Braves News Rundown: Free agency rolls on, how to replace Dansby, more
The “quiet period” of MLB free agency continued on Tuesday as teams work out who they are going to give qualifying offers to and which options are going to get exercised. For the Atlanta Braves, they have likely already made the decision to extend a qualifying offer to Dansby Swanson if he decides to test the free agent market fully and the only contract option currently in limbo for the team is Jake Odorizzi.
That means we can really start looking at the pool of free agents that could be available to the team. The Braves don’t have a ton of holes to fill, but we went ahead and compiled a list of free agents that the Braves seemingly could have some interest in this offseason. We have thrown a lot of free agent content at you lately and, to be blunt, it can be tough to keep track of all the goings on during the offseason between rumors, transactions, payroll, etc. To make it easier to keep track of everything, we also put together an offseason tracker to make things a lot easier.
More Braves News
On the more Braves-centric side, obviously the idea of Dansby Swanson needing to be replaced is a loaded topic. We have covered a few options that could do the trick in free agency, but people are overlooking the fact that the trade market could be really helpful in finding his replacement as well.
Our player review series rolled on with Kyle Wright on Tuesday. Kyle came into the 2022 season coming off a heroic appearance in the 2021 World Series. However, no one could have expected that he would put together the season he did in 2022.
MLB News
Most of the news coming out across the league right now is regarding whether teams are going to extend qualifying offers to key free agents. For example, it sounds like the Cubs extended the QO to Willson Contreras and it was rejected which means he will hit the free agent market. It also appears likely that that Anthony Rizzo is going to get the qualifying offer as well.
Conversely, we are also finding out who won’t be getting the qualifying offer. It looks like Mitch Haniger’s time in Seattle is coming to an end as GM Jerry DiPoto said that it is unlikely he is getting qualifying offer.
Finally, we have some international baseball intrigue. Masataka Yoshida, a left fielder and two-time batting champ from Japan, is likely to be posted soon and will be of interest to numerous MLB clubs.