What what was learned from The Athletic interview with Braves brass?

Show Me the Money

The very first question posed was how the team promised to spend more money this offseason, due to the $33 million in dead money coming off the books, as well as the increase in revenue thanks to The Battery.

Anthopoulos’ response caught me off guard, because he instantly became defensive.

Also, the question was specifically directed towards McGuirk, but Anthopoulos chimed in immediately with a question to answer the question.

He asked if the front office had promised to spend more money or whether they had promised to have more flexibility.

I call this backtracking.

Earlier this winter, it was specifically stated by McGuirk that the Braves could “shop in any aisle” this offseason, but Anthopoulos’ quote would suggest that all the Braves did was gain flexibility to spend if they wanted, not needed.

In the next answer, Anthopoulos stated that last year’s Opening Day budgeted payroll was $120 million and it ended up at $126 million with the midseason additions of Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day.

The Braves also inquired about Josh Donaldson at the trade deadline, which would have added another four million and pushed the payroll to $130 million.

But this Year…

O’Brien and Schultz asked what the payroll would look like for this year and Anthopoulos was blunt in saying it would make no sense for him to say what it is, because he would lose negotiating power with free agents and potential trades.

He did however, reiterate what has been said often in recent weeks about the money left over. He said they have the room to go above the $120 million and perhaps well above.

According to McGuirk, the Braves currently are above last season’s Opening Day payroll, but Cot’s Contracts has the Braves current payroll at $114 million.

So if Anthopoulos says the Braves can indeed go “well north” of last year’s $120 million budgeted payroll, so it would seem fair to say the Braves have roughly $15 million to spend.

McGuirk said the future payroll is expected to move into the middle to upper tier in baseball, perhaps as soon as next year.

He anticipates that the payroll will push past the middle into the upper tier bin the coming five years, which is unprecedented for the organization.  [ed. note:  unprecedented since Liberty Media took ownership, but not so for the Atlanta Braves franchise:  the club was in the Top 5 overall through most of the 1990’s. ]