DALLAS – To this point in the offseason, the Braves have been … fairly quiet. They have made decisions on players by specific deadline dates, but they have yet to make any significant additions. They have created the payroll flexibility to address their offseason needs, but nothing has come to fruition.
Yet.
The Winter Meetings, which began Sunday at the Hilton Anatole here in Dallas, often represent a natural period of activity in baseball.
“There’s obviously a lot of good players, both (in) free agency and trade,” Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos said on Zoom on Sunday. “We haven’t been able to get anything done right now in terms of things that we think work for us. There’s no shortage of players right now in terms of the areas that we’d like to address. It’s just a matter of trying to line up on trades and signings, which, that’s the nature of every offseason. And a lot of times we’ve been pretty aggressive early. We just haven’t been able to line up anything, so one thing we don’t want to do is force a deal.
“We’ll see how these next few days go in Dallas, see if there’s more action, more activity. But it’s been more active in the last day or two – a lot more calls, a lot more dialogue.”
It seems the sport could see more activity during these Winter Meetings – especially because Juan Soto, the most expensive prize this offseason, reportedly agreed to a deal with the Mets on Sunday night. When Soto and another top free agent or two pick their teams, it could open an avenue for more action for teams.
The Braves need an outfielder, starting pitching and bullpen help. Anthopoulos said the Braves would like to add a starter – though he added the Braves liked what they saw out of Grant Holmes and see if he could fit the role. Remember: Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider won’t be ready for opening day, so the Braves must account for that, especially in their outfield. Joe Jiménez’s knee surgery means Atlanta must at least hunt for a reliever or two.
Their biggest need entering these Winter Meetings?
Anthopoulos doesn’t quite look at it like that.
“If we were one player away, that’s a really great roster to have and I don’t know that that many clubs can say that,” he said. “I think it’s just, you look at these as windows of opportunity to get better. And yeah of course, when you have certain holes or guys potentially leaving as free agents, those are obvious areas that you would like to address. We have internal options with some of those. We just don’t look at it as one specific need. If you think you want a starter and you need a starter – but what if a great opportunity on the position-player front comes up? You can still get better, right? It’s about scoring more runs than the other team. That could be allowing fewer runs or scoring more. We don’t really go into it saying, ‘This one need is (a) starter.’ I hope there comes a day when our roster is complete and we’ve got 25 spots locked up and we’ve got one last spot we’ve gotta fill and this is that one last piece. But there’s just so many places we can get better. Especially when you look at all the injuries we’ve had, depth is always important as well.
“We’re open to everything: Bullpen, offense, rotation. We’ve had conversations about all three areas: Relievers, position players and starters. Trade, free agents – we’ve engaged in all three (areas). I don’t know what we’ll come up with by the time the winter’s over, but we’re open to adding all three.”
The question: How much money can Anthopoulos spend this winter? Roster Resource estimates the Braves’ luxury-tax payroll figure to sit at around $217 million right now. That’s about $24 million away from the luxury-tax threshold, which the Braves might again go past. Anthopoulos, of course, has not made public his budget for this winter.
After the Soto signing, other moves could follow. Or at least that’s what baseball fans should be rooting for in the week ahead.
“There’s no deadline, right?” Anthopoulos said. “So, I know we look at moments (of more activity), like Winter Meetings and so on, but we have no deadline. Between now and spring training, I guess, there’s going to be plenty of activity. There’s a lot of players that are being talked about in trade, there’s obviously a lot of free agents still out there. There will be activity. I think like everything else, people are waiting to find the right match. There’s no doubt there’ll be activity. But no one has told me, ‘Look, I expect to get something done by Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday.’ I think the nature of the offseason is if you get momentum, things will get done. And just continue to talk about things.”
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