We are now REALLY in the dead zone of the offseason for the Atlanta Braves where, presumably, the majority of their signings and trades are now complete and we basically have to wait until we start getting info on reporting to spring training. Fun times for football fans, less so for baseball fans.
As many fans wonder what might have been for this offseason, it is important to mention that the Braves are officially a luxury tax team now. One side effect of all of these long-term extensions is that Atlanta’s luxury tax number is determined by the average value of all of these contracts. While they certainly help the team in the long-term, that fact did make this season’s budget uniquely tricky especially after the team decided to give Charlie Morton $20 million for 2023.
More Braves News
Elsewhere on the site, we took a look at the weakest (cheapest?) home runs the Braves have hit since 2015. We are a little skeptical that some of these Statcast numbers are correct given the actual footage, but the fact that some of these other balls somehow cleared the fenced is objectively hilarious.
We also continued on with our 2012 prospect retrospective series with Joey Terdoslavich. Terdo did good work at the plate in the minor leagues, but never could lock in a major league roster spot and his time with the team ended after he was DFAed one of the times Kelly Johnson returned and got claimed by the Orioles.
MLB News
It wasn’t just quiet in Braves land as there was decidedly little going on the first day of 2023 across the league. There were some rumblings, though, about the interest in infielder Yu Chang who reportedly has three teams taking a look a signing him for some depth.
Most of the MLB discussion lately has centered around the Hall of Fame and HOF ballot reveals. There are some truly horrendous ballots that have been made public, but it does look like that Scott Rolen, who has a really underrated case for induction, is trending in the right direction even if he doesn’t quite make it this year.