This time last year, Alex Anthopoulos was being heralded for not only building a team that was on its way to its sixth straight NL East title, but also locking up his core group for the foreseeable future for what most people considered a bargain. It was almost a running joke in the baseball community, like how the hell does Alex Anthopoulos keep getting away with these highway robberies?
But what fans fail to realize is the risk involved in any long-term deal. Most of these contracts bought out the arbitration years of young players, which were not going to pay them $20 million annually, in order to gain a few years on the back-end. It’s a gamble by the organization that the player is going to continue to perform at an All-Star level and also stay healthy, while it acts as a safety net for the player, who is now guaranteed generational wealth no matter what happens in the immediate future.
These kinds of deals began when Ronald Acuña Jr. inked an 8-year, $100 million contract with the Braves, an incredible bargain for one of the bright young talents in the league. Many accused Anthopoulos of taking advantage of Acuña, but two ACL surgeries later, and things don’t quite look the same.
The Braves would still do that deal 100 times out of 100, and the same could be said for the seven-year, $35 million contract they handed Ozzie Albies soon after. But the rest of these they could come to regret.
Matt Olson certainly isn’t performing up to the standard of his 8-year, $168 million contract this season, which keeps him with the team through at least 2029. In similar fashion, the Braves handed Sean Murphy a six-year, $73 million extension right after trading for him last offseason, only for him to essentially become a glorified backup catcher a year later.
Spencer Strider has looked like a superstar when healthy, but he’s missed the entire season less than a year after signing a six-year, $75 million extension with the Braves last year. That deal could end up looking abysmal if he isn’t able to bounce back from the second torn UCL of his career, and Michael Harris’ eight-year, $72 million deal no longer looks like a slam dunk after his struggles this season.
That’s not to say all of these contracts will end up looking like bad deals down the road, but it only takes a couple of them turning sour to put the Braves in a tough spot. This isn’t a club like the Dodgers with endless resources at its disposal, and because of that, they aren’t going to have a ton of room to maneuver in free agency. The Braves are really relying on this core group to get it done. To this point, they haven’t come close, and things will only get more difficult if Max Fried leaves in free agency.
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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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