The Atlanta Braves have lost stars during the offseason before. The saga that was Freddie Freeman's free agency captured Braves' fans attention even during the lockout and some fans are still feeling the sting of the loss of Dansby Swanson. The Braves are as good as any team at locking their young players down, but they haven't been able to keep everyone and that does stink.
This offseason was particularly painful as the Braves' rotation will be without Max Fried and Charlie Morton and both the lineup and bullpen had some key departures as well. However, not every loss is necessarily a bad thing in the grand scheme. Here is a look at some of the former Braves that will be missed and those that we'll be glad the team moved on.
Max Fried will be missed even though the Braves were right to move on
There are a lot of reasons why the Braves didn't try to match Fried's deal with the Yankees. For one, the Braves are light on payroll space with so many long-term deals already on their books that are starting to get expensive. Fried is also 31 years old and has dealt with some injury issues in recent years. With the track record of long-term deals for starters being exceedingly poor, Atlanta's choice was completely defensible.
Still, it is going to truly suck to not have Fried pitching for the Braves in 2025. The guy was an All-Star and Cy Young candidate when he was on the mound and replacing that level of talent and production is going to be exceedingly hard to do. The Braves are in good hands with Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Reynaldo Lopez, and Spencer Strider once the latter is healthy, but that doesn't mean Fried's absence won't be noticed especially against good teams with a bunch of lefty bats.
Jorge Soler was a great story in 2021, but the Braves made the correct call to trade him
When the Braves traded for Jorge Soler last year, fans obviously were hoping for a repeat performance of 2021 when Soler came in, immediately became one of the Braves' best hitters, and helped power the Braves to a World Series title. As fun of a story as that would have been, that is decidedly not what ended up happening.
.@solerpower12 just hit one back to Atlanta!#BattleATL | #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/3rwKVzVZG7
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) November 3, 2021
After struggling defensively and putting up a middling performance after the trade, Atlanta ultimately decided that was not worth keeping Soler given his contract and he was traded to the Angels basically as soon as the offseason started. The reality with Soler is that he is capable of being a game-changer, but his hit tool is too inconsistent especially when paired with his defensive shortcomings. We do hope he kills it with the Angels, but there is no regret here.
The Braves' loss of AJ Minter isn't getting the attention it deserves
A lot of the discussion around Atlanta's bullpen outlook has centered around the loss of Joe Jimenez due to a knee injury. That is fair given his prominent role late in games for the Braves, but there are too many people sleeping on AJ Minter's departure and it's potential impact on the team's fortunes in 2025.
Again, the Braves were not completely unjustified in letting Minter walk. Minter saw his season end after needing pretty serious hip surgery and given how much he was going to command, the uncertainty around his long-term health and viability is a reason to be cautious before handing out real money. Unfortunately, that decision means that the Braves' relief corps is pretty sketchy from the left side going into the season and that could be problematic.
Charlie Morton was great with the Braves, but it was time to move on
Every season that the Braves brought Charlie Morton back, there was a certain amount of skepticism given his age. However, all the guy did was put up result after result. During his four season run with the Braves starting in 2021, he posted a 3.87 ERA in 124 starts with 771 strikeouts in 686.1 innings of work. By any measure, that is quality production.
However, the fact that Morton is 41 years-old and saw his stuff drop off last season a bit was probably a sign that giving him $15 million like Morton got from the Orioles was what the Braves needed to be doing. The Braves have a lot of pitching depth in the organization and betting again that Morton can fend off Father Time is eventually going to backfire. Hopefully he gets to end his career strong, but we are pretty happy he is finding out elsewhere.