This doesn’t just happen. This was, and is, the plan. Alex Anthopoulos took baseball’s best farm system and hammered it in something even better – a big-league team neither young nor old, a team with a star at almost every position.
The Braves’ lineup saw two alterations over the offseason. One was Sean Murphy, imported to secure a catching position that, with Travis d’Arnaud and William Contreras, seemed stout enough. Murphy arrived from Oakland in a three-way deal that sent Contreras, a 2022 All-Star at DH, to Milwaukee. Murphy was just named the National League’s All-Star catcher.
Two weeks after landing Murphy, the Braves signed him to a six-year extension with a club option for a seventh season. Under Anthopoulos, the Braves don’t want temps. They want their players’ primes to be spent here. They’ll pay now to keep from paying bigger to keep – or buy – a free agent.
The Braves’ second-best everyday player in 2022 was Dansby Swanson. He signed for $177 million with the Cubs. We figured his replacement would be Vaughn Grissom, who impressed as a rookie. We discounted Orlando Arcia, acquired in April 2021 – who makes trades in April? – from Milwaukee. The Brewers had Luis Urias, a top 20 prospect, to play shortstop.
Arcia started 16 games for the 2021 Braves, 13 in left field. He made five plate appearances in the World Series run, all as a pinch-hitter. He was a utility guy until he wasn’t. The Braves made him their shortstop this spring. On Thursday, he was named an All-Star starter.
(Small world: Earlier in the day, the Brewers sent Urias, who’s 26, to Triple-A.)
What we’d forgotten: In 2016, Arcia was a top 10 prospect. What we hadn’t noticed: At 28, Arcia is younger than Swanson. On Opening Day, the Braves announced Arcia had signed an extension through 2025 that includes a team option for 2026.
Of the Braves’ everyday nine, seven are under club control through 2026, six through 2027. Of the everyday nine, all except Michael Harris and Eddie Rosario have been All-Stars. The Braves aren’t scrimping; their payroll is baseball’s eighth-highest. It is, however, though, is $142M less than that of the Mets, 17-1/2 games out of first place.
Anthopoulos inherited Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley and Swanson. Two left as free agents. The other three signed long-term extensions. So did Matt Olson, who arrived as the younger, cheaper Freeman. Olson leads the National League in homers and RBIs. This is the plan.
There’s no guarantee the Braves will win the 2023 World Series – or any World Series. There is, however, something approaching assurance that they’ll have a chance to win championships for the foreseeable future.
There’s a reason they’ve locked down every position player. (Of the everyday nine, only Rosario can exit before 2025.) Example: Austin Riley. He made the 2022 All-Star team and finished sixth in MVP voting. He’s having a lesser 2023, not that it has mattered.
No lineup will see peak performances from every member. A lineup of such depth can handle such dips, not that there are many lineups of such depth. And Riley’s 26. He’s not nearly done.
But what, you ask, of pitching? The world’s mightiest arm – i.e., Jacob deGrom’s – is an elbow twinge from protracted inaction. Ian Anderson just had Tommy John surgery. Max Fried and Kyle Wright are on the 60-day disabled list. Michael Soroka has made two big-league starts over 34 months. It’s instructive that the Braves’ sign-’em-up approach has embraced only one pitcher – Spencer Strider, who’s 24.
The Braves’ pitching plan is less plan than hope. Anderson got hot at the end of the 2020 season. Wright and Strider were huge in 2022. Bryce Elder and AJ Smith-Shawver have made an impact this year. That’s a risky way to live, hoping a different young arm rises to a moment, but what’s the alternative? Paying an aggregate $86.7M to ancients Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, as the forlorn Mets chose to do?
Baseball is about variables and variance. The Braves are controlling that which can be controlled. Position players project well. Pitchers don’t. We have no idea how this club’s 2025 rotation will look. We have a good idea who’ll be playing the field. We can’t imagine that team being anywhere but in first place.
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