Looking towards 2025

I'm not sure why a contending team would trade away a .950 OPS DH in favor of a .750 OPS DH.

AA needs to do whatever it takes to unload as much of Soler's deal as possible.

Can they trade the 750 OPS DH?

I said “simplest” way of clearing the log jam.
 
Soler should have never been traded for.. it will go down as one of AA dumber moves (nothing will top the WC plus 30 more prospects for an older catcher who hates the hot weather trade)

But I think AA is just going to ride out Soler in LF next year in hopes he can hit just enough to cover his defense and to prove he can be a replacement for Ozuna after next season.

It reeked of desperation.
 
Any locked up player they want to trade will not have positive trade value...or they would not want to trade them away. We are already seeing that with Olson and Murphy. So yes, the roster is inflexible in the sense that dumping declining players becomes impossible without attaching even more resources to them. And that defeats the whole point of signing them to a below market deal in the first place.

Having said that, I agree with unloading Murphy and going with a Baldwin/TDA platoon. I would also try to unload Soler so the roster doesn't have 2 DHs. How will that be achieved? No idea, but AA seems to be able to do things like trade the extra overpaid DH for an overpaid bench SS, so at least the overpaid player is at a position of need on the roster.

Then I would probably go with Kelenic/Laureano in LF, and bring in legit bench options for SS and OF. Do whatever BP arms they like, and the annual pulling a SP out of a hat trick.

That's assuming they want to reset the tax penalties and have very little money to spend. If they are going with another $275M payroll the options are nearly endless.

I think Olson and Murphy would be easy to trade. We wouldn't get a kings ransom but I think the issue is more the bad PR from trading players who are in the beginning of long term contract extensions. Murphy had 10 WAR his previous two years and missed half the year from an injury. It's been reported he doesn't like the Atlanta heat. We could probably even get halfway decent prospects for Murphy. Cubs catchers hit .215/.258/.346 and we're the 6th worst defensive catcher unit. They need a catcher in a bad way. Reportedly went after the Angels catcher. If Murphy was a free agent he could get 4 years 60 million. There's not a whole lot of good options out there for a catcher needy team. I think the problem is the Braves won't want to trade Murphy.

Olson is owed 110 million over 5 years. I think he would be harder to trade but also I think has the best chance to rebound. He was never as good as he appeared last year. People got spoiled. I think this season is just luck evening out for him. He has had plenty of ups and downs. He hit only .240/.325/.477 his first year here and followed that up with a monster season. He hit .195 in the COVID year. Olson has still put up a RC above 100 this year so he isn't much as an albatross as people portray. Braves are 14th in 1B WAR. The Yankees were 28th and still paid out the ass for the position. If they lose Soto we could probably sell them Olson. Mets seem certain to lose Pete Alonso and zolson at his worst was only marginally worse than Alonso. Again I think the issue is we don't want to trade Olson. Not that we can't without eating salary.

As for Soler. Half the league go worse than a ,.750 Ops from their DH. I don't think we will have a hard time trading Soler. Now weight have to eat some salary but it shouldn't be a whole lot. Soler isn't ancient he is only 32 and I think he provides a good value for a team in needing of hitting that doesn't have a full-time DH. If we didn't have Ozuna we probably would just keep Soler. 2 years 24 million ain't **** anymore. In fact I think they actually will keep him and use him as insurance in case they can't re-sign Ozuna after 2025.

Here's a crazy idea. What if we traded pitching...... Reynaldo Lopez could bring a good return. We basically have two needs. I think we could find a team out there to get us a competent LF and SS for Lopez.

One last thing. You talk about getting good bench players. The problem is they are hard time find in FA. If they were any good they would be starters. I think what we need more of is not good bench players but platoon hitters. We can find those in FA but I think the best bench players are pre FA players. So unless we can develop them on our own we need to trade for them.
 
I think Olson and Murphy would be easy to trade. We wouldn't get a kings ransom but I think the issue is more the bad PR from trading players who are in the beginning of long term contract extensions. Murphy had 10 WAR his previous two years and missed half the year from an injury. It's been reported he doesn't like the Atlanta heat. We could probably even get halfway decent prospects for Murphy. Cubs catchers hit .215/.258/.346 and we're the 6th worst defensive catcher unit. They need a catcher in a bad way. Reportedly went after the Angels catcher. If Murphy was a free agent he could get 4 years 60 million. There's not a whole lot of good options out there for a catcher needy team. I think the problem is the Braves won't want to trade Murphy.

