Spencer Strider - Six years, $75 million
The Braves have been pretty reticent to hand out long-term deals to pitchers on Alex Anthopoulos and that makes a certain amount of sense given the injury-risk associated with the position. However, Spencer Strider's arm talent was too much for the Braves to ignore, so they locked him into a six year, $75 million extension towards the end of the 2022 season. Strider already has a second place NL Rookie of the Year finish as well as getting fourth place in NL Cy Young voting this year on his resume and it sure seems like there is more to come out of him, but we still need over $140 million to get to Shohei's contract.
Michael Harris II - Eight years, $72 million
Yet another coup for the Braves front office was the extension that Michael Harris II signed. Yet another VERY team friendly deal, eight years at $72 million looked like a heist when Harris narrowly edged out Strider for Rookie of the Year in 2022. The start to the 2023 season went very poorly for Money Mike, but he rebounded to post an .808 OPS and 3.4 rWAR in 2023 while falling just two homers shy of a 20/20 season. The Braves hold club options for 2031 ($15 million) and 2032 ($20 million), but again...we are only talking about guaranteed money here. Even adding Harris' deal to the total, we are still $73 million short which leads us to....
Sean Murphy - Six years, $73 million
You have to love it when a plan comes together. The Braves came out of nowhere last offseason to trade for one of the best catchers in all of baseball in Sean Murphy in a three-team swap that sent William Contreras (who was great in Milwaukee in 2023) out of town. The Braves acted quickly to lock down Murph to a six year, $73 million extension and cementing him as the Braves' catcher of the future. Murphy looked like a legitimate MVP candidate in the first half of 2023 before cooling down in the second half, but the Braves still have to be thrilled to have him in the fold for a little over 10% of the guarantee that it cost the Dodgers to sign Ohtani.