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2022 Atlanta Braves Season Thread: off season decisions loom

FWIW, Shildt is from Charlotte, NC and took an unusual route to get to be an MLB manager.

After graduating from UNC-Asheville (where he was on the team, but was just another player with no professional prospcets), Shildt got an assistant coaching gig at UNC-Charlotte and ran a baseball training facility in Charlotte. The Cardinals hired as an area scout for the Carolinas. Eventually, the Cards moved Shildt to coach in the low minors and slowly rose through the organization. When the Cardinal fired Mike Matheney in 2018, they hired Shildt as an interim manager and eventually the Cards removed the interim tag. Shildt is only the 8th person to become a manager league manager without playing at any level of professional baseball.
 
I know the wound is still fresh, but there's some interesting decisions to be made this upcoming offseason:

Club option for Markakis ($6 million)
Club option for Teheran ($12 million)
Club option for Flowers ($6 million)

Notable free agents include:
Donaldson ($23 million 2019 salary)
Keuchel ($13 million)
Darren O'Day ($9 million)
Swarzak ($8.5 million)
Martin ($2.3 million)

Billy Hamilton has a mutual option for $7.5 million.

Notable salary increases include:
Ender from $5.7 million to $7.7 million
Folty, Greene, and Swanson will get bumps of $2-3 million through arbitration
Culberson, Jackson, Camargo and Duvall will get modest raises ($0.5-1.5 million)

With all that said, what's your offseason plan? I'm declining all 4 options to start, although I would consider resigning Teheran for cheaper. I'd also consider keeping Flowers option if we don't have confidence in the catching market. I'd like to resign Donaldson, but wouldn't give more than 2 years at a high AAV.

Money-wise, we should have plenty for upcoming free agents. The addition of Melancon ($14 million) certainly cuts into that money, but also alleviates some bullpen concerns. Worthwhile free agents include: Cole, Rendon, Ryu, Wheeler, Odorizzi, Bumgarner, Castellanos, Pineda, Sogard, Ozuna, Chirinos, d'Arnaud plus several more. Obviously, we need catching without McCann, which may lead to us keeping Flowers. Big needs for us though, in my opinion, are OF and SP. I doubt we pony up for Cole, but Wheeler or Bumgarner could be a nice addition. Also, I'd love to get Ozuna, who I think could give us a lot more value than Markakis has recently.
 
Flowers is terrible. There has to be somebody better in the market.
 
zqglass said:
I’ve very much enjoyed watching the Cards get swept into oblivion and the first inning tonight was the cherry on top. Fuck the Cardinals and their bitchass manager.
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No problem! I hated losing to the Nats but they had superior pitching even though we had great outings ourselves in the first two games by both Waino & Mikolas. But be that as it may, we still have total control over the Buffalo Bills of baseball, the Atlanta Braves--hahahahahahahahahaha! Now have tied the record for futility with 10th straight postseason loss. Braves need to go to a shrink in the off season.
 
deacon14 said:
I know the wound is still fresh, but there's some interesting decisions to be made this upcoming offseason:

Club option for Markakis ($6 million)
Club option for Teheran ($12 million)
Club option for Flowers ($6 million)

Notable free agents include:
Donaldson ($23 million 2019 salary)
Keuchel ($13 million)
Darren O'Day ($9 million)
Swarzak ($8.5 million)
Martin ($2.3 million)

Billy Hamilton has a mutual option for $7.5 million.

Notable salary increases include:
Ender from $5.7 million to $7.7 million
Folty, Greene, and Swanson will get bumps of $2-3 million through arbitration
Culberson, Jackson, Camargo and Duvall will get modest raises ($0.5-1.5 million)

With all that said, what's your offseason plan? I'm declining all 4 options to start, although I would consider resigning Teheran for cheaper. I'd also consider keeping Flowers option if we don't have confidence in the catching market. I'd like to resign Donaldson, but wouldn't give more than 2 years at a high AAV.

