Braves sign Charlie Morton

AA formula is pretty simple: organic growth through farm system + fill holes with quality 1-2 year signings

It's a great recipe for a long window of contention. The key ingredients though that make it all possible are the Acuna and Albies deals.

I think the really interesting questions the next few off-seasons are what he does with Freeman, Fried and Soroka.
 
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nsacpi said:
AA formula is pretty simple: organic growth through farm system + fill holes with quality 1 year signings

It's a great recipe for a long window of contention. The key ingredients though that make it all possible are the Acuna and Albies deals.
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The challenge to the formula will come as the system thins out a bit due to the international sanctions (which may be less than expected if the minor league contraction goes forward and teams are limited to the number of players they can have in the system). But I agree that it's a winning formula.
 
Plus, Wright has little to no value until teams get a look at how he is going to handle such a monster failure. Wilson is the one most likely to get enough interest for a trade.
 
I love the Morton deal! I've wanted him back since he left, and I am glad it finally happened.
 
nsacpi said:
Morton is fairly close to Martin.
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Truth.

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I am shocked. The Braves have already spent almost all the cash we thought they had.

They are either not going to address the offense (highly unlikely), or have at least another $20M. In my opinion they have overpaid for both Smyly and Morton, and I see no logical way that could have happened unless AA suddenly forgot how to be a top-tier GM (highly unlikely), or he has a lot more payroll space than we thought.

Very cool! This is another very solid addition to the rotation. Perhaps corporate owners shielding the team from financial ups and downs is a benefit folks never considered when they constantly bashed Liberty for being faceless heartless owners.
 
Enscheff said:
I am shocked. The Braves have already spent almost all the cash we thought they had.

They are either not going to address the offense (highly unlikely), or have at least another $20M. In my opinion they have overpaid for both Smyly and Morton, and I see no logical way that could have happened unless AA suddenly forgot how to be a top-tier GM (highly unlikely), or he has a lot more payroll space than we thought.

Very cool! This is another very solid addition to the rotation.
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One of the things that I like about him is that he is aggressive and not afraid to jump on a deal if it is team friendly (recently it's been team friendly by years), even if he has to overypay in $$, he gets the shorter deal...

Last year, Smith signed before the deadline to accept the QO, this year Smyly was looking for a multi year deal and AA jumped in early.
 
Enscheff said:
I am shocked. The Braves have already spent almost all the cash we thought they had.

They are either not going to address the offense (highly unlikely), or have at least another $20M. In my opinion they have overpaid for both Smyly and Morton, and I see no logical way that could have happened unless AA suddenly forgot how to be a top-tier GM (highly unlikely), or he has a lot more payroll space than we thought.

Very cool! This is another very solid addition to the rotation. Perhaps corporate owners shielding the team from financial ups and downs is a benefit folks never considered when they constantly bashed Liberty for being faceless heartless owners.
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Morton’s projected for 2.7 war next season, so I’m not seeing that one as an overpay.

The Smyly deal is a lot weirder. They must see something, and be confident it will manifest, with good health, in 2021.
 
Enscheff said:
I am shocked. The Braves have already spent almost all the cash we thought they had.

They are either not going to address the offense (highly unlikely), or have at least another $20M. In my opinion they have overpaid for both Smyly and Morton, and I see no logical way that could have happened unless AA suddenly forgot how to be a top-tier GM (highly unlikely), or he has a lot more payroll space than we thought.

Very cool! This is another very solid addition to the rotation. Perhaps corporate owners shielding the team from financial ups and downs is a benefit folks never considered when they constantly bashed Liberty for being faceless heartless owners.
Click to expand...


I agree that these seem like slight overpay. Looks like AA is willing to pay 15-20% extra in annual value to avoid long term deals. Maybe Smith's year didn't help. I'd love for these deals to have team options, even if the team options were unlikely (like 15 million for Smyly and 20 million for Morton). But that's not how these deals seem to work. Smyly wants to be awesome and then get a multiyear deal from someone.

I'm ok with the slight overpay if it keeps us from making long term commitments that hurt us. I still have hope that one more of these pitchers can at least become a cheap, plus fifth starter to keep costs down.

Next year's free agent pool is more interesting to me after you get past Springer.

