So I think after the comment on Justin, that it appears that we feel much more confident of being able to lock him up long-term and have had better discussions with his group than we have had with Heyward or it's media posturing on Hart's part to drive up the price on Upton or possible see what type of team we can assemble that could potentially compete in 2015, but if it falls apart and we fall back in the race, Justin will be made available mid season.
I think it's pretty apparent that the Braves did try to retain Heyward, but we're unwilling to go where Heyward and his group wanted to go, and this began last offseason when we started having negotiations with our young core. Heyward didn't want to sign last offseason as he thought he would have a much better 2014 and give more reasons to hand out a potential mega contract based on performance instead of potential alone, and that didn't happen, and the Braves weren't willing to go where Heyward and his agent wanted to go based on potential alone. Of course the budget constraints and having nearly 1/3 of payroll tied up in dead weight compounded the problem, and with the new stadium opening in a few years, we could not afford to lose Heyward for nothing more than a potential pick.
And now we are indeed back to the "Braves Way" or whatever you want to call it. The dynasty of the 90's wasn't built on FA or big name acquisitions, contrary to what some believe. Everyone looks back and think that we we're some large market huge spender ala the Yankees of the late 90's, when in fact we really weren't. We were in a better financial situation back then than where we are right now, but there isn't a huge different there....but the dynasty was built on stockpiling young arms and depth in the minor leagues based on evaluation and development, much of which was used either to perform at the big league level or acquire a pressing need.
Those Braves teams we're built on the backs of Glavine, Smoltz, and Avery among others along with young offensive threats like Justice/Gant. The pipeline was flowing with incoming talent that was close to ready like Chipper, Klesko, Lopez, etc and later on Andruw, Furcal, Millwood, Schmidt. The initial needs we're filled with lesser known but past their prime commodities like Pendleton, Leibrant, Nixon, Bream to bridge the gap. Outside of Maddux and maybe later Galarraga, there we're no huge FA spending spree's to fill needs. Guys like McGriff & Neagle were big name acquisitions, but ones that we're acquired from the strength within, and the other bigger moves were also a precusor from another big move to fill a position more of a need (ie trading Neagle/Tucker to acquire a 2B in Boone and turn around to sign Jordan) or Klesko/Boone for Veras, etc. Looks like we are going to get back to the fundamentals and try to acquire and stockpile as money high upside arms and build depth in pitching, only that this time we need to do it by offering assets already at our disposal as our teams recently have been good enough to win a lot of games and contend but not good enough to win any thing signficant.