2025-2026 offseason thread

Chef please just let us know when we’re allowed to be happy. You’re quite huffy puffy over an argument you made up in your head
 
UNCBlue012 said:
Bare minimum or not, the expectations are excessive. People wanted him to fill multiple roster holes, upgrade the team, find those upgrades at value, and still hold onto the picks, while ignoring that there is a finite budget unless they go past the third luxury tax threshold and give up additional draft capital in future years. And if that happened, people would still bitch. The same goes if they sign a frontline starter and sacrifie the QO pick.

There is always a trade-off between chasing higher-end talent and building legitimate depth around the edges, and this offseason clearly leaned toward the latter. It has not been perfect, but the overall floor of the roster is better. That matters for a team that regularly deals with injuries and unexpected underperformance. In that context, an average offseason that improves depth, manages cost, and preserves future flexibility still has real value. Expecting every weakness to be solved at once without meaningful trade-offs is not realistic.
Click to expand...

You’ve literally described an average offseason for a professional sports GM. It’s certainly an upgrade over his recent work when he was shitting the bed over and over, but still nothing better than average.
 
Enscheff said:
You’ve literally described an average offseason for a professional sports GM. It’s certainly an upgrade over his recent work when he was shitting the bed over and over, but still nothing better than average.
Click to expand...

Sure, average is probably fair. The question is what the expectation was beyond that. With limited payroll flexibility, punitive tax penalties and no obvious surplus trade assets, what was the realistic path to something meaningfully better without overpaying in money or future capital?

You can argue for higher-end talent, but that almost certainly meant fewer moves, thinner depth or sacrificing flexibility down the line. Adding a true frontline starter is really the one move that could materially shift how this offseason is viewed, at least for me, and that kind of acquisition is neither easy nor cheap.

If there is a real failure here, it is that this type of depth work is being done now instead of having been handled more consistently over the past few years. That is what would have allowed this offseason to focus on higher-end talent rather than plugging multiple holes at once.
 
If I knew the above average moves AA could make I would be the GM of the Braves. He has made many excellent moves in the past because he’s an excellent GM. The last couple years have been complete duds for him, and those duds put him in this position.

None of that changes the fact this is, at best, an average offseason so far. If he pulls off some epic trade for an impact SP, that can all change, of course. But for now…average at best.
 
An average offseason isn't terrible with guys already in place at most positions. After the last 2 offseasons I'll take average. Get a legit SP and we'll be in good shape.
 
Enscheff said:
The Braves currently project as the #25 team at SS. In no world is that “good”, or whatever superlative folks want to argue about.

Kim was the absolute bare minimum acceptable option at SS. Yaz was the absolute bare minimum acceptable option in LF. Iggy plus Suarez was the absolute bare minimum acceptable upgrades for the BP. Bassitt will be the absolute bare minimum acceptable option at SP. Hiring WW as manager was an unacceptable move. Dubon for the bench is the only above average move made so far.

AA has filled all the holes with the absolute bare minimum acceptable options, and he paid roughly market rate for all of them. It has been, at best, an average offseason for a professional sports GM so far.
Click to expand...

I think we should be happy if he is a 2 WAR player.
 
Enscheff said:
The Braves currently project as the #25 team at SS. In no world is that “good”, or whatever superlative folks want to argue about.

Kim was the absolute bare minimum acceptable option at SS. Yaz was the absolute bare minimum acceptable option in LF. Iggy plus Suarez was the absolute bare minimum acceptable upgrades for the BP. Bassitt will be the absolute bare minimum acceptable option at SP. Hiring WW as manager was an unacceptable move. Dubon for the bench is the only above average move made so far.

AA has filled all the holes with the absolute bare minimum acceptable options, and he paid roughly market rate for all of them. It has been, at best, an average offseason for a professional sports GM so far.
Click to expand...
That's a pretty pessimistic viewpoint/projection for a guy that averaged 3.5 fWAR over the prior 3 years to 2025. I would certainly not qualify that as a "minimum acceptable upgrade." Among players that can actually play SS, he was the best player available, either in FA or the trade market. Bichette should really not be considered a viable SS option anymore given that he MIGHT have 2 seasons left where he won't completely be awful at SS. Or he might already just be toast at SS. What realistic options exactly would you rather have brought in other than Kim? The market is what the market is, and Kim or Bichette were the only starting guys available. We took the guy who can actually play SS.

And certainly Suarez and Iggy was not the "bare minimum" acceptable upgrade for the BP. I don't see many teams signing multiple closers this off-season who had 25+ saves this year.
 
Unless they're just planning to punt the defense Kim is probably as good as one could reasonably expect for SS. I would've preferred trying to make a deal with the Cards for Masyn Winn, but that would've been more for upside rather than current performance level expectations.
 
The tone seems a little aggressive but I guess filling the needs of a team might be considered an average performance by a GM.

The Braves made the decision on the core awhile back. They rise and fall with it.

This is filling in the margins with the resources they have available.

If the guys they target perform to projections they've done well. That's basically the most you can hope for out of free agency.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top