During the Winter Meetings themselves, the Atlanta Braves were quiet, almost suspiciously so. They have a couple of clear things they need to do this offseason (yes, especially shortstop), but they were decided not openly active at the Winter Meetings in addressing those needs.
One factor is that this Braves front office is notoriously tight-lipped about everything. Another is that the biggest question mark for the Braves, Dansby Swanson, is getting married very, very soon so he has a lot of things on his plate. However, never doubt Alex Anthopoulos’ ability to surprise us out of nowhere
#Braves acquire RHP Joe Jiménez: pic.twitter.com/VkFZGXIdhw
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) December 8, 2022
The Atlanta Braves added Joe Jimenez to their already strong bullpen
In a late in the evening trade, the Braves nabbed Joe Jimenez as well as some cash in exchange for the Braves’ current best position player prospect, Justyn-Henry Malloy, as well as relief prospect Jake Higginbotham.
Lets get one thing out of the way now: Jimenez has a lot going for him out of the bullpen. The metrics look great, he misses bats, and he should be another late inning weapon for the Braves. Having a track record of success certainly doesn’t hurt the cause. He is also very cheap AND the Braves got some money back in the deal which means that adding him won’t hurt their chances to make moves elsewhere. Its clear the Tigers must really like Malloy and the Braves felt like the value was worth it. That isn’t a knock on Jake Higginbotham who is a very able reliever, but Malloy was the prize for the Tigers here. It is worth noting that Jimenez is a free agent after the 2023 season which helped keep the cost down in this deal.
So after all of the talk about what the Atlanta Braves needed to do about left field and shortstop (which are still very legitimate questions), Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves decided that their first move this week was to bolster their already strong bullpen. Hard to argue with that plan as the Braves have prioritized their bullpen under AA and the team has reaped the benefits of that.