For a team with so many questions and a lot of key players departing in free agency, the Braves had a very quiet offseason. They did acquire a proven outfielder, inking Jurickson Profar to a three-year deal, but they essentially left their pitching staff untouched, despite losing Max Fried, Charlie Morton, and A.J. Minter to free agency and Joe Jimenez to a potential season-ending injury. Those are a lot of innings to cover, but Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos has faith in his internal options.
“We’ve lost free agents, no doubt about it, but we have some people we are going to give opportunities to,” Anthopoulos said. “Strider and Fried are not the same, but we lost Strider for last year, and we had the best ERA in the game, and we lost Fried now but Strider comes back. We lose Charlie Morton, can Grant Holmes take that opportunity and be that guy? We think he’s certainly got a chance to do that.”
If healthy, Spencer Strider is certainly capable of replacing Max Fried’s production. It’s also not wild to think Grant Holmes can be even better for the Braves than Charlie Morton was a year ago. However, the depth of the rotation is a grave concern. One significant injury and Anthopoulos will be left scrambling for answers mid-season.
On top of that, the bullpen could be an even more pressing concern. A.J. Minter was the Braves most reliable reliever over the last half-decade, and Joe Jimenez was their second-best set-up man. There’s still a chance Anthopoulos has one more trick left up his sleeve before the start of the season, but if not, the Braves better hope he’s found another diamond in the rough or two.
That’s an area where Anthopoulos has thrived over his tenure in Atlanta. He finds guys, particularly relievers, off the streets that nobody has even heard of, and they become key contributors for the Braves. It’s happened too many times to count, which is why manager Brian Snitker has all the faith in the world in his general manager’s actions.
“I got all the trust in Alex (Anthopoulos) to do all that,” Snitker said on 680 The Fan. “He processes everything, he has such good feel for things… I’ve seen a lot of team that make all those moves this time of year and they’re not around in October.”
Entering the 2025 campaign, the depth of the Braves pitching staff is as lean as it has been in quite some time on paper. But Brian Snitker is right, championships are not won on paper. Nobody has been better than Alex Anthopoulos at envisioning roles for players that other teams might not even consider. As the season approaches, the benefit of the doubt should lie with the Braves GM, but Anthopoulos is leaving the door open for a mountain of criticism if things go awry in what should be a highly competitive division race.
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Photographer: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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