Among other areas, the Braves are going to have to bolster the starting rotation.
Max Fried and Charlie Morton pitched a significant amount of innings among Atlanta’s starters. Alex Anthopoulos could have to replace both of their starts, and the GM will have to prepare not to have Spencer Strider for some of the 2025 campaign.
That doesn’t even include potential injuries to the returning starters. Chris Sale was healthy for the first time in several seasons but has battled injuries in recent years. Reynaldo Lopez had stamina issues, and Spencer Schwellenbach still has never pitched an entire season’s worth of innings. Hope is not a strategy.
The Braves are going to have to add at least one and possibly more starters. I wouldn’t expect Anthopoulos to go big-game hunting like Max Fried or Blake Snell. His track record would suggest a high upside target, a guy that isn’t going to break the bank.
Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller believes the Braves are one of the top landing spots for Max Scherzer. Atlanta is intimately familiar with the wily veteran dating back to his stint with the Nationals and then with the Mets more recently.
Over a decade, Scherzer was the best pitcher in baseball, winning three Cy Young awards with a 2.78 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and 11.3 K/9. Father Time has caught up to him, though.
He failed to pitch more than 50.0 innings last year, and even before that, his 2023 campaign wasn’t great. With the Rangers and Mets, Scherzer posted a 4.32 FIP and 1.120 WHIP. Over the last two seasons, he’s posted a 4.29 FIP and made about half of his allotted starts.
Though he’s battled injuries and consistency issues, he’s still Max Scherzer. It certainly wouldn’t break the bank to sign him. I’d expect his contract to be something like a one-year deal worth anywhere from $10-20 million. If the Braves are unable to bring Charlie Morton back, Scherzer could be a natural replacement in that veteran role at the back end of the rotation.
Of course, Morton has been a workhorse for the Braves. Would Alex Anthopoulos really take a risk like that on an injury-prone, aging Max Scherzer? It would be a risk, but if he’s healthy and back in his groove, it would look genius. Just look at how the experiment with Chris Sale worked out for the Braves.
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