Braves Report: Earnings up, payroll down

It’s an extra special Friday, y’all.

The Braves won a baseball game last night, and Drake Baldwin still rules.

Then again: You’re not gonna be super happy about the numbers in Ken Sugiura’s latest column.

THE WEEKEND FESTIVITIES

Deep breath and … go.

📺 How to watch: Tonight’s game starts at 7:15 p.m. Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader starts at 1:15 p.m., with Game 2 at 7:15 p.m. Sunday’s finale gets underway at 1:35 p.m.

All on FanDuel Sports.

⚾ The pitching matchups: We get Bryce Elder (4-8, 6.03) vs. Edward Cabrera (5-5, 3.24) tonight. Then:

• Saturday, Game 1: No official announcement for either team. The Braves seem likely to give Hurston Waldrep another go.
• Saturday, Game 2: Erick Fedde (3-12, 5.32) vs. Sandy Alcantara (6-10, 6.44)
• Sunday: Joey Wentz (2-3, 5.34) vs. Cal Quantrill (4-9, 5.21)

NOW FOR THE UGLY PART

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Terry McGuirk, left, chairman and CEO of Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc., chats with manager Brian Snitker during spring training.

Braves Holdings Inc., the publicly held entity spun off from team owner Liberty Media a few years back, held an earnings call Thursday.

Our friend Ken Sugiura wrote about it and … well, bear with us on the jargon.

But you’ll be interested in these parts:

📈 “Earnings from ticket sales, sponsorships, broadcast revenue, concessions and the like grew 8% in this year’s second quarter compared with last year’s, from $266 million to $287 million. There was a big bump in broadcast revenue — $71 million to $81 million — after the team renegotiated its rights agreement with FanDuel Sports Network to allow fans to purchase subscriptions to stream games online.”

📈 “The team’s adjusted OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortization) for the second quarter — a key measure of a company’s profitability — was $65.7 million, up from $45.8 million in 2024. A Wall Street analyst on the call described Braves Holdings’ business as ‘growing like maybe I’ve never seen in terms of the figures you’ve reported.’”

Cool, right?

Here’s the catch: The Braves payroll was $238 million in 2024. It’s $214 million this year. In Ken’s words: “Cue sad trombone sound effect.”

I highly recommend you read the full column, then email me and let me know: How does it make you feel that earnings are up (thanks to you) but payroll is down?

BALLIN’ DRAKE BALDWIN

Credit: Mike Stewart/AP

Pretty swing ya got there, sir.

Drake Baldwin hit a solo homer. And a three-run homer. And a game-tying RBI single.

He’s hitting .364 over the last seven games.

And he ain’t too bad behind the plate, either.

“The Braves have had seven rookie of the year winners since moving to Atlanta,” the AJC’s Gabe Burns wrote on X. “Drake Baldwin should be the eighth.”

Baldwin is, in fact, the betting favorite to make it happen.

📈 But that first part piqued my interest, too: The Braves have had seven rookies of the year since 1966?

Yup. Here’s the list:

• Earl Williams (1971)
• Bob Horner (1974)
• David Justice (1990)
• Rafael Furcal (2000)
• Craig Kimbrel (2011)
• Ronald Acuña Jr. (2018)
• Michael Harris II (2022)

Impressive stuff! Even without the 1995 award that Chipper Jones should’ve won.

📈 Where does it rank among other teams, though?

If we’re talking all-time, it goes Dodgers (18), Yankees (10) and Braves (9).

But things look a little different when confined to the Atlanta era. Here’s how they stack up:

• Dodgers: 12
• Braves: 7
• Athletics: 7
• Yankees: 6
• Reds: 6
• Mariners: 5

Baldwin, then, is vying to push Atlanta into the No. 2 spot all by its lonesome.

And thus concludes today’s random rabbit hole adventure.

POSITIVE PITCHING NEWS

This season is lost — but the imminent return of Chris Sale should make things a tad more palatable.

The reigning Cy Young winner threw a live bullpen session at Truist Park on Thursday. If his previously cracked rib cage feels OK today, Sale is likely looking at one rehab start before popping right back into the Braves rotation.

😤 Don’t even suggest he give it a rest until 2026: “I don’t care what the record says,” Sale said, in part. “I like to compete, and I want to go out there and do my job. I’ve missed enough baseball in my career that this isn’t something that I’m OK with having being done. I think it’s important to finish a year not on the IL and be able to at least hang my hat on the fact that I was able to finish the year pitching and upright.”

• More on Sale — and Grant Holmes’ decision to eschew surgery for rehab — right here.
• Don’t miss what history-making female umpire Jen Pawol had to say either.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Credit: Marlene Karas/AJC file photo

A 1995 World Series dogpile.

It’s never a bad time to roll out this particular celebration photo — but today there’s a reason.

The Braves announced that the team’s game on Friday, Aug. 22, will also serve as a celebration of the 1995 World Series champs, complete with a free pregame parade through The Battery. Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz are among the alumni slated to attend.

The first 15,000 folks through the gates get replica rings, too.

Thanks for reading Braves Report. Tell a friend — and maybe give the AJC’s Sports Daily newsletter a shot, too.