Brantley and a Trade bat seem the most likely now. Especially if they think Waters is close. Brantly could slide to DH the following year if you are putting Waters in LF. If they are not sold on Waters, then maybe they go Ozuna plus.
 
Enscheff said:
I am shocked. The Braves have already spent almost all the cash we thought they had.

They are either not going to address the offense (highly unlikely), or have at least another $20M. In my opinion they have overpaid for both Smyly and Morton, and I see no logical way that could have happened unless AA suddenly forgot how to be a top-tier GM (highly unlikely), or he has a lot more payroll space than we thought.

Very cool! This is another very solid addition to the rotation. Perhaps corporate owners shielding the team from financial ups and downs is a benefit folks never considered when they constantly bashed Liberty for being faceless heartless owners.
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I hope you're right.
 
jpx7 said:
Morton’s projected for 2.7 war next season, so I’m not seeing that one as an overpay.

The Smyly deal is a lot weirder. They must see something, and be confident it will manifest, with good health, in 2021.
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The Rays declined paying him the exact $15M the Braves just gave him when they declined his option. This means no other team was willing to give up even a fringe prospect at that price point to acquire him. So AA paid a price no other team was willing to pay before other options came off the board, and he paid it when Morton had full control over staying in the region and competition for signing him was essentially zero.

Time will tell, but I suspect the cash crunch around the sport would have allowed AA to save some cash on these arms. I agree with others who conclude AA must have targeted these 2 SPs, and jumped at the opportunity to sign them to 1 year deals. If these guys stay healthy, a rotation with Anderson as the #5 is about as stout as the Braves have had in a long time.

Now we wait and see how he addresses the offense. It will be very interesting. No way they can make a move until the DH is settled.
 
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Enscheff said:
The Rays declined paying him the exact $15M the Braves just gave him when they declined his option. This means no other team was willing to give up even a fringe prospect at that price point to acquire him. So AA paid a price no other team was willing to pay before other options came off the board, and he paid it when Morton had full control over staying in the region and competition for signing him was essentially zero.

Time will tell, but I suspect the cash crunch around the sport would have allowed AA to save some cash on these arms. I agree with others who conclude AA must have targeted these 2 SPs, and jumped at the opportunity to sign them to 1 year deals. If these guys stay healthy, a rotation with Anderson as the #5 is about as stout as the Braves have had in a long time.

Now we wait and see how he addresses the offense. It will be very interesting. No way they can make a move until the DH is settled.
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I agree the AAV’s were above market value, but it’s effectively AA paying off the risk premium to secure a 1 year deal.

It’s interesting how AA identified this as a go forward strategy and I’ll be curious to see if other teams adopt it. The Braves have shown it to be extremely effective.

I also think think the Braves will be in on more and more free agents as multi year contracts go the way of the dinosaur.
 
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Enscheff said:
The Rays declined paying him the exact $15M the Braves just gave him when they declined his option. This means no other team was willing to give up even a fringe prospect at that price point to acquire him. So AA paid a price no other team was willing to pay before other options came off the board, and he paid it when Morton had full control over staying in the region and competition for signing him was essentially zero.

Time will tell, but I suspect the cash crunch around the sport would have allowed AA to save some cash on these arms. I agree with others who conclude AA must have targeted these 2 SPs, and jumped at the opportunity to sign them to 1 year deals. If these guys stay healthy, a rotation with Anderson as the #5 is about as stout as the Braves have had in a long time.

Now we wait and see how he addresses the offense. It will be very interesting. No way they can make a move until the DH is settled.
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AA has a checklist and he's checked this off his list.

He seems willing to pay a little more to get it done.

There may also be some good will with this player, other players and agents by putting out some reasonable deals.

I think the advantages to paying more and getting your guy:
1. AA gets to shift his focus to other options
2. Cost certainty with other moves
3. Raise some costs for competitors

We will never know, but this may have some impact on the non-tender deadlines. He's knows more of his numbers now for next year. Maybe it's time that Wilson or Touki becomes a full time pen arm. Bye Bye Dayton and Jackson if they need or want that money or roster spot elsewhere.
 
You can pay a little more AAV on one year deals. I wouldn't be surprised if the Braves did not pick up a significant piece for the lineup. Consider the total WAR of the starting pitching last year - You can add by keeping the bats the same, or you can add from basically zero by picking up mid-tier pitching options. I still think they go after a left handed outfielder, tho.
 
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