At some point, Alex Anthopoulos will have to make a determination about his baseball team. Are the Braves evaluating or are they contending? Is this season about keeping some struggling players on the roster because they need time to develop, or is it about trying to make the playoffs?
“Right now, you’re kind of balancing both,” the Braves’ general manager said.
Easy out. But can you blame him?
“It’s a month in,” Anthopoulos said. “It’s not a huge sample size. There’s some good indicators right now but we don’t know how this is going to play out.”
The Braves went 16-11 in the first 27 games. That represents exactly one-sixth of the season. I hadn't done the math, but Anthopoulos mentioned the fraction in passing. Math lacks emotion. In circumstances like this, GMs are as emotional as long division.
Fans and some excitable media members don’t operate that way. It has been a while since the Braves have won. It has been even longer since anybody was really excited.
It has been five years since the Braves last won a division title, 17 since they won a playoff series, 19 since they won a pennant, 23 since the lone World Series parade down Peachtree.
Fans see “16-11” and it’s like the skies are opening and the angels are singing and, yes, Sid Bream is walking through that door.
A GM sees “16-11” and thinks, “Maybe I’ll change it up and have a blueberry muffin today.”
Credit: ccompton@ajc.com
Credit: ccompton@ajc.com
It’s not that Anthopoulos isn’t happy. He too has been dazzled by Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna. He too has been pleased with Dansby Swanson’s overall play, the overall lineup’s run production, the consistent level of effort and certainly the team’s run-differential to this point (plus-38, fifth-best in the majors through April).
But let’s be real: Acuna is not going to hit .421 the rest of the season, Albies isn’t going to maintain a 54-homer, 120-RBI pace and, yeah, it’s kind of doubtful the Braves will win 96 games.
However ... let’s go there.
I hesitated to ask this next question, because it’s so early, and slumps arrive and players get injured and the bullpen too often operates like a chain-reaction of mini-explosions.
But because it’s on almost everybody’s mind, here goes: Does Anthopoulos see this as a potential playoff team?
“The goal is always to do that,” he said. “And right now, the way we’re playing, we would certainly be in the conversation after a month. But we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. The focus has just been: Let’s deal with tonight’s starter. Let’s deal with the information we have and go from there. Get to June and we’ll re-evaluate from there. Get to July and re-evaluate again. Then we’ll make the determination. But there’s some good indicators.”
For what it’s worth -- and that’s not much -- if the playoffs opened Tuesday, the Braves would have hosted the wild card game. Take a picture.
Does Anthopoulos ever get giddy in situations like this?
“I definitely temper my emotions,” he said. “It’s cliché but it really is a long season and things change. But this team overall has done a good job, just worrying about the day of the game, not looking ahead. The preparation has been really good. I especially like when we lose a game, we bounce back.”
With Albies, Swanson and Acuna all performing well, the most important overriding theme is that three members of the Braves’ young core are producing. That eases any concerns that might have arisen from a farm system that’s pitcher-heavy and bat-light.
If nothing changes, this impacts Anthopoulos’s thinking moving forward as he determines what changes need to be made, what prospects can be dealt and what the team’s needs to get back in deals.
So, yes, to some degree it's about today. But mostly it's still about tomorrow. The Matt Kemp trade took $18 million in salary off the books for the 2019, which at least presents the possibility ownership may take on more salary after this season, via trades or free agency.
“Having that flexibility in the offseason, whether it’s using some of our young players or something (in trade) to fill holes, is huge,” Anthopoulos said. “But it’s hard to know where our holes will be a year from now because we’re still relying on young players. The best way to find out is to let them play. What if somebody doesn’t emerge or they get hurt? So many things can change between now and then.”
He hasn’t yet decided on what to do about the bullpen, believing the biggest problem is in middle relief.
He hasn’t yet decided on when to bring up Jose Bautista from Gwinnett, understandable considering the team’s offense is fine now and Bautista is still in relative spring training.
He’s also satisfied with the starting pitching, bu he will continue to look at the team’s young arms, as evidence by the call up of Mike Soroka on Tuesday.
Mostly, Anthopoulos just wants to allow things to play out.
It’s only May.
“Over the next five months we’ll find out a lot more, and we’ll know about the health of our players,” he said. “We have to continue down the path.”
You, however, may skip down the path.
Listen to the, "We Never Played The Game" podcast. Check out the podcast show page at AJC.com/sports-we-never-played-the-game. Subscribe on iTunes or, Google play, Stitcher, TuneIn, or listen from the AJC sports podcasts page or the WSB Radio on-demand page.
About the Author
