Braves’ Anthopoulos: “We have a good clubhouse”

When things aren’t going your way, it doesn’t take long for the finger point to begin from fans. The Braves once again stumbled out of the gate to begin their 2022 campaign. Naturally, blame was dispersed, and one of the main talking points was the leadership in the clubhouse following the departure of Freddie Freeman. I even talked about it in an article from a couple of weeks ago.

However, everything is fixed by winning. A week ago, you would have thought the sky was falling, but after five straight wins, all of the sudden coming back from 8.5 games back in the division feels easily doable. The truth is nobody outside of organization really knows what is going on behind closed doors, but Alex Anthopoulos does, and he feels more than confident in his bunch when it comes to the leadership department.

“I think the best teams don’t have one face. It’s when you have a debate, who is the face? Because you have so many good players,” Anthopoulos said via 680 The Fan. “I think these guys lead in various ways. I think obviously the focus was on Freddie because he was the longest tenured Brave, an elite player, had been through all of it, and there had been a lot of turnover at the same time. Now you start looking around the infield, basically all of those guys in the infield, from d’Arnaud, to Olson, to Albies, to Riley, to Swanson, even in the outfield as well, these guys all have qualities. In the rotation, the same way, and even in the bullpen,” he said. “I love our mix. We have a good clubhouse.”

It’s impossible to tell just how much leadership in the clubhouse has changed this season. There’s no questioning that players like Freeman and Joc Pederson had a profound effect on what went on behind the scenes. With that being said, this is a team full for stars led by a manager who has been in this business for 50 years. There shouldn’t be any issues in the leadership department, but only time will tell whether Alex Anthopoulos’ analysis of the clubhouse is correct.

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Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire