The Braves remain quiet as the Hot Stove continues to simmer. Alex Anthopoulos has made moves with two intentions this offseason: bolstering the depth of the organization and shedding salary.
It’s understandably frustrated Braves fans. It’s hard to watch your biggest competition for a World Series spending gobs of cash, while Alex Anthopoulos sits on the sidelines. The lack of moves has warranted criticism and confusion, which has prompted Jeff Passan to describe the Braves as losers of the offseason to this point.
“The only team with a homegrown position-playing core that comes close to matching the Orioles’ is Atlanta’s. And it has been alarming to see the Braves’ swashbuckling president of baseball operations, Alex Anthopoulos, spend the entirety of his winter not making moves. Anthopoulos has been the king of the early-winter strike, whether it’s via free agency or trade — and yet he has not signed a single major league free agent amid the Braves losing Fried and Morton in free agency,” Passan writes.
Alex Anthopoulos will never have a laundry list of to-do’s because a lot of the club’s key pieces are under long-term contracts, but there are many holes that still need to be filled.
“The Braves are about $20 million under the first luxury tax threshold, and Anthopoulos has suggested they could exceed it for the third consecutive season, so there is room to add. Whether Atlanta spreads its gains out over a number of players to exploit falling prices or prefers to go after a single impact-type player, the Braves are poised to add Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider to a team good enough to make the postseason without them,” Passan continued.
Braves fans are constantly frustrated by the team’s lack of spending, even if that isn’t the case. I’m usually a staunch defender of Alex Anthopoulos because the notion that the organization is cheap is completely false. However, I’m finding it hard to continue to see the plan this winter. Hopefully, something will come to fruition soon.
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