Braves announce eight-year extension for Matt Olson

I’ll be the first to admit, yesterday was bittersweet. The Braves did trade for Matt Olson, but they also lost the face of their franchise in Freddie Freeman. Like many fans, I was wondering why they wouldn’t just pay Freeman and avoid giving up the prospects for only two years of Olson.

Well, now we know. Just before Olson was introduced to the Atlanta media, the Braves announced they have reached an eight-year, $168 million extension with their new slugging first baseman.

The Atlanta #Braves today signed INF @mattolson21 to an eight-year contract: pic.twitter.com/0qpvvkLAXG

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) March 15, 2022

This is just an unbelievable piece of business by Alex Anthopoulos.

I know it had to be almost impossible to let a player that meant so much to the organization like Freeman go, but the Braves are in an infinitely better position because of it. Olson might already be a superior player to Freeman. He’s also four years young and will now be under contract at a much more affordable price.

Freeman is expected to garner around $30 million AAV in his next contract — if not higher. Olson will average less than $22 million AAV, and again, he’s much more in his prime than Freeman is.

I’ll always remember what Freeman did for this organization. He’ll be a Braves legend forever, but this is how you stay winning. Over the last two days, Atlanta’s chances of bringing home another World Series this decade just got significantly higher, and we can thank Alex Anthopoulos for that.