Excellent article. I like the idea of adding a contact hitter. But any minor league talent the Braves would give up means that the chances of landing a top flight SP are slim to none. For me, either they go all-in for a stud SP (Ryan, Skubal) or they simply look to the returning wounded (Schwellenbach, Waldrep, Smith-Shawver, Strider) and hope that at least two of them can flourish at some point - which probably wouldn't be this year so we would be looking at '27 or '28 and undoubtedly beyond the Chris Sale era.
Interesting… and thanks for bringing more than the “let’s trade for Skubal” solution circling around. Did any of these people demanding an SP watch the game on Sunday? I’m in the camp (and so far it’s pretty lonely) that Braves need to move existing roster pieces at the trade deadline as well as bring in new guys. I look at the Braves as having 4 components: 1. middle order / run producers; 2. rest of order to get on base, generate some power, 3. SPs and 4. bullpen. The first component is far and away the biggest issue on this team. Braves offense was built for 3-4 guys to thump 30+ HRs and be top 15 in NL slug. They have one guy coming close. That gap has to be filled first. I don’t see how you do that without moving some of the existing roster.
A hard no, IMHO. We already have Harris for this role, and Michael brings more power than this guy. More to the point, no more Boras clients, thank you very much. Strike three: another potential $20m sink hole. A corner outfielder must bring power and in these days, enough power to scare pitchers into a high OBP, too.
AA owes us penance for the reckless Kim signing. Lay off dubious deals in this range. Twenty million is big money, close to the Braves max as well it should be! Only the Olson and Sale caliber potential HOFers should be paid that much. And we certainly don't need a $20m commitment going into an uncertain 2027. At this stage, fiscal hardliners like the Braves need to at least posture readiness to sacrifice half a season or more to win a hard team salary cap.
Excellent article. I like the idea of adding a contact hitter. But any minor league talent the Braves would give up means that the chances of landing a top flight SP are slim to none. For me, either they go all-in for a stud SP (Ryan, Skubal) or they simply look to the returning wounded (Schwellenbach, Waldrep, Smith-Shawver, Strider) and hope that at least two of them can flourish at some point - which probably wouldn't be this year so we would be looking at '27 or '28 and undoubtedly beyond the Chris Sale era.
Interesting… and thanks for bringing more than the “let’s trade for Skubal” solution circling around. Did any of these people demanding an SP watch the game on Sunday? I’m in the camp (and so far it’s pretty lonely) that Braves need to move existing roster pieces at the trade deadline as well as bring in new guys. I look at the Braves as having 4 components: 1. middle order / run producers; 2. rest of order to get on base, generate some power, 3. SPs and 4. bullpen. The first component is far and away the biggest issue on this team. Braves offense was built for 3-4 guys to thump 30+ HRs and be top 15 in NL slug. They have one guy coming close. That gap has to be filled first. I don’t see how you do that without moving some of the existing roster.
A hard no, IMHO. We already have Harris for this role, and Michael brings more power than this guy. More to the point, no more Boras clients, thank you very much. Strike three: another potential $20m sink hole. A corner outfielder must bring power and in these days, enough power to scare pitchers into a high OBP, too.
AA owes us penance for the reckless Kim signing. Lay off dubious deals in this range. Twenty million is big money, close to the Braves max as well it should be! Only the Olson and Sale caliber potential HOFers should be paid that much. And we certainly don't need a $20m commitment going into an uncertain 2027. At this stage, fiscal hardliners like the Braves need to at least posture readiness to sacrifice half a season or more to win a hard team salary cap.
Lindsay, do you think the bad experience Braves are having with HSK would influence the decision of going after a Jung Hoo Lee?
Both Korean players have similar profiles (although Kim's profile has completely gone out the window this season).
Valid shout, although I think they're different enough players and Lee does not have a recent injury he's trying to recover from.