Braves News: Braves hire new scouting assistant, grading the offseason, more
By Eric Cole
The Atlanta Braves made some news yesterday, but not for any additions to their roster. With Dana Brown departing the organization to take the Houston Astros GM spot, the front office felt there was a need to add some help while also beefing up their international scouting operation. Alex Anthopoulos decided to add a veteran scouting voice in Dean Decillis as a special assistant to the general manager.
It is expected that Decillis primarily help out with the Braves' international scouting department which can actually, you know, be active these days now that the sanctions upon the team have been lifted. However, Decillis will also give AA an extra set of eyes that can help out wherever they are needed as well.
More Braves News
Elsewhere on the site, we had a fun deep dive into the history of John Smoltz's uniform number. Obviously, Smoltz wore the number 29 during his career, but some sources had him briefly wearing the number 57 for a brief time early in his career. As it turns out, though, it looks like that may have been a mistake.
Finally, we also posted a look at how we graded the Braves offseason. It is certainly fair to say that there were some highs and some lows this offseason. Its great that the Braves added one of the best catchers in the league in Sean Murphy and extended him long-term, but there was a real cost there and the team lost Dansby Swanson to free agency as well. All of it can be hard to parse in the grand scheme of things, but we took a shot at it.
MLB News
Arbitration got underway this week and we are starting to see the results of those hearings already. Luis Arraez is a new addition to the Marlins roster and he already had to undergo an arbitration hearing. Fortunately for him, he won his case and will earn $6.1 million for the 2023 season. Now, we wait to see how much Max Fried will get in arbitration.
We also had an old friend alert as former Braves outfielder Jason Heyward was in the news. Heyward decided to give back to the Chicago community that he was a part of for years when he was with the Cubs by helping open a community center that will serve local kids and their families with sports and education programs. Good on JHey.