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2022 Atlanta Braves Season Thread: off season decisions loom

Say Hey Deac said:
A lot of emotions right now. I think I get it as a baseball move, and maybe Freeman just wanted to play in California, but the idea of him playing for the fucking Dodgers makes me want to die.
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Agreed. Even the Yankees would be much more palatable. Not playing for the best team money can buy...
 
Teams I would be okay with signing Freeman:

1. Angels
2. Rays
3. Blue Jays
 
Very un-Braves to give up the farm like that in a trade. More bummed about Lang and Cusick than Pache, who I'm not sure will ever be a major league level hitter. How they couldn't make it work with Freddie after winning a World Series is beyond me, but I guess you have to trust AA.
 
Sounds like Harris had passed Pache in the Braves eyes so I'm not all that surprised to see him included.

"Parades over Prospects" has been the common theme on 680 The Fan this afternoon.
 
Pilchard said:
Rays. That's funny. Would love to see it, but Rays don't do long term contracts for anyone over 21.
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Definitely can’t see the Rays signing him, but apparently they’ve expressed interest. I’d allow it.
 
He fucked around too long and we had to plan for a season starting in a few weeks. It is what it is. Let’s repeat!
 
Trying to figure out where the Braves go from here. They have money to spend, but their primary need is a CF and there really isn't an enticing CF on the FA market. Their farm system is also suddenly looking a bit thin, and I don't think they would/should put together a package to trade for a CF like Cedric Mullins or Bryan Reynolds. I would be shocked if they put Acuna in CF coming off ACL surgery. Given that, it seems like options are:

1. Play Duvall in CF, Ozuna in LF, sign DH
2. Play Duvall in CF, Ozuna at DH, sign LF
3. Duvall in LF, Ozuna at DH, sign CF

Option 1 means the OF defense is very suspect.

Option 2 is more palatable, but I question whether Duvall is going to be able to hang in CF all season.

Option 3 seems potentially like the best option, but, again, I don't know who they could sign who would play CF any better than Duvall such that this is a better option that Option 2. Conforto and Suzuki are corner guys.

At this point, in the end I suspect they end up going with Option 1 or 2 and signing another corner OF/DH. Acquisition can play RF while Acuna is still out, then shift to LF when Acuna is back. Heredia can be defensive replacement for Duvall late in games.

Considering they could use another LH bat to balance righties Acuna, Riley, Ozuna, D'Arnaud, and Swanson, I'm gonna guess they either re-sign Rosario or sign Conforto to a short term/high AAV deal like they did Donaldson.

Will be interesting to see where they go.
 
Good analysis, SayHey, and something that gets left out of the Olson>Freddie decision (if it was even a decision -- I think Freddie wants to be in Cali). Braves still have holes, and Olson instead of Freddie means you have 13-18 million more dollars to fill those holes. Definitely need another OFer, as SHD lays out, and then probably also need a back-end veteran starter.
 
Just as a baseball matter, putting aside the emotion of losing Freddie, I think the toughest part is that they had to use those prospects to get another 1B. Harris and Contreras may turn out to be better players than Pache and Langeliers, and Cusick and Estes may not turn into anything special, but now we've cashed in those chips for a replacement 1B instead of an OF or SP. If we'd re-signed Freddie and used that same package to get Bryan Reynolds, or an even lesser package to get one of the Oakland or Cincinnati starters, that team may have been stronger than what we're going to run out this season. I have a lot of confidence in Anthopoulos, but he's going to have to be creative to round out this lineup.
 
I'm actually happy to see us flip prospects for a change instead of them fizzling out and losing all value whatsoever. I am pretty convinced that the Braves did everything they could to bring Freddie back and it just wasn't happening. In reality, we upgraded if you keep your heart out of the decision.

Regarding other moves, it appears that we have made a strong offer to bring Soler back. MLB Network also mentioned that we were in on Correa which would be very interesting. I don't like him much but he is obviously a gigantic upgrade over Dansby who we'd have to make a decision about after this year anyway.
 
Emotions aside, great two days for braves. Extends the window and it’s an extremely affordable contract. Prospects are wild cards, Olson is a top tier 1B.
 
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