2023 Atlanta Braves

[LowerWolf]

I know he's earned the benefit of the doubt, but I don't get what AA has done this offseason.

Traded a bunch of guys for Aaron Bummer. And the justification for including Soroka and Nicky Lopez is that they were going to be non-tendered anyway. Specifically, Lopez was going to be NT because we didn't want to pay $4M a year for a seldom-used, light-hitting utility infielder.

We acquired Kelenic for very little, but took on two bad contracts in Marco Gonzales and Evan White. Kelenic was once a highly-touted prospect, but he hasn't really panned out yet. Potential is there, I get it, but there's no guarantee he'll work out. And again, we basically took on bad contracts to get him.

Gonzales is flipped to the Pirates for a PTBNL, so there's one bad contract moved. But we also sent cash considerations with him, so I assume we're paying most of that contract anyway.

White is then flipped to the Angels for Stassi and David Fletcher. So we successfully dumped White's contract .. except it turned out to be a salary dump for the Angels since Stassi makes $7M a year and Fletcher's contract is really just about as bad as White's. Stassi is then flipped to the White Sox for a PTBNL, but I've seen it reported we sent enough cash to cover his entire salary.

So at the end of the day, we've taken on more money. We have a new left fielder who may or may not pan out. And we now have an older, worse, more expensive version of Nicky Lopez in Fletcher who is signed for another year and who will soon have enough service time that he can't be sent to AAA.

[Sportsforever]

I agree; when the offseason started with all of those moves I thought “okay, he’s got something big planned” and then it’s been crickets. We need pitching. I wanted Gray and that didn’t happen…not much else left out there.


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[LowerWolf]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sportsforever

I agree; when the offseason started with all of those moves I thought “okay, he’s got something big planned” and then it’s been crickets. We need pitching. I wanted Gray and that didn’t happen…not much else left out there. Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Yeah, I thought the roster dump in the Bummer trade meant something big was coming and then nothing.

But even the moves he has made don't really add up to me. Acquire bad contracts and then flip them for equally bad, if not worse, contracts. At least we got Kelenic when we took on Gonzales and White. I don't see what we got flipping White for Stassi and Fletcher.

If you were going to non-tender Lopez because you didn't want to pay $4M for a utility guy who isn't going to play much, then why are you acquiring Fletcher? He's older and is going to make $6M this year and $6.5M next year.

He's earned the benefit of the doubt, so hopefully there's some plan that has yet to fully come to fruition.

[Sportsforever]

Good article on Braves’ offseason: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/what-exa...XUN314EaPlDWtQ


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[LowerWolf]

Good find on the article, SF.

Thinking about it some more, I'm OK with what AA has done this offseason. Everybody keeps clamoring for a SP, but he's really tried to address the playoff shortcomings.

The way playoff baseball is now, the bullpen is really more important than the rotation once you get to October. He's strengthened the pen, and a rotation of Strider/Fried/Morton/X should be good enough, assuming health.

I'm always skeptical of signing a pitcher to a longterm deal. And if you're going to trade for one, it's probably better to do it in July than December. And who knows, maybe Ian or Ynoa bounce back.

All the salary trades still don't make much sense to me, but the team as is is good enough to compete for a World Series title. He doesn't have a lot to trade from, but AA should have some trade chips at the deadline.