2025-2026 offseason thread

Yup! If the Braves want to keep their contention window wide open, AA and ownership need to grow some balls and be more aggressive in adding real major-league talent rather than relying on internal depth that isn’t as strong as in past seasons. They need to spend and continue to develop, or Enscheff is absolutely right - we're screwed.
 
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They are gonna have to out spend some mistakes. Harris really needs to rebound. We need to stop gutting the farm every year to make a trade. We will need cheap guys like Ritchie, Caminiti, and Waldrep to balance everything out. We will know pretty quick next year if Strider is back by his velo.
 
UNCBlue012 said:
Yup! If the Braves want to keep their contention window wide open, AA and ownership need to grow some balls and be more aggressive in adding real major-league talent rather than relying on internal depth that isn’t as strong as in past seasons. They need to spend and continue to develop, or Enscheff is absolutely right - we're screwed.
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I wouldn't say screwed but the margin for error is greatly diminished. We need more things to break right for us instead than years passed.
 
UNCBlue012 said:
Yup! If the Braves want to keep their contention window wide open, AA and ownership need to grow some balls and be more aggressive in adding real major-league talent rather than relying on internal depth that isn’t as strong as in past seasons. They need to spend and continue to develop, or Enscheff is absolutely right - we're screwed.
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There might not be any money to spend because all the extensions are finally getting expensive, right as the players are getting injured/worse. Classic contention window closing stuff.

We might need to wake up and smell the lack of flexibility.
 
at some point we might want to realize that just because someone worked with smart people doesn't make them smart as well. Maybe just maybe the captain that ran the ship ashore should harbor more of the blame.
 
Enscheff said:
Braves might currently be the Phillies around 2012/2013.
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Yea… that’s the nightmare scenario. That team’s window closed so abruptly they didn’t even have much leftover to harvest for a quick rebuild.

If this season goes south, I hope AA has the courage to tear it down.
 
chop2chip said:
Yea… that’s the nightmare scenario. That team’s window closed so abruptly they didn’t even have much leftover to harvest for a quick rebuild.

If this season goes south, I hope AA has the courage to tear it down.
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Problem is if guys do suck again then we'll be strapped with Harris and Strider and Riley for awhile.
 
chop2chip said:
Yea… that’s the nightmare scenario. That team’s window closed so abruptly they didn’t even have much leftover to harvest for a quick rebuild.

If this season goes south, I hope AA has the courage to tear it down.
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If this season goes south, why should AA be the GM still?
 
chop2chip said:
Yea… that’s the nightmare scenario. That team’s window closed so abruptly they didn’t even have much leftover to harvest for a quick rebuild.

If this season goes south, I hope AA has the courage to tear it down.
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Something tells me they won’t due to relying so much on game/Battery revenue.
 
Hudson2 said:
They are gonna have to out spend some mistakes. Harris really needs to rebound. We need to stop gutting the farm every year to make a trade. We will need cheap guys like Ritchie, Caminiti, and Waldrep to balance everything out. We will know pretty quick next year if Strider is back by his velo.
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Does the farm get gutted every year?
 
Super said:
Does the farm get gutted every year?
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Yeah, that's not a fair criticism of AA at all. Other than the obviously stupid Contreras trade (which was so bad it can't be overstated), AA hasn't made a single mistake trading away prospects.

So while the catcher trade was completely moronic, AA has done nothing even remotely close to "gutting the farm".
 
Enscheff said:
There might not be any money to spend because all the extensions are finally getting expensive, right as the players are getting injured/worse. Classic contention window closing stuff.

We might need to wake up and smell the lack of flexibility.
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And that would bring up the bigger question: how is there suddenly no money when this franchise is a full-blown revenue machine? Nothing about the Braves or The Battery points to a cash shortage. If anything, the way this team performs, and the way The Battery prints money, should mean the exact opposite.

At this point, having anything short of a top-5 payroll, especially after locking in so many long-term extensions, would be absurd and absolutely a fire-worthy offense.
 
UNCBlue012 said:
And that would bring up the bigger question: how is there suddenly no money when this franchise is a full-blown revenue machine? Nothing about the Braves or The Battery points to a cash shortage. If anything, the way this team performs, and the way The Battery prints money, should mean the exact opposite.

At this point, having anything short of a top-5 payroll, especially after locking in so many long-term extensions, would be absurd and absolutely a fire-worthy offense.
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I won't even pretend to know anything about the finances of a complex organization the Braves have become, which is basically a real estate developer now.

It's entirely possible someone calculated how much team payroll is required to keep the battery making money, so why commit any more cash than that to payroll? If the battery is going to draw a hugely profitable crowd for an 80 win team, why invest more money that whatever it takes to win 80 games?

Of course AA could spend $275M in 2026 and all this worrying would end up being silly. It's impossible to know, but it seems like payroll will be $230M-$250M based on historic payrolls.
 
Super said:
If this season goes south, why should AA be the GM still?
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I think Anthopoulos gets a couple more seasons to see if his extension strategy optimally works, but I agree that he might not be the guy to do a teardown. Coppolella deserves all the heat he gets for his hyperactivity and questionable ethics, but he moved a ton of stuff and did manage to get decent value long term on a number of deals in the fire sale.

But some GMs are good at doing a teardown and laying a foundation but are unable to put the last pieces in place. Coppolella had reached the limit of his expertise and even without the excuse of the signing bonus infractions it was time for him to go. I think Anthopoulos is different in that he can recognize which finishing touches are needed and making the necessary acquisitions. I'm always going to question the totality of the extensions even though the AAVs on most of those deals looks reasonable.

I could be wrong, but as for a rebuild, I think Anthopoulos would ride this pony into the ground before making significant moves. Wren was similar in that respect.
 
I warned about these extension risks about 3 years ago when everyone was overjoyed with all of them:

Enscheff said:
Riley and Olson are pretty big bat-only risks. Harris has major platoon concerns. Murphy is a catcher signed into his mid-30s. Acuna has had major knee surgery.

There is plenty of very real risk in these deals, and there is no way to change course. If this core doesn’t age well it’s not going to be pretty, and AA will be selling off the few parts that are playing well to kick start a pretty deep rebuild while the bad contracts expire.
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And I didn't even mention the Strider extension.

Hopefully we aren't seeing the downside risk playing out with the Braves having zero flexibility to change course.
 
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