Money-wise, we should have plenty for upcoming free agents. The addition of Melancon ($14 million) certainly cuts into that money, but also alleviates some bullpen concerns. Worthwhile free agents include: Cole, Rendon, Ryu, Wheeler, Odorizzi, Bumgarner, Castellanos, Pineda, Sogard, Ozuna, Chirinos, d'Arnaud plus several more. Obviously, we need catching without McCann, which may lead to us keeping Flowers. Big needs for us though, in my opinion, are OF and SP. I doubt we pony up for Cole, but Wheeler or Bumgarner could be a nice addition. Also, I'd love to get Ozuna, who I think could give us a lot more value than Markakis has recently.
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I think the Braves let Keuchel, Hamilton and Teheran walk. The rest will probably get tendered offers.
Flowers is interesting because he has a lot of experience as a catcher and adds depth. I think we keep him one more year and bring along a young catcher for him to mentor.

I love Ender but he has had a lot of leg issues the last 1.5 seasons. They may move on from him if they believe it is a trend that is likely to continue.
The farm is stocked with a lot of young talent, the top 2 prospects in the organization are both outfielders and both will get a long hard look in spring training.

Donaldson will probably get a 2 year offer and at his age, that is appropriate. All reports are that he loves Atlanta and they really like the leadership and experience he brought this season as well as his bat and good play at third.

I disagree with you on Markakis, the guy is a pro, veteran and good hitter. He had an unfortunate injury at the end of the season but otherwise he was out there everyday.

I hope they move Melancon, he is very expensive for a reliever and he just hasn't produced for the Braves and deserves a new start because he is very good just hasn't been for the Braves.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I can't help but think the Astros are paying the price for having McCann throw out the first pitch before Game 1. If the Baseball Gods had wanted a newly-retired member of the Braves involved in the Series, they could have done more in the LDS. Don't taunt karma.
 
Braves re-sign Nick Markakis: 1 year $4 million. Tyler Flowers is also coming back. Not clear what the Braves are doing with Julio Teheran.
 
Good thing we have accountants on top of their game. Flowers and Neck have their options declined but are signed back to where they make the same money if we just exercised. Maybe it counts against 2019 payroll because we certainly don't care about it from a luxury tax perspective.

We had better get a real corner outfielder to at least face LHP.
 
Ozuna is not a suitable replacement for JD’s production, or value added on defense. Will be interesting to see what happens with Arenado wanting out of Colorado now.
 
Pretty reasonable to expect .250 average, 90 RBI's, and 30 or so homeruns from either guy next year. Josh 5 years older and got over 90M for 4 years... Seems like a pretty smart exchange.
 
If only Riley had kept up his early season form, or anywhere close to it, and not fallen off a cliff. Would have made things much easier at 3B.
 
Freddie’s elbow has been giving him trouble. Was scratched yesterday due to it. Let’s hope it calms down & he’s good to go.
 
I’m concerned about the SP outside of Soroka and Fried. If Folty’s velo is actually going to be down like it was the other day, that’s going to be an issue. We really need Wright or even Newcomb to take a big step forwards.
 
Was really looking forward to a King Felix late career revival. Was fairly confident it was going to happen, too.
 
tigerswood said:
Was really looking forward to a King Felix late career revival. Was fairly confident it was going to happen, too.
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Same. Also, hindsight is 20/20, but the decision to pay Hamels instead of picking up Teheran’s option is looking real rough
 
I cannot find it right now, but I read an piece on Folty that the key for him is how much his breaking ball drops. I think that during the first half of the season before he got demoted, he had lost almost 2 inches of drop. He also needs to keep the ball in the yard, this year. His 2019 HR/9 was over 2x from 2018.
 
Second half Folty was almost identical to 2018 Folty. 57.2 IP, 2.65 ERA, 7 HR, 3.77 FIP.
 
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