Alex Anthopoulos: 'Rotation is absolutely a front burner' need for the Atlanta Braves

Atlanta's president of baseball operations addressed the media on Saturday; here's part two of that conversation.

(This is part two of our recap of the customary end-of-season press conference with Alex Anthopoulos. Part one, which featured the extended discussion about Atlanta’s vacant managerial role, can be found here.)

The Atlanta Braves are in an enviable position entering the offseason: Most of the injuries that wrecked their 2025 season should be fully resolved by Opening Day, while the organization has both money and the understanding of what they need to spend it on this winter to get the team back to the postseason.

Let’s talk about it.

Three major needs for the roster

One of the notable moments of candor from a usually guarded Anthopoulos came in a response to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, who asked if it was fair to characterize Atlanta’s offseason roster needs as shortstop, starter, the bullpen, and a right-handed hitting outfielder.¹

Anthopoulos agreed with the general assessment and spent some time discussing Bowman’s hypothetical, which was incumbent Ha-Seong Kim declining his $16M player option and entering a shortstop-starved free agent market.

 “I would agree. So look, I would say shortstop, clearly. We made the move to acquire Kim, and I think I said it at the time, (but) the thought was: it was attractive that there was potential for beyond 25, right?

“There was no guarantee (he would return), but there was a potential to get to know him, have conversations whether he becomes a free agent or doesn’t. But either way, there are paths for him to be here and us getting to know him had tremendous value because we like him as a player and we’d like to have him back.”

But as much as Anthopoulos agreed with the general assessment of Atlanta’s needs, he disagreed with the urgency of one of them.  “So, right-handed hitting outfielder is not something that’s a front burner for us. I mean, being candid. Maybe as we’re going through the winter, that does become (one), but at this time it’s not a front-burner thing for us. I would say rotation is absolutely front burner for us. […] I think I’m stating the obvious there in the bullpen. We’ve got some free agents, so I think that safe to say. I think every year the bullpen’s always on your list.” The ultimate ranking of right-handed hitting outfielder as an offseason need was last in that group, or as Anthopoulos clarified, “I’d say of those four, if you’re just looking at those four, (right-handed hitting outfielder) would be four.”

So, three to four significant needs, in some fashion.

Are there enough payroll funds there to meet every need?

David O’Brien of The Athletic asked about payroll, pointing out that Atlanta’s books are open and so the entire baseball world knows that the Braves both made money and reset the Competitive Balance Tax this season.

Anthopoulos admitted that they never specifically plan to be over or under the tax, that’s just how things shake out. In fact, there was almost a deal that would have pushed the Braves into the CBT for a third consecutive season, but Atlanta didn’t pull the trigger.

 “We went past it, you know, two years in a row. We didn’t say, ‘oh, we’re gonna go past it.’ It just happened. Things developed, opportunities developed. You know, there was a deal that we were barreling down and the hangup ended up being the length of the deal, not the AAV. Tax is based on AAVs, right? So the AAV would’ve taken us over the tax.”

Sidebar time! This was the first time in the press conference of a deal that Atlanta had the opportunity to do and didn’t, although Anthopoulos (as is his habit) refused to name players or teams involved. He later mentioned a trade deal that was on the table that would have sent a handful of Braves prospects, headlined by Drake Baldwin, out the door. My suspicion is that package was the requested return for Chicago White Sox lefty starter Garrett Crochet, who later went to the Boston Red Sox for a catcher-headlined package of four rated prospects.

Back to Anthopoulos, discussing the money and Atlanta’s belief that paying a luxury tax charge isn’t a big deal…until it is.

“If it’s just money, it’s a payroll allocation, right? So we went over two years in a row. The first time we went over the first tier, the second time we went over two tiers, and all it was is dollars. I’m not trying to minimize that, but it was just money. It was, ‘okay, what is this gonna cost us? 20 cents on the dollar, 50 cents on every dollar over. So it’s an extra $3 million, $4 million, $5 million.’ Well, when you’re spending well over $200 million on payroll…”

The much bigger issue to Anthopoulos is when a team’s CBT charge gets into the third tier, which starts at $40M over the first tier, as not only does the surcharge percentage go up, but the team’s first draft pick the next summer is moved back 10 spots. “ if you have these teams that are well over, you’re losing draft position and things like that. There’s a real opportunity cost there. The opportunity cost (for us) is dollars. It’s not, in my view, it’s not the same as ‘you move back in the draft’ and things like that. So if the right opportunity presents itself, we’ve always had the ability to do all that kind of stuff.”

Per FanGraphs, Atlanta’s final 2024 CBT charge came out to $276,995,908, just a few thousand dollars short of the third luxury tax tier that started that season at $277M. O’Brien asked a follow-up about the Braves not making more than one ‘major’ move last offseason (the signing of outfielder Jurickson Profar) and Anthopoulos explained what happened, mentioning the potential trade that involved Drake Baldwin and then other considerations that made them back away from moves.

