3 Braves players that could earn contract extensions by the end of 2024
While the Braves have locked up a lot of their guys, there are a few that could play their way into their own extensions.
The Atlanta Braves are a bit of a unicorn in the game of baseball. Typically, teams will have have some veteran talent under contract and then have most of their young players stay as arbitration eligible. There are some (Marlins, Guardians, Pirates, Rays) that focus on just producing young talent and letting them go when they get expensive, but the Braves have taken a decidedly different path.
The Braves not only have a healthy mix of young talent and veteran acquisitions, but they have been very diligent in locking almost all of their core up on contract extensions. Some of those extensions have been more team friendly than others, but that Atlanta's ability to continue to add talent over the last few years AND keep them in the fold for years to come is very unusual in the league.
Given the Braves' propensity to extend players, it is fair to wonder which players could be next up to get long-term deals. The issue is that other than Max Fried whose future has been thoroughly discussed at this point, the Braves don't really have any guys at the moment that are surefire bets to get locked up that haven't already gotten those deals.
So instead, we are going to focus on the Braves players that could earn themselves an extension in 2024. All three of these guys enter the 2024 season with some questions, but who also have the talent to put themselves on the map and convince Alex Anthopoulos to make an extension offer.
Orlando Arcia
Orlando Arcia is a bit of a weird case here as the Braves already gave him one extension through at least the 2025 season with a club option for 2026. However, that original three year deal that guaranteed Arcia $7.3 million is looking like an absolute steal nowadays and could be just the beginning of the money that he could get from the Braves.
Atlanta traded for Arcia back in 2021 in exchange for Patrick Weigel and Chad Sobotka to little fanfare. Arcia was once a top prospect, but he had struggled with inconsistency at the plate in his five plus years with Milwaukee. However, Arcia ended up winning the starting shortstop position out of spring last year when everyone thought it was going to be Vaughn Grissom and the Braves have never looked back.
To get another extension, Arcia is going to have to prove that he can produce all season long. His defense at shortstop is unimpeachable, but Arcia's production at the plate has been more hit and miss. In the first half of 2023, he put up a 109 wRC+ and earned himself an appearance in the All-Star Game. However, he slumped in the second half where he hit .235 with a well below average 90 wRC+. If he can show that he can hit all season long AND continue to be a strong defender in 2024, the Braves may need to think about giving him a raise and keep him around for the long haul.
Jarred Kelenic
One of the Braves' newest additions, Jarred Kelenic comes to town loaded with promise as well as a lot of questions. Drafted with the sixth overall pick by the Mets in the 2018 draft, Kelenic was traded to Seattle before the 2019 season and promptly rocketed through the minor league ranks while establishing himself as one of the better prospects in all of baseball.
However, things got weird once he made his made his big league debut. Kelenic showed flashes of the promise he had at the plate at times, but only put up a .589 OPS in his first two seasons in the big leagues. 2023 was better for him, but he still only slashed .253/.327/.419 slash line fueled by a hot start and he had issues containing his frustrations at times. Seattle decided to move on and trade Kelenic to the Braves earlier this offseason.
The cost for the Braves to acquire Kelenic was substantial as they had to take on some bad money in addition to giving up both Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips in the deal. However, Kelenic's upside as a potential five tool player with an All-Star ceiling was too good to pass up. With Eddie Rosario on the free agent market, Kelenic is currently slated to get the lion's share of the playing time in left field in 2024.
How Kelenic's first year with the Braves goes will determine a lot. The Braves have him under team control through 2028, but he is a Super Two player which means that he gets an extra year of arbitration starting in 2025. If he shows out this season, his arbitration figures could get very costly pretty quickly for an Atlanta team that already has guys getting more and more expensive as the years go on. In that world, inking Kelenic to a cost-controlled extension while getting a year or two more of team control could become an attractive option.
Hurston Waldrep
Finally, we come to the only player on this list who hasn't yet made his major league debut yet in Hurston Waldrep. The Braves were shocked that Waldrep was available to them at the 24th pick in last year's draft. They happily snatched him up and he quickly made his mark by shooting through the minor leagues all the way to Triple-A while posting a 1.53 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 29.1 innings of work in his first season as a pro.
Thanks to Waldrep's performance and tantalizing stuff including a truly unfair splitter, Waldrep all of a sudden finds himself in the mix to make his big league debut in 2024. Waldrep got invited to big league camp this spring and it is likely that he will open even more eyes once he is seen in games. It is only a question of when he will make his big league debut, not if.
There are some issues here, though. One, while pre-debut extensions are more in vogue than they used to be with guys like Colt Keith (Tigers), Jackson Chourio (Brewers), and Luis Robert Jr. (White Sox) all being recent examples, Atlanta typically waits until players have some big league playing time under their belts before locking them up. Second, Waldrep is a pitcher which is an inherently more risky extension to give out which is why the only significant extension the Braves have given to an arm was to Spencer Strider.
However, if Waldrep does make his MLB debut in 2024 and he shoves on the mound, the Braves may be wise to give him an extension offer. With Max Fried's future with the team in question and Charlie Morton's career winding down, Atlanta could use some future certainty in their starting rotation and Waldrep has a chance to be a special arm if he can keep his command under control. Such a move could easily backfire especially if Waldrep gets hurt, but he may prove to be worth the risk.
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