Atlanta Braves Want Pitching: Could Aim for Justin Verlander

The Detroit Tigers are signalling that big changes are coming for them and that could make an opportunity for the Atlanta Braves to take care of a large off-season need.

As discussed in a previous piece, the Atlanta Braves have money this off-season. However, for lack of a worse descriptive term, the 2017 Free Agent class is a blob of meh.

Naturally, the Braves could look elsewhere for talent and it was suggested by our own Alan Carpenter that looking east could be an option…far east.  However, there’s  another idea up the ol’ sleeve and there are quite a few connections that could make it far more possible than Shohei Otani.

As hungry as Cookie Monster is for cookies, the Atlanta Braves are equally hungry for starting pitching – 2 pitchers are on the shopping list.  The trade market is likely the best way to acquire the best talent, but at a price.

However, there’s some big news that dropped in the Motor City recently that could cost less of a prospect package, but much more green.  In an end-of-season press conference, Detroit’s GM Al Avila uttered some ominous words that could mean that the Tigers are going into rebuild mode.

"“Changes are coming…” “We want to get younger. We want to get leaner. We want to run the organization without having to go over our means. We want to stay competitive, but at the same time, this organization has been working way above its means for some time.”"

Let’s break that down…