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Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: what’s the trade market hold-up now?

By Alan Carpenter

HAIKOU, CHINA - FEBRUARY 19: Vehicles jam at a port as the route across the Qiongzhou Strait is closed in fog on February 19, 2018 in Haikou, Hainan Province of China. Traffic jam occurred at ports in Haikou as tourists drove cars back, and the route across the Qiongzhou Strait was closed many times sine fog hit the Strait on the fourth day of Chinese lunar new year. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
HAIKOU, CHINA - FEBRUARY 19: Vehicles jam at a port as the route across the Qiongzhou Strait is closed in fog on February 19, 2018 in Haikou, Hainan Province of China. Traffic jam occurred at ports in Haikou as tourists drove cars back, and the route across the Qiongzhou Strait was closed many times sine fog hit the Strait on the fourth day of Chinese lunar new year. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 09: A man sleeps on a bench as groups of Eastern Europeans gather in Marble Arch on May 9, 2013 in London, England.  (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 09: A man sleeps on a bench as groups of Eastern Europeans gather in Marble Arch on May 9, 2013 in London, England.  (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) /

Quiet… Very Quiet

Is this Front Office sleeping on the job?  There’s zero evidence of that.  There’s also zero rumors, but there’s another reason for that:  Alex Anthopoulos doesn’t like anyone working for him to even hint at something going on.  He controls the messages released to the media… period.

Even the regular beat writers are stymied.  The last message of any substance from the Braves that was repeated by a Braves-assigned writer was back around December 15th… which attempted to quash rumors about their interest in J.T. Realmuto.

What we’re seeing here  may very well require a change in tactics by Dave O’Brien, Mark Bowman, Gabe Burns, et al… clearly, they once had well-developed sources within the Front Office that provided hints of direction that they could really to their readers.

With that data now not longer available, they may have to reach out to other teams for their impressions in dealing with the Braves.  However, such source could come with a price.

Let me explain.  What access any writer has with a team is controlled by the issuing of press credentials.  A credential is the life blood of the working press – without this, they are shut out and cannot do their job.

The Braves – like all teams – don’t exactly pass credentials out like churches distribute bulletins.  For a key example, bloggers can’t be credentialed (it’s also against FanSided policy in our case, but it doesn’t matter… I couldn’t even get that office to return a phone call in the past).  This controls the flows of information and additionally gives the team a measure of control over content as well.

Recall our discussion in mid-December about the information/non-information on Realmuto?  The Braves’ writers all said ‘Atlanta is out’ and the Marlins writer said ‘they are definitely still in’.  There is information being passed out according to the desires of the teams involved.

Why?  That part is easy:

  • The Marlins (almost desperately) want teams to overpay for their All-Star catcher.  Having more clubs ‘interested’ or ‘heavily involved’ feeds that narrative
  • The Braves’ problem here is that they don’t want any information about any interest in any player being out there (it maximizes their options and leverage), but you can’t always control the other end of any conversations.
  • The message delivered from Atlanta’s side in mid-December may have actually been an attempt to tell the Marlins ‘knock it off – we’re not going to be your pawn in this game you’re playing.’  Since then… hardly a peep.

All of this puts the Braves’ writers in the predicament of needing to release only what is officially released to insure that they continue to have the access that they do enjoy.  As this new Front Office perceives things, leaks interfere with the way they prefer to do business.

That said, you can certainly read between these lines quite easily:  the twitter timelines from both O’Brien and Bowman show precious little actual activity of substance this off-season.  That’s a stark contrast from years’ past.  They end up having to guess – carefully – with the rest of us.

It doesn’t mean ‘nothing is happening’… but it does mean that the message is being controlled tightly.

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