The Atlanta Braves are very clearly not resting on their laurels this offseason. While they did win 104 games last year and are returning most of the players that got them to that point, the Braves know that they are going to have to make some changes if they want to better guard against another early playoff exit. However, when they sent five players to the White Sox in the Aaron Bummer trade followed immediately by non-tendering seven more players at the non-tender deadline, it became very clear that the Braves were looking to be aggressive in reworking their depth this offseason.
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The next big domino to fall was Reynoldo Lopez who the Braves signed to a three year deal a few days ago. Lopez is a power arm who presumably was going to turn the Braves' bullpen into arguably the deepest group in all of baseball. However, the word now is that Atlanta is actually going to try to stretch him out as a starter and see if he can turn back into a rotation arm. A healthy amount of skepticism of this plan is certainly warranted, but if it works...the upside here is tremendous.
The Braves should absolutely not bet on Lopez turning into a quality starter, though, and it sure seems like they know that there is more work to be done. The big name that appears to be next on their list is Sonny Gray who just finished second in AL Cy Young voting. Gray definitely appears to be in the Braves' wheelhouse as he won't require a lengthy contract and he certainly has the chops to sit at the top of the rotation. There are some durability concerns with Gray, but 2023 was a big step in right direction to be sure.
MLB News
Aside from the usual non-tender news around the league, the biggest news is that Yoshinobu Yamamoto has officially been posted which immediately makes Yamamoto one of the top free agents on the market. The track record for players coming over from Japan to MLB has been a bit spotty at times, but 25 year old pitchers with his kind of stuff are rarely available on the open market. If a team needs an arm (including the Braves), they need to at least check in on Yamamoto.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Cardinals who seem hellbent on signing more older rotation arms that are way past their prime as they have brought in Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson in recent days. St. Louis clearly didn't learn from this past season when their rotation imploded in on itself, but there is still time for them to sign a real rotation arm at least.