Perhaps it’s just the result of today’s financial climate, but the Atlanta Braves are waiting out this off-season like few other teams.
If you want to know what “going for it” truly looks like for a franchise, one needs to look no further than St. Louis or San Diego.
While some may quibble about some of these moves, here’s what the Cardinals have done under John Mozeilik over the past few years:
- Traded for Jason Heyward from Atlanta
- Offered Heyward a $200 million contract extension
- Worked a trade with the Marlins for Giancarlo Stanton (ultimately rejected by the player via his no-trade clause). Would have been a commitment of well over $200 million
- Executed a trade with Arizona for Paul Goldschmidt
- Extended Goldschmidt: 5 years, $130 million
- Executed a trade with Colorado for Nolan Arenado, committing to $163 million
San Diego has done things a little bit differently — primarily leveraging their farm system with big trades more than free agent signings: Manny Machado, Mike Clevinger, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove — just to hit the bigger names.
That said, A.J. Preller’s Padres haven’t been shy about spending money for his big names: $445 million was committed just between Machado and Hosmer — before they added all those pitchers.
(That leaves some questions about how they will handle Fernando Tatis, Jr., but that’s a topic for them to resolve on another day.)
Atlanta Braves studiously avoid the ‘big splash’
The point here isn’t so much that the Atlanta Braves haven’t dived into the deep end of these player pools. It is instead to note that some General Managers — oops: ‘President of Baseball Operations’ these days — appear pre-disposed to target the big stars.
You can add names like Dave Dombrowski to that list. Other clubs — like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Red Sox — perennially do likewise, though they tend to do so more because their resources allow such things.
No, the point here is that some GM’s appear pre-disposed to build their teams around a star player that they can acquire via trade or free agency. Their philosophy is to bring in that anchor and then build the ship around them… or to acquire such players to complete their roster.
That is what the Braves did in the 1990’s and early 2000’s: Terry Pendleton, Fred McGriff, Greg Maddux, Gary Sheffield, J.D. Drew, … the list goes on for quite a while.
However, that’s not been the direct philosophy lately.
To be sure: the signing of both Josh Donaldson and Marcell Ozuna were cases in which there was opportunism exercised. Ditto Cole Hamels, but not every such attempt works out, of course.
Alex Anthopoulos, while hanging around the fringes of competition for top free agents, has been reluctant to go all in.
That’s brought us to where we are with his team today: he’s waiting for the right bargain-esque move or some team to come down on their trade price… something like that.
It’s frankly the only thing that would explain an inability to even ink a backup catcher — and the only ones remaining can’t really expect more than $1 million, so money really can’t be the sticking point there.
Regardless, the lack of decisive action suggests that hunting for ‘Big Game’ simply isn’t his style, preference, modus operandi, or whatever term you wish to place here.
We’d hoped that this wasn’t true when Anthopoulos arrived, but actions are speaking much louder than words.
So as it appears that the Mets are about to lock up their second frontline starting pitching of the Winter — to go with their All-World shortstop — we’re all left to wonder what might have been… as the waiting game continues in Atlanta.