What could the Atlanta Braves outfield look like in 2020?

External options are available

I’m not going to sit here and re-write the articles already written by my peers. Rumors have been flying about for the Atlanta Braves to re-sign Josh Donaldson to play third, or as a very nice consolation prize, Mike Moustakas.  Marcell Ozuna has shown up in rumors over the past week.

There’s Nick Castellanos, and of course, the further out scenarios (or maybe not so far out) where we haul in Mookie Betts.

Free agent options

Josh Donaldson is going require three, maybe four years, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-100 million dollars.

For Moustakas, you might be looking at less money per season, but a slightly longer length in an ideal world. You’d probably be looking at the same for Ozuna, as well. Ozuna is just 29 years old, compared to Donaldson’s 33.

So you can bet that Ozuna would be looking for a minimum of three years, but likely, 4-5 years or more.

Castellanos is kind of like Moustakas, in terms that’s he’s viewed maybe as some as the ‘B option’ to Ozuna as many Atlanta Braves fans view Moose as the ‘B option’ to Donaldson.

But Castellanos has sat between .272 and .298 over the past three years with 25 home run power and good production in the area of 80-90 RBI… if you can tolerate his defense.

Any of these would be great options in my opinion. It’s all a matter of commitment.

Let’s talk trades

Let’s assume that we are keeping Mike Soroka, Mike Foltynewicz, Max Fried and that Sean Newcomb gets another shot in the rotation. That’s four starters- however we get the other one is up to you guys.

That leaves Ian Anderson, Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, Tucker Davidson, Touki Toussaint, Patrick Weigel, Huascar Ynoa and Kyle Muller as pitchers that can step up, or can serve as trade capital. That’s a lot of trade chips. It would appear, that at least the short term plans for these arms aren’t the bullpen.

Now, if you figure that hauling in a piece like Betts would require moving Cristian Pache or Drew Waters, and the Atlanta Braves absolutely have the capital to pull off a trade, and possibly even do it without blinking.

With the way this offseason has been going, we might get answers sooner than later. The Atlanta Braves front office has already pulled the trigger on upgrades, and maybe we’ll find out the state of the 2020 outfield in the coming weeks.