Originally Posted by
Horsehide Harry
We are now firmly in the area that I predicted several years ago IMO of being good but with too many holes to really be great and not enough cash flexibility to buy what's needed that way.
That leaves a likely scenario pf 2 possibilities:
1. The Braves decide to "go for it" and open the prospect vault to trade for what is necessary to flesh out the current team as a competitor in the short term. I'm not talking about trading marginal prospects for marginal upgrades. I'm talking about significant adds that cost significant prospect capital. The Cubs took that route and won a WS but gave up a couple of high value prospects in Gleyber Torres and Eloy Jimenez to do it. They've won at a pretty good clip through their window and stand a good chance of making the playoffs again. But, even without the sanctions and money problems of the Braves, the Cubs find their farm mostly barren and their ML club getting relatively old, expensive and without a lot of significant player control. Their window is clearly closing. But I think you say it was worth it given the WS win. Without the WS win, I don't think most Cubs fans would be happy.
or
2. The Braves choose to hold the prospect capital and hope for enough development from within or a scrap heap trade reclamation to fill the holes well enough to get the job done. This is the Pittsburgh approach which extends a period of "good" baseball but largely precludes "great" baseball. Pittsburgh went away from that approach with the Archer trade of last year in a gamble that they apparently hoped would put them over the top. It didn't work. Their window is closed and they are headed for rebuild.
The Braves look to have secured a reasonable window of good baseball no matter what they do, especially with the unexpected Acuna and Albies extensions. But, given the apparent payroll constraints, any significant trade improvement will come as a significant prospect capital cost which will in turn limit the flexibility of future teams and shorten the window and ability to become a great team.