What a difference a few months can have, huh? Atlanta Braves General Manager was ridiculed by the fan base and media at the start of the season, but after the deadline…not so much.
Some have called him a wizard, some have called him a deal maker. These weren’t the names many were calling him back in early April. Now it’s a completely different story. Alex Anthopoulos made 3 deadline moves to give the Atlanta Braves a legit shot at thinking they can beat anyone in October.
The cherry on top is the fact he did not trade a single one of our top prospects. In fact, since taking over as the Braves General Manager, Alex Anthopoulos has not traded a prospect that at that time was ranked in the top 100.
Maybe the ridicule was warranted back in the Spring, and we all know the comments that many made in the last year or two surely didn’t help, but the fact is the Braves had a division lead at the trade deadline and money available to spend on players. That is exactly what they did.
Look at the Phillies, who spent “stupid money” back in the Winter: they still have money to spend, but they have been reduced to simply filling holes this Summer. The Braves had money to spend wherever they chose. Taking on all of Mark Melancon’s deal has proven that.
Anthopoulos confirmed Braves are assuming Melancon’s entire contract. He’s owed $14M next season.
— Gabe Burns (@GabeBurnsAJC) July 31, 2019
Let’s revisit the mastery of the trades though, somehow Alex managed to nab three arms from other teams for players that honestly didn’t have much of a future it looked like in Atlanta anyways.
Among those players was Shane Greene who is an All-Star and will be under contract for a year and a half.
They aren’t supposed to come as cheap as they did for the Braves – especially when you consider the fact that the Tigers reportedly asked for Nationals young stud Carter Kieboom who at last rank, was 22nd on MLB.com’s top prospect list.
Keep in mind though that obviously some trade reports are far-fetched at this time of year. Still though, everyone thought for sure Greene would cost more than he did.
So while it seems most fans are excited by our deadline deals, the best part is no one is crying about losing any of our “untouchables”. They are all still in the system and General Manager Alex Anthopoulos may know what he is doing after all.
Maybe we should all rescind our nasty comments from a few months ago?