“ I get it. And look, one of them, why we didn’t make was out in, in the media (the Braves declining to sign free agent pitcher Jeff Hoffman due to medical concerns over his shoulder). Other moves we attempted to make, Drake Baldwin would’ve been going in the deal, amongst others. That’s not to make excuses, I’m just trying to, without being completely transparent, I have to respect (other) parties. Sometimes you’re taking a look at things, whether it’s you making a trade, you’re looking at the (player’s) file, there’s a medical concern, or, there might be some players that you like but then you’re looking from a clubhouse fit, a makeup fit, and you decide to pass.”

Questions about individual players

There were a few questions raised about individual players outside of the Ha-Seong Kim question Mark Bowman asked earlier. The first was about Jarred Kelenic, who was outrighted by the Braves last week and elected free agency over staying with the organization.

The question was fairly simple: Was acquiring Jarred Kelenic a mistake? Anthopoulos immediately admitted that while it did not work out, not every deal will and Kelenic still did enough for Atlanta to make the postseason last year.  “Look, we had a productive season overall in ‘24. We made the postseason. (Michael) Harris missed a significant amount of time. (Kelenic) played a real solid center field for us. He had a great month of June or July, whatever it was. But he helped us. We made the playoffs on the last day and without him and a host of other players, we don’t make the postseason. […] And look, it obviously didn’t translate in 2025, but we knew that going into 25 that the game plan was ultimately going to be (Ronald) Acuña coming back, Harris in center, and Profar in left. But we liked the fact that Jared’s a very good defender. He’s got tremendous arm strength, can play all three (outfield positions). He’s got some speed as well, and obviously has a lot of offensive upside.”

Anthopoulos did use the Kelenic trade to explain that he needs to continue trying to acquire players to (hopefully) unlock their potential. “ I mean, we can go through everything over eight years, but that doesn’t change. Being aggressive, continue to go after opportunities and even when you’re making decisions… look, there’s risk or this or that, but you know that with every decision that you make.”

Another question was asked about recently acquired Alek Manoah, who was claimed off waivers by the Braves when the Toronto Blue Jays decided to part ways with the former Cy Young finalist pitcher. Anthopoulos used the question to explain that churning the last few spots on the 40-man roster is the right way to operate, as they’ve been able to uncover quality performers by doing that.

 “He has options. We take shots and look in terms of claiming guys on waivers. It’s not specific to him, but you know, you have the claim price, but (if) you have any type of success... I mean, to me, you should be aggressive if you can, if you have the room on the 40 and so on. Dylan Lee was released from Minor League Spring training, and whether he is claimed or not, you just don’t know. So you claim 10 guys, 20 guys, 30 guys; one pans out, they pay for themselves, right? […] One claim out of so many that has any type of success is worth well beyond that. So there’s no reason if you have room on the 40 and so on to not take a shot. I mean that’s the right way to go about it.”

On the topic of Michael Harris, there was a specific question about if it has to be frustrating for the organization that his OPS has dropped in each of his four seasons, but Anthopoulos quickly interrupted that he’s only been below-average in one regard. “As a bat, strictly as a bat, because he’s playing a premium position (with) Gold Glove defense at a premium position.” When asked if the offensive decline was okay because of that defensive position, Anthopoulos clarified that standards should be different based on what position you’re playing.  ”Obviously the bar isn’t the same: it’s shortstop, center and behind the plate, right? Those are premium positions. Look, and I’d even say third base for me is premium as well. It’s hard to find third base (defense), you know? I mean I can go through all these positions, but clearly the defense is so important at those spots.”

However, Anthopoulos explained that Harris is aware of how crucial it is for him and the team to fix his offense. “ But look, Mike knows. I mean, it’s been streaky the last few years, right? So ‘24, he comes back, has that great series with the Giants and was arguably our best hitter the last two months of the year into the two games of postseason against San Diego. And then the first half of the (2025) season, what happened to him and then he had to make adjustments and so on. I think what gets tough, it’s being a consistent great player. Those are normally the Hall of Famers, right? He doesn’t want that inconsistency. We clearly don’t want that inconsistency. We’re trying to solve it. He’s trying to solve it. Now, as long as he plays elite defense in center field, you know, it’s easier to handle that.”

This led Alex Anthopoulos to, unprompted, bring up Nick Allen and how Atlanta’s plan was to leave him in the #9 spot of the order and rely on the rest of the offense to fuel the run-scoring. The comparison that Anthopoulos gave was catcher Martin Maldonado with the Houston Astros, who hit .186/.271/.338 from 2019 to 2023. Despite the anemic bat, his defense and gamecalling were strong, and the rest of Houston’s lineup powered the Astros to three World Series appearances (winning in 2022) with four division titles in his five seasons.

The weakness in this strategy is obvious if you watched the 2025 Atlanta Braves struggle offensively in the first half, something Anthopoulos admitted. “ Now the issue is if those other eight aren’t performing the way you hoped or expected or struggling or have injuries and so on, it puts that much more pressure on the lineup. So I think what it reaffirmed to us is, to the best of our abilities, try to stack that lineup one through nine.”

Let’s see what Alex Anthopoulos and the new manager, whoever that may be, can accomplish this winter.

1. Ronald Acuña Jr & Eli White are both right-handed hitting outfielders, while Jurickson Profar is a switch-hitter. I personally think Atlanta has the room to add a starting-caliber outfielder, but have not personally specified that hitter needs to be right-handed.