Discussion of Braves 2018 Offseason plans

Horsehide Harry said:
I said it back at the beginning and many times since. If you are going to rebuild then accept up front that it will take a minimum of 5 years, sell your good assets for best package available, tank for at least three years and build waves of young talent that will have a chance to be ready at the end of your rebuild process.

The Braves didn't do that so now instead of having a couple of bad years left as part of a plan they've got a couple of bad years left that will be forced on the team without the benefit of the moves in the plan or the added talent that could have been acquired.

Now you've got a aging and value diminishing Teheran and Markakis, a player in Freeman passing his prime years and heading into an ultimate decline phase and end of contract, the remnants of bad contracts still hanging around that limit what you can do and players being rushed to the ML, burning their control, with no significant impact on the W/L total.

Their plan sucked from the beginning and likely will lead to a very short lived window of opportunity that quickly leads to another rebuild.
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I don't recall the details of their rebuild, but I don't think the Astros at the onset of their rebuild traded away the equivalent of Heyward (1 year of control), Justin Upton (1 year), Kimbrel (4 years), Simmons (5 years), Gattis (4 years) and Wood (4.5 years). All on team friendly terms. Not every rebuild follows the same plan. In light of the above, it is reasonable to expect a compressed time frame for the rebuild relative to a team like the Astros.

The White Sox are another team that opted for a rebuild while holding a similar group of very valuable assets on team friendly terms. I think they too can reasonably expect a compressed rebuilding period.
 
cajunrevenge said:
Its the right move though. The future is so bright if we dont **** it up. I think the moves made this offseason put us in great financial position to make significant free agent moves next offseason but to also be able to sign our young players that have success in the majors. I know the Braves never seem to make a big splash but I think a big move to reignite fans interest makes sense. Signing Machado would signify to fans the rebuild is over and I think if we move Riley to LF we would have a pretty good team. The rotation should have no lack for candidates. I still think we could be pleasantly surprised this year if a few of the pitching prospects hit the ground running but we need another development year while riding off the bad contracts.
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There is a 0% chance the Braves sign Machado.
 
Enscheff said:
There is a 0% chance the Braves sign Machado.
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Yeah I just don't see how the Braves will be able to afford him after signing Harper and Kershaw. Maybe unless they will do like the NBA and all take discounts to play together?!?! We could get them at 20 mil per for each one!! HYPEEEEE!!!
 
Bowman on remaining budget.

As Anthopoulos continues to plan for this season, he says he hasn't ruled out the possibility of adding a short-term third baseman, a reliever or an outfielder, whose value could decrease once Ronald Acuna is brought up to the Majors. The savvy GM hasn't said exactly how much money he has to play with, but it's believed the Braves have approximately $15 million to spend now or possibly at some point during the season.
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https://www.mlb.com/news/braves-gm-alex-anthopoulos-chasing-value/c-265444684
 
We’re at $107M or $115M depending if we’re still deferring $8M of Kazmir’s contract or not. Saying we have $15m left leaves credence to the fact we’re matching last year’s $122M or our budget is $130M. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. My guess is if we’re competing in July we spend that money and keep Kazmir’s money deferred and if we’re not we eat it this year.
 
Chico said:
We’re at $107M or $115M depending if we’re still deferring $8M of Kazmir’s contract or not. Saying we have $15m left leaves credence to the fact we’re matching last year’s $122M or our budget is $130M. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. My guess is if we’re competing in July we spend that money and keep Kazmir’s money deferred and if we’re not we eat it this year.
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I think the strong preference is to not defer the Kazmir money for accounting purposes. But even in that scenario we have 5-10M left to play with.

Enough to get Nunez on a back-loaded deal. Say a 2 year deal with an AAV of 8M. 6 M the first year, 10M the second. Maybe an option for a third year.

Alternatively, we could pick up Brandon Phillips. I am fine with going into the season with Camargo and Swanson as the left side of the infield. But given that they are both unproven I would like a veteran insurance policy.
 
msstate7 said:
So $120m to $125m... is that up or down from last season? Will we hear enscheff pat himself on the back for being right or not? Lol
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No need to pat myself on the back when all I did was state something blatantly obvious. Anyone with any amount of common sense knew the Braves would not have an opening day payroll increase over 2017’s value after drawing 2.5 million in 2017.
 
Chico said:
We’re at $107M or $115M depending if we’re still deferring $8M of Kazmir’s contract or not. Saying we have $15m left leaves credence to the fact we’re matching last year’s $122M or our budget is $130M. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. My guess is if we’re competing in July we spend that money and keep Kazmir’s money deferred and if we’re not we eat it this year.
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Another option is to eat $2M or so each year until he has to be paid.
 
