House That Hank Built
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How best to spend $150 million of Atlanta Braves money

By Alan Carpenter

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: Newly redesigned $100 notes lay in stacks at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on May 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. The one hundred dollar bills will be released this fall and has new security features, such as a duplicating portrait of Benjamin Franklin and microprinting added to make the bill more difficult to counterfeit. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: Newly redesigned $100 notes lay in stacks at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on May 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. The one hundred dollar bills will be released this fall and has new security features, such as a duplicating portrait of Benjamin Franklin and microprinting added to make the bill more difficult to counterfeit. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) /
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The Other Position Players

INFIELDERS

(other than Swanson, Culberson, and Camargo)

  • FREEMAN $22m
  • ALBIES $1m
  • DONALDSON $24m

Yes – I’m projecting that Josh Donaldson will re-sign and will do so for a 3 year deal at $24m per season.  Sound good?

That adds to $47 million, making a sub-total of $73.3 million so far.  $76.7 remaining.  We’re almost halfway yet haven’t hired half of the roster yet.

CATCHERS

We have projected Flowers is already on the job.  The logical big ticket is Yasmani Grandal… except that he’s going to be in high demand… particularly since he is no longer saddled with a Qualifying Offer.

In reality, I expect that the Braves will make a significant bid for his services… but will will ultimately be outbid by some other club.  In all honesty, though, naming such a team is difficult since most of the bigger-money clubs have catchers that they already like.  So Atlanta should have a shot.

  • GRANDAL  $20m (over 2 years, with a 3rd option)

Running total:  $93.3m

OUTFIELDERS

At the moment, we have already dealt with the 2020 monies for Duvall and Acuna; that leaves Ender Inciarte and Ronald Acuna.

  • INCIARTE $5.5m
  • ACUNA $1m

Running total:  $99.8m

PITCHING

In this spot, we’ll merely add those pitchers with existing contracts that haven’t already been dealt with:

Boom.  That’s a chunk… which brings us up to $113.8 million overall.  But he’s the only one in this category.

15 players have been hired on… 11 slots remain.

All of the remaining pitchers are ‘pre-arb’, which means that Atlanta will pay them something between the league minimum ($555,000 plus a ‘cost of living’ adjustment) and $600,000… roughly the limit of what Atlanta chooses to dispense to their controllable players.

For the moment, we’ll also assume that the bench bats also consist of minimal-ish salaried players.

Let average this out to $575K or so and assign 11 players this amount.  This adds $6.325 million to the pot.

Payroll Pause

Now we have the basis for a team… 26 bodies and most of the holes filled up one way or another… which is why those last 11 names don’t really matter right now.

The good news?  We’ve already hired a new catcher and got Donaldson back while we’re only at $119.125 million.

So now our ‘budget’ has roughly $31 million remaining.

Don’t forget one of the premises to this:  that Julio Teheran might be dealt elsewhere.  Let’s project that he’s traded for a decent prospect to a team that picks up all but $3 million of Teheran’s contract… saving the Braves $9 million.

Let’s try for more savings…  Mark Melancon might still be a solid closer, but at $14 million, that’s a tricky price for the Braves.  Perhaps they could flip him to another club?

Let’s assume the answer is ‘yes’ and that Atlanta picks up half the freight cost while receiving a lottery pick prospect in return.  Savings:  $7 million.

So under this scenario, we’ve added $16 million onto the $31 million remaining dollars… $47 million total.  However, we’re also down by 2 roster positions.

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