The offseason feels to be reaching that slumber part that arrives near Christmas every year. Alex Anthopoulos stuck to his offseason script once again and made a flurry of moves before the holiday has come. I'm starting to think AA is a devoted family man, and simply wants to work as little as possible come late December.
With this lull in action in the Braves baseball world, we take the time to answer YOUR fan submitted questions in this mailbag post. We got plenty of great questions, and we thank each of you who took the time to suggest topics to discuss. Without further ado let's get right into it.
Where is the splash move?
On every article we publish this offseason, this question seems to be asked. And for good reason; I'm with you Braves fans. We know the Braves are a very good team, maybe even the best in baseball already. Why isn't this window being taken advantage of?
Allow me to answer my own, and all of yours, question here. Splash moves are still there to be had even as we approach the new year. What we've learned about Anthopoulos is that he doesn't make a move for the sake of making a move. He has to like the player, and he has to get said player on a deal that makes sense for the organization.
The Braves were never going to be contenders for Ohtani, Nola got serious money and years to stay at home in Philadelphia, and every other move this offseason could be argued that Anthopoulos simply didn't like those players to the degree that was being reported. Such as Sonny Gray and Tyler Glasnow, a couple of names Atlanta was heavily mentioned around, but ultimately saw go elsewhere.
Despite what the reports say, I would venture to guess AA doesn't like giving multi-year deals to older pitchers (Gray is 34), as well trading real prospects for a guy who just hit the 120 IP mark for the first time in his eight-year career.
There are still names out there that could be defined as a splash move (Yamamoto, Snell, Montgomery, Cease), so don't rule it out just yet. It always is going to boil down to how much the front office likes these players and if they can get them on a deal that makes sense for the Braves.