The Atlanta Braves' offseason has been a highly eventful one. True to form, Alex Anthopoulos largely avoided the deep end of the free agent market and instead focused on using the trade market to both cull the 40 man roster as well as to make their biggest moves of the offseason.
Arguably the two biggest moves the Braves made this offseason came in the form of trades, in fact. Atlanta came out of nowhere and swung a deal with the Mariners to acquire former top prospect Jarred Kelenic to fill out their outfield. Later in the offseason, they pulled off another shocker to beef up their rotation by trading for Chris Sale and promptly extended him.
The reason the Braves had to make some bold moves was because some familiar faces left in free agency. While the departures Atlanta had this offseason didn't rise to the significance of guys like Dansby Swanson and Freddie Freeman who left in recent years, they did have some free agents that had been key contributors that were not easy decisions to let walk.
Here are the Braves free agents that they may wish they kept and the ones they will be glad they didn't
Letting guys go is never fun especially when the players in question played important roles on the team in the past. Fans always want to see the team try to improve each offseason, but every upgrade comes at the cost of another's guys role on the team. The good teams are the ones that make the right calls on who to keep and who to move on from.
By in large, the Braves are very good at making those decisions. There have certainly been some rough ones as Freddie Freeman has been a MVP caliber player with the Dodgers and Dansby continues to do his thing with the clubs, but Atlanta at least had a very solid plan in place for when both of those guys left as both Matt Olson and Orlando Arcia have done very well for themselves as their replacements.
With that in mind, here is a look at some of the players that left the Braves this offseason and whether or not Atlanta will regret not having them around in 2024.
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