Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: trying to take advantage of bad economics

The Braves Perspective

That essentially defines where the Braves are.  They did two things earlier this off-season:  snagging Josh Donaldson and Brian McCann.  McCann was unique because he had 2 options that he gave himself:  Atlanta or retirement.

Donaldson was unique in a different way in that he was clearly the best third baseman available by a wide margin (yeah – I’d include Machado).  He did have multiple bidders… and signed early (see how that works?).  Also, he and his agent recognized quickly the need to rebuild value – especially given his age.  Taking a 1-year deal was a key part of that.

The reason that reasoning doesn’t apply to Harper or Machado is because their agents have been trying to get extreme contracts in an economy that’s anything but favorable for such a situation.

The same thing has progressed for Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel (the latter being another Boras client).  While it’s reasonable to think that Kimbrel should command best-of-market dollars, teams have been looking around at the competition and not ‘what should happen’.

So while there’s interest in the players, there’s no interest in the players at that level of dollars.

So what are the Braves doing now?  I have 2 ideas:

• J.T. Realmuto
• Corey Kluber (possible alternate:  Madison Bumgarner)

These are mutually exclusive – it’s probably not both of them… that because I believe Ender Inciarte is the trade bait for both Miami and Cleveland/San Fran.  In fact, I’m going to suggest that there’s only a 25% chance that Inciarte is with the team in April.

If one of those trades happens, then the Braves will need another outfielder, but that can still happen… we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out:  first things first.

Otherwise, the only other major free agent that they could be waiting on is Kimbrel.  And that, of course, would be dependent on the fallout from all of the above.