Of course there's a master plan, but you can't compare giving Gio a 1 year deal to giving Pollock a 5 year deal without acknowledging how much additional risk the Pollock contract carries. That could be a bad contract for half a decade, the Gio contract could be bad for a maximum of 1 year.
I wanted Grandal, Brantley and a utility guy like Asdrubal from day 1. That was my Plan A. I wanted to give Grandal 4-5 years, Brantley 3 years, and someone like Asdrubal 1-2 years. My plan would have probably produced a team projected for 90 wins in 2019, but it would have also exposed the Braves to tremendous risk.
It's clear AA was unwilling to take that amount of risk, and it's silly to rate his actions with the benefit if hindsight now that Grandal signed for 1 year. As is, he constructed a playoff contender while assuming virtually zero long term risk, which isn't a trivial accomplishment by any means.
What is fair is to criticize AA for focusing on JD early when he should have known there were many 3B/Util options this off season. Some patience could have gotten Grandal for much cheaper than originally thought, a trade for Pederson now that LA has Pollock, and who knows what type of bargain would be available at 3B right now with JD still on the market.
Jumping early on JD was the mistake, not the idea of sticking to low risk 1 year deals for 2019. We have seen 2 years in a row now that the teams who jump into FA early tend to be the ones who overpaid, so why jump in early into the part of the market flush with options?
