It was a reasonably eventful day when it comes to our Atlanta Braves on Saturday as we got some clarity on how Ronald Acuna Jr. is doing and we also got some more intrigue regarding the fate of the Braves’ scouting director, Dana Brown.
We’ll deal with the latter first. Dana Brown has long been rumored to have his eyes on moving into a high profile leadership role in a front office. Earlier this offseason, he was already connected to the Tigers’ open GM position. However, the current scuttlebutt is that the Houston Astros are big fans of his background both in scouting as well as his analytical know-how and its reported that he is the frontrunner for Houston’s general manager opening.
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As for Ronald Acuna Jr., there were some updates as to how he is feeling (great) right now as well as what his current near-term plans are. It was announced that he was going to be DHing in the league championship game down in the Venezuelan Winter League. Ronnie also revealed that while he would like to play for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, it doesn’t sound like the Braves are on board with that plan and its unlikely he will play in the event.
Finally, yesterday we took a look at how the starting pitching rotations in the National League East rank going into the 2023 season. This was yet another reminder that the NL East is absolutely loaded with talent this year and as a result, it should be very, very close.
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Speaking of starting pitchers in the National League East, Aaron Nola is set to become a free agent after the 2023 season. Nola has been very good for quite a while, but as of this point in time, it sure doesn’t seem like Philadelphia has made any serious offers to Nola to give him a contract extension.
It looks like the Yankees are still looking to bolster their roster depth despite how much money they have committed to 2023 and beyond. The rumor is that they have checked in on Jurickson Profar and Josh Harrison lately and both SHOULD be guys that they could sign within their current budget constraints.