There was a lot to take in yesterday when it comes to the Atlanta Braves. For starters, there was a spring game played that included an appearance from Ian Anderson who is trying to win a spot in the Braves' rotation. His command was far from crisp, but the results were pretty good other than that and the Braves did end up taking down the Rays by the score of 3-2.
The bigger story yesterday, though, was who the Braves ended up trimming from their spring training roster. The day got started with a big chunk of cuts where the Braves optioned three different players including Darius Vines and sent three other players back over to minor league camp. Later in the day, the Braves added Victor Vodnik to the list of cuts after their game against the Rays. More interesting, though, was the players that are sticking around as Jared Shuster, Dylan Dodd, and Braden Shewmake among others remain in big league camp.
More Braves News
We also had a couple of longer form articles go up on the site yesterday. First, we took a crack at predicting the Atlanta Braves' Opening Day roster. Predicting this year is weirdly hard because while the Braves have a bunch of roster spots that are set, the places where there is real competition have a ton of realistic contenders, but we tried our best.
We also took a look at how well some of the Braves' top prospects are doing in spring training. Dylan Dodd has had a bit of a breakout this spring and Jared Shuster and Braden Shewmake have played well as well, while guys like Cal Conley and Victor Vodnik have had springs they we would probably rather forget.
MLB News
One of the biggest shakeups in baseball going into 2023 hasn't been the new rules, but the media landscape changing literally right in front of our eyes. Bally Sports' impending bankruptcy has created a lot of uncertainty as to whether or not they are ultimately going to lose their MLB TV rights. That situation is escalating as the group that own Bally Sports is threatening to start missing more payments which would allow MLB to take them to court and have the league assume ownership over those rights.
The Nationals just put together a nice, team friendly contract extension for the guy they think is a franchise catcher, so surely this means their fans will stop complaining about the Braves' contracts, right? Right?! Keibert Ruiz is one of the more talented young catchers in the league right now and while his early numbers haven't jumped off the page, Washington still felt like he was worthy of keeping around as they gave him an eight year, $50 million guaranteed contract extension.