the fact, but they eventually got to the right place on it.
Slow night. I felt like clicking on a article and this absolutely nothing one stood out. I don’t even remember what it is about. I’m ready for the draft and trade deadline.
Glav is still a color guy in the bootha. It’s time to press him into service as a starter. Could work?
How about Cam Caminiti? Not to be in rotation but hope you guys love him. He’s only top 100 most websites but he is easily in my top 50. Sky is limit. Starting game 2 world series I can see it. I think his floor is 8th 9th inning closer. High ceiling high floor. Absolute steal in draft. Not even. Teams like Angels Nationals have been just giving good players to lower drafting teams.
Look, it’s getting to the point that if the Braves are interest in the player they will get hurt. Lopez for example. We can’t keep our own rotation healthy so now anyone we look at will magically get the injury bug. Now gio is a nice pickup but he needs to be cheap and we all know he’s likely going to go down with an injury also based on how last season ended
@bravesfan..that sounds like a pretty good conspiracy theory there. Every single pitcher out there comes with a certain injury risk but if you’re telling me the very durable Chris Bassitt would have come down with an arm injury if the Braves would have signed him I’m calling BS on that. I sincerely hope that’s not the reason behind AA’s aversion to acquiring starting pitching.
Hitting makes for exciting games, pitching makes for wins
I usually support whoever my team feels should be in charge, but it’s pretty ridiculous AA hasn’t added a SP since the end of last season, via free agency or trade. That Yaz money would look good right now had it been spent on the rotation.
Get what you’re saying al, but it looks like Yaz was signed shortly after Profar underwent hernia surgery. AA knew he needed to insure an outfield corner spot. Yaz improves the left field defense while Profar is at DH. Yaz also provides cover for Acuna’s knees. The Braves still have approximately $28M they can spend before going over the 3rd tax level. They could get a good pitcher via trade for under that number. For example, Luis Severino’s earning $23,5M. He’s unhappy w/the A’s. Might be a target—-especially since he pitched well under the Braves new pitching coach, Hefner, when they were Mets.
That would be better than nothing, and shouldn’t take much in trade to get him.