From MLBTR

Alex Anthopoulos hasn’t made many headline-grabbing transactions this winter, his first as Atlanta’s GM, though he revealed Saturday that the Braves “kicked around trying to get a (number) one- or two-type starter.” They’re holding off on that for the time being, though, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jeff Schultz, who relays that the Braves are still considering adding to their bullpen and acquiring a third baseman to potentially unseat starter Johan Camargo. They’re said to have interest in free agent infielder Eduardo Nunez, one of the top third base-capable players on the market.

Another thought for Nunez.

I'd rather keep the money for next year and use Camargo this year at least until deadline time and then get a replacement if needed for a year or so to see what Riley projects.
 
salmagundy said:
From MLBTR

Alex Anthopoulos hasn’t made many headline-grabbing transactions this winter, his first as Atlanta’s GM, though he revealed Saturday that the Braves “kicked around trying to get a (number) one- or two-type starter.” They’re holding off on that for the time being, though, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jeff Schultz, who relays that the Braves are still considering adding to their bullpen and acquiring a third baseman to potentially unseat starter Johan Camargo. They’re said to have interest in free agent infielder Eduardo Nunez, one of the top third base-capable players on the market.

Another thought for Nunez.

I'd rather keep the money for next year and use Camargo this year at least until deadline time and then get a replacement if needed for a year or so to see what Riley projects.
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The benefit of adding a 3B on a one-year deal is that it gives you the flexibility of using Johan at SS rather than Culberson in the event Dansby really struggles. Nunez is almost certainly going to have to take a one-year deal at this point - and while he's not as good a fit as Frazier - having him at 3B and one of Dansby/Camargo at SS likely gives you a chance to win more games than a Camargo/Swanson left side does.

Still really sucks that we missed the chance to possibly work something out to land a Headley/Clint Frazier package when the Yankees were scrambling to dump money. That would've "fixed" both holes for 2018, and you'd have been set up with an Albies/Acuna/Frazier trio in the OF moving forward and given you your bridge to Riley.
 
clvclv said:
The benefit of adding a 3B on a one-year deal is that it gives you the flexibility of using Johan at SS rather than Culberson in the event Dansby really struggles. Nunez is almost certainly going to have to take a one-year deal at this point - and while he's not as good a fit as Frazier - having him at 3B and one of Dansby/Camargo at SS likely gives you a chance to win more games than a Camargo/Swanson left side does.

Still really sucks that we missed the chance to possibly work something out to land a Headley/Clint Frazier package when the Yankees were scrambling to dump money. That would've "fixed" both holes for 2018, and you'd have been set up with an Albies/Acuna/Frazier trio in the OF moving forward and given you your bridge to Riley.
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The other thing about Nunez on the kind of contract I have in mind is that it doesn't preclude going for a bigger name at third next off-season. We could trade Nunez or use him in a super-sub capacity.
 
nsacpi said:
I think the strong preference is to not defer the Kazmir money for accounting purposes. But even in that scenario we have 5-10M left to play with.

Enough to get Nunez on a back-loaded deal. Say a 2 year deal with an AAV of 8M. 6 M the first year, 10M the second. Maybe an option for a third year.

Alternatively, we could pick up Brandon Phillips. I am fine with going into the season with Camargo and Swanson as the left side of the infield. But given that they are both unproven I would like a veteran insurance policy.
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I agree with you on signing Nunez and for the exact same reasons. I was saying yesterday that maybe a 2 year deal in the same range with an option year.
 
clvclv said:
The benefit of adding a 3B on a one-year deal is that it gives you the flexibility of using Johan at SS rather than Culberson in the event Dansby really struggles. Nunez is almost certainly going to have to take a one-year deal at this point
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I agree with your first point here but I do not agree that it's almost certain that Nunez will have to take a one year deal. I still expect him to get multi-year offers, though I could see him signing a one year deal with a team if that one year offer is higher in AAV, etc. However, Nunez could still work for us on a two year deal. Even if you add an option year to it.
 
Braves1976 said:
I agree with your first point here but I do not agree that it's almost certain that Nunez will have to take a one year deal. I still expect him to get multi-year offers, though I could see him signing a one year deal with a team if that one year offer is higher in AAV, etc. However, Nunez could still work for us on a two year deal. Even if you add an option year to it.
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unless there is a lingering problem with his knee I think he'll get a multi year deal...i think he is more valuable than Jay Bruce...hoping what the Mets gave to Bruce is an outlier
 
The Braves really haven't set themselves up to play in the deep end of the pool in 2019 FA. The Kemp deal (along with the need to add multiple FA additions to fill in holes for the 2019 team) and keeping Freeman pretty much ended that as a possibility.

And it's pretty clear that the heavy hitters like the Dodgers, Yanks, Rsox, etc. are lining up to spend big. I even think the Gnats will win the Harper sweepstakes now that the Yanks have Stanton. But, regardless those teams will spend BIG and others like the Giants, Cubs and Rangers may.

So, I'm wondering if we will see a bit of a downturn for FA that will be in the 2020 class. The 2018 class is depressed because the big boys plan to spend next year. Could 2020 be depressed AFTER the BIG boys have spent in 2019?
 
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