It was certainly an interesting day for the Atlanta Braves at the Winter Meetings yesterday. While the Braves didn’t make any moves, there were still signings and rumors and can and will impact them during the 2023 season.
First, we had the Mets and Phillies throwing around some big money. Both teams got significantly better when the Mets signed Justin Verlander to a two year, high AAV deal to join Max Scherzer in their rotation and the Phillies, not to be outdone, signed Trea Turner to an 11 year deal worth $300 million. There are some issues with both of these deals, but there is no denying that both teams added some great players…at least on paper.
More Braves News
Also, we got a bit of an update on the Dansby Swanson rumor mill. While we know that Alex Anthopoulos had a “great” conversation with Dansby recently, the soon to be married Swanson appears to have no shortage of suitors. One report that popped up yesterday was that the St. Louis Cardinals are interested in Dansby and could be significant players in the shortstop market.
We also continued our season review series with the lost 2022 season of Ozzie Albies. The Braves definitely missed Ozzie’s dynamic play and energy last year, so here is hope that his bones stop, you know, breaking in 2023 and beyond.
MLB News
We already highlighted the fact that Max Fried was named to the All-MLB Second Team earlier this morning, but both the First and Second Teams in their entirety were announced last night. The aforementioned Justin Verlander and Trea Turner were both First Teamers.
The Verlander and Turner signings really dominated the news landscape yesterday, but one rumor that has slipped a bit under the radar is that Willson Contreras is set to meet with the Astros soon. The Astros had a deal in place to trade from Contreras at the trade deadline before the Astros’ ownership nixed it. Now the Astros are without their talented GM that negotiated that deal and looking to acquire the same player in free agency.