Atlanta Braves roster building: Has Alex Anthopoulos done well?
By Fred Owens
The success of 2019, and increased income from postseason play made a more aggressive approach in 2020 possible, but chaos intervened.
After coming up short for the second season in the playoffs, the GM finally decided to add veteran stability to the Atlanta Braves roster. In November, he gave out his first multi-year contracts to Travis d’Arnaud, Chris Martin, and Will Smith.
In late December, he added Cole Hamels to the Major League roster, followed by Marcell Ozuna in January. He also brought back Josh Tomlin and added Felix Hernandez on minor leagues deals.
Unfortunately for the Braves, neither Hamels nor Hernandez pitched significant innings in 2020, and the pandemic meant we’d never know how those additions would play out over 162 games.
Success on the field
The Atlanta Braves were successful over the last three seasons, because of the core of players added by disgraced former Braves GM John Coppolella. To his credit, Alex Anthopoulos said this in interviews many times.
The addition of Donaldson and Ozuna and his deadline deals in 2018 and 2019, pushed the team over the line in 2019 and 2020. However, the pipeline of prospects Coppolella created is virtually gone; the future of the club now rests solely in Alex Anthopoulos’ hands
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The Rule 4 draft picks the Braves lost are part of the reason of the Braves minor league system is thin, but only a small part. The biggest reason lies in the restrictions placed on international signings.
The prospects MLB turned into free agents MLB aren’t the issue. To date, none of those players turned into anything the team needs. It’s the loss of new players the group of young players the team would normally sign that’s biting now.
In a typical International signing period, the Atlanta Braves would snag one or two really good prospects, and add others with the potential to become a find. The team did sign a handful of international free agents, but the best went elsewhere.
Baseball America (subscription required) still ranks the Atlanta Braves seventh overall, and points to the restrictions as a reason the lower levels are thin.
"The Skinny: The Braves successfully graduated wave after wave of top prospects and won back-to-back division titles as a result. There are still some potential impact players left in the system, but the negative effects of their international signing penalties can be seen in the lower levels."
Fortunately, the international signing limitation ends in 2021, Unfortunately, the pandemic and reductions in scouting staff won’t make on-boarding players easy.