Braves listening on Inciarte, Teheran, and Markakis for power bat; Freeman staying

[praeceps93]

I don't think we'll trade Markakis. He's one of the few veteran anchors we have. Also, trading him a year after signing him doesn't make us look great to free agents in the future. Free agents might not play a big factor for us now but who knows about next year. I think we have to wait until at least midseason to deal him with next winter being more likely.

I don't really agree with this. Yes, free agents sign with teams they want to play for, but they also sign where the money/contention window works out for them. Us signing Markakis last year and trading him now is different to, say, the Marlins firesale back in the day. What they did, signing a bunch of bigtime FAs then selling them all a year later, is different from signing a mid-tier FA, changing our contention strategy pretty significantly in the meantime, and then trading him. I don't think future free agents are going to look at us and say, "Hmmm they kept Markakis for 2 years/1.5 years instead of 1 year, I can sign there." If anything were to negatively impact us in future contract negotiations, I would actually say it's trading homegrown guys like Andrelton right after signing a long-term extension (though I also don't think it will matter much if at all, just a consideration).