The 2017 Atlanta Braves: Inquiring Minds Wanted to Know
Every now and again, we will check in with other blogs to see what they think of their team going forward. This week, it was TomahawkTake answering such questions about the Braves.
CardsConclave.com is embarking on a mission to find out about all of the other clubs in baseball for a Spring review, and they asked TomahawkTake to participate by answering a few questions about the 2017 edition of the Atlanta Braves.
We are very happy to assist, and what follows are the questions along with my answers in a “turn-around” edition of what we like to call ‘Take 5’. Right now, our appearance on CardsConclave is scheduled for some point in the back half of February… but our readers will get the pre-release now!
1A) Was it a good offseason for the team? Did they do what they needed to do?
Generally speaking, yes: being a thin free agent class, there will always be the debate about ‘sign vs. trade’, and the Braves did quite a bit of both this Winter, both for now and for the future.
Fans wanted more, but more is coming one way or another. 2018 should be the year we’re more-or-less “back” to being fully competitive… 2017 will likely be a tease.
Here are the bigger add-ons:
- Major League/Roster Additions: R.A. Dickey, Bartolo Colon, Josh Collmenter (re-sign), Jaime Garcia (trade), Kurt Suzuki, Tuffy Gosewisch, Sean Rodriguez, Micah Johnson, Adam Walker.
- Rule 5: Armando Rivero
- Minor League Deals: Eric O’Flaherty, Jordan Walden, John Danks
- Extended: Ender Inciarte
These are mostly transition moves. Only a couple are for something beyond 2017, which sets up the team for a strong run at free agents for next year. There should be quite a bit of money to spend then.
The big thing was getting Inciarte set up for 5 years. That’s our version of the Adam Eaton trade – and cost the Braves nothing in prospects.
Deals not made:
- Chris Sale would be the big one, though the Red Sox smoked everyone else on that.
- Chris Archer as well, but Atlanta obviously could not reach the point where the Rays would be happy, despite John Coppolella’s evident desire to land him.
- Jose Quintana: we cannot be certain how hard this might have been attempted. In theory, he would be a tier below the Sale trade, though it’s clear no one has yet met the ChiSox price…whatever that might be.
It appears that Atlanta is more-or-less satisfied with their offense and opted to concentrate on getting pitchers who could eat innings while awaiting a few (prospect) starting pitching candidates to step up and demand promotion via their performance.
One thing Coppy made absolutely clear to all is that social promotions to the majors would not happen. If you don’t earn the spot, you won’t get it. Everyone is on notice.
Given all of that, the market then dictated the terms: if you want a decent quality SP on a 1 year deal, then you’ve got to go “old”. They did… and John Coppolella got that done quickly.
As for the rest, the catching market was an area of obvious need, but it didn’t really set up for anyone’s liking, frankly. Apparently, the Braves were unable to made a trade deal for a young catcher (there are a few out there), and thus we got what we got.
The signing of Sean Rodriguez could be a real coup if he hits like he did in Pittsburgh’s second half last year. Jordan Walden has a chance to bounce back – pitched strong for the Cards… albeit briefly.