The last infinity stone has been captured by the ultimate offseason villain...at least one can hope it is the last. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves are left on the side missing out on yet another big free agent. Rumblings about Atlanta's interest in Tanner Scott, the best reliever on the market, was real, but the interest wasn't strong enough to outbid the mighty Dodgers.
Rather than turning this into a 500 word rant about how the Dodgers continue to break the hearts of baseball fans everywhere, we'll focus on how this miss effects Atlanta. For those that missed it this morning, LHP Tanner Scott agreed to a four-year $72 million deal with the Dodgers. Scott was the premier bullpen arm on the market, and had plenty of suitors. At 30 years-old and coming off a season with 1.75 ERA, 2.33 FIP, 4.5 fWAR Scott cashed in for the biggest payday this offseason amongst relievers.
BREAKING: Tanner Scott and the Dodgers have agreed to a four-year, $72 million deal, per source.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) January 19, 2025
Braves miss out on top target as Tanner Scott signs with Dodgers
The flamethrowing lefty signing with the big bad Dodgers and as a result left the remaining reliever market looking pretty thin. Adding to the bullpen felt like a necessity this offseason for Atlanta especially after the losses of A.J. Minter and Joe Jimenez.
As things stand there is a significant drop off on the available arms the Braves could bring into the 2025 bullpen. Going by fWAR the best remaining options include: David Robertson, Carlos Estevez, Dylan Floro, Kirby Yates, and many others.
If the length of Scott's deal is what was deterring Anthopoulos from bringing him in perhaps one of these veterans on a shorter no-risk deal will be the move he decides to make. Regardless, there is no denying this news absolutely sucks. It's a pain to see good players continue to fly off the board, most of which to the defending champion no less. Hopefully Anthopoulos has something big up his sleeve and hopefully he makes that move soon.