Olson is owed 110 million over 5 years. I think he would be harder to trade but also I think has the best chance to rebound. He was never as good as he appeared last year. People got spoiled. I think this season is just luck evening out for him. He has had plenty of ups and downs. He hit only .240/.325/.477 his first year here and followed that up with a monster season. He hit .195 in the COVID year. Olson has still put up a RC above 100 this year so he isn't much as an albatross as people portray. Braves are 14th in 1B WAR. The Yankees were 28th and still paid out the ass for the position. If they lose Soto we could probably sell them Olson. Mets seem certain to lose Pete Alonso and zolson at his worst was only marginally worse than Alonso. Again I think the issue is we don't want to trade Olson. Not that we can't without eating salary.

As for Soler. Half the league go worse than a ,.750 Ops from their DH. I don't think we will have a hard time trading Soler. Now weight have to eat some salary but it shouldn't be a whole lot. Soler isn't ancient he is only 32 and I think he provides a good value for a team in needing of hitting that doesn't have a full-time DH. If we didn't have Ozuna we probably would just keep Soler. 2 years 24 million ain't **** anymore. In fact I think they actually will keep him and use him as insurance in case they can't re-sign Ozuna after 2025.

Here's a crazy idea. What if we traded pitching...... Reynaldo Lopez could bring a good return. We basically have two needs. I think we could find a team out there to get us a competent LF and SS for Lopez.

One last thing. You talk about getting good bench players. The problem is they are hard time find in FA. If they were any good they would be starters. I think what we need more of is not good bench players but platoon hitters. We can find those in FA but I think the best bench players are pre FA players. So unless we can develop them on our own we need to trade for them.

I was pulled in by some click-bait the other day by a headline that proposed a trade of Kyle Tucker to the Braves. Tucker is a free agent after 2025, so I wouldn't want to sell the farm, but would a Murphy, Kelenic, 2 pitching prospects get that done? Probably not because Murphy would be as redundant in Houston as he is in Atlanta, but maybe some kind of three- or four-cornered deal could make something work. Of course, the click-bait was probably generated by someone living in their mom's basement, but it did get me thinking what might happen with Tucker if the Astros can't work out an extension with him.
 
I don't think they will trade Tucker. Bregman is likely to leave in FA and losing Bregman and Tucker in one year would be devastating. I think there is mutual interest in getting a deal done by Tucker and Astros and he is still fairly young. Houston ain't Oakland. They can pay some star players big money.
 
Two things to keep in mind.

-AA is pretty much on record as saying he won't trade guys who agreed to team friendly extensions. As a matter of loyalty. So we can pretty much forget that idea.

-Many teams around the league are using the DH position as a spot to rotate guys through to get them rest. So there many not be as many suitors for Soler as we hope.
 
Could anyone actually seeing twit use the DH as a placeholder to rotate position players for rest. That fat head would explode and the world would instantly become a smarter place as a whole.
 
Soler is not very good in the OF and Acuna is gonna need some rest imo next year. Soler shouldnt be to hard to trade at 2/24. Maybe we could kick in 4 million to get it to 2/20. No SP is gonna be traded bc Fried will be gone and Sale will be a year older. If anything we add a starter. I think Arcia will be the SS next year and they will look to add depth and a legit LF and a veteran SP. those should be our 3 needs.
 
Two things to keep in mind.

-AA is pretty much on record as saying he won't trade guys who agreed to team friendly extensions. As a matter of loyalty. So we can pretty much forget that idea.

-Many teams around the league are using the DH position as a spot to rotate guys through to get them rest. So there many not be as many suitors for Soler as we hope.

If that is indeed true, then the "extensions for all" is a really faulty strategy.
 
Could anyone actually seeing twit use the DH as a placeholder to rotate position players for rest. That fat head would explode and the world would instantly become a smarter place as a whole.

He might (no guarantee) if he had a bench that could actually accommodate that strategy. Right now, he just doesn't have that set of guys on the bench. It would mean putting Ozuna in the OF now and again, but he can't be any worse than Soler.
 
Figured I’d throw this in here and might throw it in another suitable thread

Did any of y’all see Chipper on Corey Kluber’s podcast?!?!

He was as civil/nice about it as possible but he didn’t pull any punches when asked about how player’s approach AB’s today vs in the past & specifically how the Braves have been approaching their AB’s this year

Starts around the 11 minute mark

 
If that is indeed true, then the "extensions for all" is a really faulty strategy.

It does have the caveats of under performing or disciplinary issues. The idea is if AA signed a player to a below market deal so they can play with the Braves and they are performing they won't be traded.
 
He might (no guarantee) if he had a bench that could actually accommodate that strategy. Right now, he just doesn't have that set of guys on the bench. It would mean putting Ozuna in the OF now and again, but he can't be any worse than Soler.

Olson has some experience out in the OF if we're looking to get creative
 
There's no immediate need for that. Just IL Lopez for an IF. We don't need the 5th starter again until the 17th at CIN

Williams sucks so we do have a need for that. And bringing in another guy that can go long relief or start is good in case a SP gets in trouble early.
 
Back
Top