Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos seems like he can do no wrong. If there were a checklist on how to be a perfect GM, there wouldn’t be a box left blank.
Anthopoulos understands the nuances of the clubhouse and the importance of having a genuinely good group of guys that want to come to work together every day. He’s proven to be a maestro at finding under the radar free agents that most of the baseball world has never even heard of. His trades are typically one-sided in favor of the Braves, and he’s hit home runs with most of his significant free agent signings. However, what Anthopoulos has become most infamous for since taking over as general manager in Atlanta are his team-friendly extensions.
All it takes is one look around the diamond to see why the Braves are set up for sustained success until the end of the decade.
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Ronald Acuña Jr. — 10 years, $100 million
Ozzie Albies — 7 years, $35 million
Austin Riley — 10 years, $232 million
Matt Olson — 8 years, $168 million
Sean Murphy — 6 years, $73 million
Michael Harris — 8 years, $72 million
Spencer Strider — 6 years, $75 million
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Do the math, that’s six players that were All-Stars in 2023 and one 2022 NL Rookie of the Year in Michael Harris II.
It’s an astounding feat that has put the Braves in a class of their own, but one MLB insider, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, went on Foul Territory to discuss the risk with all of these contracts.
"There's a downside people don't talk about if things don't go exactly to plan"@kileymcd dishes on the @Braves best-laid plans and the uncertainty if things go sideways.
▶️ https://t.co/Oc7BCsv1xu pic.twitter.com/Z0YKzY8V1g
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) January 31, 2024
Most Braves fans were perturbed by what McDaniel said in the video above, but I am glad he pointed out the risk in a lot of these deals because opposing fans love to talk about how the Braves are “taking advantage” of their young players.
Alex Anthopoulos trusted his gut with all of these guys, some of whom hadn’t even been in the majors for an entire season. That’s a risky proposition, as guys have streaky starts to their careers and flame out all of the time for various reasons. It would have been very possible for some of these players to regress, so there is legitimate risk in getting these deals done so early.
Unfortunately, for the rest of the league. Anthopoulos doesn’t miss. All of these signings have been home runs, and by getting ahead of the curb, the Braves are now able to retain them long-term at a fraction of their worth, giving them an incredible breadth of talent that is impossible to match. Even the Dodgers can’t do it with over a billion dollars in free agent spending.
All of the Braves top-end talent also means they aren’t defined by a single player. They can suffer an injury, or several, and still be the best team in baseball, just take a look at last year. Max Fried and Kyle Wright — two guys that finished inside the top 10 of the 2022 NL Cy Young race — combined for about a half-season of starts, and the Braves were the best team in baseball by a comfortable margin.
Or go back to 2021, when Ronald Acuña Jr — the leading candidate for the NL MVP that year — went down with a torn ACL, and the Braves still went on to win the World Series.
So, while I agree there is risk in every early long-term extension Alex Anthopoulos handed out, those gambles have paid off and then some. Anybody acting as if the Braves won’t be able to fill in potential holes in the rotation with free agency dollars isn’t paying attention. Payroll continues to rise year after year, and these team-friendly extensions are exactly why baseball will run through Atlanta until the end of the decade.
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Photographer: Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire
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