The Winter Meetings are fast approaching and that means that we should be getting some more Atlanta Braves rumors here soon, or at the very least we will start to see some movement in the free agent and trade markets leading up to the meetings which should at least provide some clarity when it comes to market prices and who is looking to be aggressive.
With Jacob deGrom looking less and less likely to join the Braves for the 2023 season, most of the Braves’ rotation is set outside of the fifth spot that seems like there will be an internal competition for. One of the players that is a lock to start in the rotation, veteran Charlie Morton, could struggle a bit in 2023 with the new rules regarding pick-off moves.
More Braves News
One fun feature that we have been rolling out on the site over the last few days has been our 2022 Tomahawk Take awards. The results for the third category, Braves “X-Factor”, were announced yesterday with Michael Harris getting the nod from the staff here. It is hard to argue with a guy who won National League Rookie of the Year, had a huge impact both at the plate and in the field, and whose promotion coincided with the Braves’ season turning around.
MLB News
Aaron Judge is the name that has the most buzz around him on the free agent market and for good reason. While the Braves are almost not going to make a run at him, Judge is garnering a lot of interest from the more deep-pocketed teams around the league although it does seem like the Yankees are still the frontrunner to sign him.
MLB has also been doing a better job of leveraging their Statcast data in their baseball coverage of late. Case in point is this breakdown of the best defenders in baseball using analysis by the great David Adler based on framing runs (for catchers) and outs above average. Travis d’Arnaud gets some love for his work behind the plate as did Dansby Swanson for being the second best defender in baseball last year by their metrics.