Report: Braves were in on George Springer until the end

The Braves have been silent since before Thanksgiving when they signed Charlie Morton to a one-year contract. Which, as you can expect, has the fan base up in arms and clamoring for Alex Anthopoulos’ head as they do every offseason. However, this little nugget from David O’Brien over at The Athletic should calm some of those nerves.

Interesting bit from @DOBrienATL:
“It surprised me to learn the Braves were actually in on Springer until the end. I don’t know how serious they were, but that’s what I was told by someone in the organization, that there were several who wanted him badly.” https://t.co/wZTACNNQXP

— Dallas Britt (@DallasBBritt) January 21, 2021

 

As we now know, the Blue Jays ended up inking Springer to a six-year, $150 million contract, which is much higher than people expected him to receive. It was reported that the Mets were the frontrunners but were only willing to go up to $125 million.

Per source, the Mets’ top offer to George Springer came in around six years, $120-125 million. The Blue Jays took it to the next level and get their man at six years, $150 million. Huge acquisition for Toronto.

— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) January 20, 2021

Credit to the Blue Jays; they targeted their guy and upped the ante by a healthy margin — a number the Mets and Braves obviously were not willing to match.

However, this is still promising news for Braves Country because it means Atlanta has money to spend, and there are still plenty of fantastic free agents available. Most recently, the Braves have been linked to All-Star catcher JT Realmuto. I’m not exactly sure how he will fit into Atlanta’s lineup with Travis d’Arnaud in the fold, but adding the best catcher in the game is never a bad thing. Remember, the Braves were linked to Realmuto when he was being traded from Miami, but the Marlins asking price was deemed too high.

Atlanta is also still heavily involved in the Marcell Ozuna sweepstakes, and I’m sure we will see them active in the reliever market soon. Everything seems to be on the table at this point; it’s just a matter of finding the right value, which Alex Anthopoulos has been a master of since becoming the Braves general manager.