NORTH PORT, Fla. — To a question about payroll, Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos made a revelation: Over the offseason, the Braves discussed a potential deal that would’ve put them over the luxury tax for the third consecutive season. The talks did not cross the finish line.
“It had nothing to do with the dollars,” Anthopoulos said. “Again, the tax is a tax — on every dollar over. It’s not on your entire payroll.”
That hasn’t stopped the Braves, who went past the luxury tax in each of the past two years. A third time over the threshold — $241 million for 2025 — would mean a 50% tax on all overages.
“And for the right deal, we’ll do it,” Anthopoulos said. “It was a deal that would’ve been a longer-term deal — that could be trade or free agency. But what stopped us was more the out years, ‘26, ’27 and so on, how the payroll looks, who we’re blocking, how we’d be impacted.”
Anthopoulos on Friday spoke to reporters at the team’s CoolToday Park complex in North Port. Here are some takeaways.
Could the Braves add?
In theory, the Braves still could add to the roster before opening day, or even shortly thereafter. Maybe they’ll line up with a free agent or a trade partner.
It would need to be a clear upgrade, though.
“So we looked at doing some things in the starting rotation,” Anthopoulos said. “Look, you can look at everything, right? Right now, we were gonna go into the season preparing to have four spots locked in: (Spencer) Schwellenbach, (Reynaldo) López, (Chris) Sale, (Spencer) Strider. And if you have seven guys, and all of the sudden they happen to be ready opening day, what are you doing with the other two? That’s just reality. We can’t bank on guys getting hurt or missing the season or things like that. So, you really only had one opening in the rotation because those four spots were going to be locked in, one way or the other. Everything we looked at was, who do we think will be significantly better than what we think Grant Holmes might be?”
That Anthopoulos brought up Holmes before Ian Anderson seemed intentional.
“Look, I mention him — because of the way he pitched last year for us and so on, he’d be the front-runner for that spot,” he said. “And I’m talking about Strider being back sooner rather than later. We don’t expect him to miss a good chunk of time. We looked at things, and there were some things we thought could be an upgrade and Grant could go to the bullpen. But we think Grant’s got significant upside. He’s got a plus curveball, plus slider, throws strikes. And we’ll find out. I know it’s just talk right now, but we need to take some shots on some young guys. And sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re not, but that’s what’s allowed us to keep this going and to be able to sustain.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The message to fans
At the beginning of the offseason, Anthopoulos said payroll — which he views as from one opening day to the next opening day — would increase.
The Braves began 2024 with a cash payroll around $223 million, per Cot’s Contracts. And as of this writing, FanGraphs has them at around $212 million. They could add at any point before the trade deadline, but if they don’t, payroll won’t have increased.
It’s unfair to hold Anthopoulos to this comment. One, fans and media were appreciative of the honesty. Two, he clearly has worked on a lot this offseason. Sometimes, things don’t line up. Three, he’s not the one setting his budget.
There’s so much that goes on during an offseason that goes unreported.
On Friday, Anthopoulos was asked about his message to Braves fans after a winter in which the team added only one major leaguer — Jurickson Profar — while the Dodgers spent big.
“When you start looking around the roster, not necessarily in the rotation, but we have long-term contracts all over the place,” Anthopoulos said. “So even still, we didn’t have that many holes. Now, we’ve lost free agents, no doubt about it, but we have some people we’re going to give opportunities to. Strider and Fried are not the same, but we lost Strider for last year, we had the best ERA in the game. And we lost Fried now, but Strider comes back. We lose Charlie Morton — can Grant Holmes take that opportunity and be that guy? We think he’s certainly got a chance to do that.
“From an offensive standpoint, we lost Ronald and we think getting him back is gonna be big as well. Joe Jiménez is the one loss that we haven’t been able to account for. We’re hoping guys like Daysbel Hernández can take a step, but we’ll see with the other guys we have in camp. We won 89 games a year ago with a lot of things going wrong. And look, the other thing is, with the position players we have, a lot of them had, for their careers, down years. Really, other than Ozuna, everyone took a bit of a step back. They’re still young, they’re still elite, talented players. There’s upside for them to be better than that. We explored all kinds of things — signings, trades, things like that. Our payroll is in the top 10, we have a lot of commitments already, and we’re going to be much more selective in things that we do.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Acuña and Strider
The Braves aren’t planning on Acuña playing in any Grapefruit League games. Acuña on Friday said he’s been running at 90-95%.
“I think once we get to the end of camp, we’ll have a better idea on a time frame,” Anthopoulos said. “But the big thing for us is just making sure when he’s back, he’s full go and he’s back to the elite player he’s always been.”
Strider threw another bullpen session Friday. The Braves believe there’s a good chance Strider will pitch in a spring training game, but they’re not locked into that.
“He’s throwing bullpens, he looks good. Live (batting practice) will definitely happen in spring training, assuming no setbacks or things like that,” Anthopoulos said. “We have a calendar for him, but I think if we start saying, ‘Hey, on this date he’s doing this’ and for whatever reason we decide to move it back a day or two, then it’s a story and it’s viewed as a setback or (that) we weren’t forthcoming. So, what I can tell you is he will not be on the opening day roster, that has been decided.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Opportunity
The most opportunity on the roster exists in the bullpen. A year ago, we knew who most of the members would be when the team reported to camp. Now, it’s unclear.
Raisel Iglesias, Pierce Johnson, Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer are locks. If healthy, Daysbel Hernández also should make it.
Two more names to know: Angel Perdomo and Anderson Pilar.
Perdomo had 44 strikeouts in 24 innings with the Pirates in 2023 before Tommy John surgery.
“You’re talking about him potentially being the third left-hander out of the ‘pen when you already have guys like Aaron Bummer, Dylan Lee,” Anthopoulos said of Perdomo. “With the upside that he has, he’s out of options, he’s coming back from Tommy John now but he’ll have to compete to make the team.”
The Braves selected Pilar in the Rule 5 Draft in December. If Pilar doesn’t make the team, he goes on waivers. If he goes unclaimed, the Braves must offer him back to the Marlins for $50,000.
Pilar had a 2.64 ERA in High-A, Double-A and Triple-A last season. In 58 innings, he issued 13 only walks.
“Rule 5 pick, he’s going to have to earn his spot,” Anthopoulos said. “There is a lot of opportunity, and we’ll go with the best eight.”
Jake Diekman, a lefty, is an intriguing non-roster option.
Health update
Anthopoulos said other than Acuña and Strider, the Braves expect everyone to be ready for opening day.
Knock on wood the next six weeks.
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