Atlanta's Offseason Focus May Have Completely Changed

The Atlanta Braves, if Ha-Seong Kim picks up his 2026 player option, just completely changed their winter

Around a month ago, it was pretty clear what Atlanta needed to do this winter - find a shortstop, a starting pitcher, and a closer at a minimum. Thankfully, they were able to scratch off adding another outfielder, one capable of playing centerfield if needed, and a middle infielder that could play second base off the list thanks to the second-half surges of Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies.

(I still wouldn’t mind grabbing someone who can play one (or both) of those spots, but it’s not a priority.)

But now things have changed, thanks to the addition of waiver claim Ha-Seong Kim on Monday. Assuming he opts into his 2026 player option (which is likely but not guaranteed), Atlanta’s offseason just became a lot more straightforward, without the need to enter a terribly priced long-term deal for Bo Bichette or trade away multiple prospects for a veteran bridge player like J.P. Crawford or Trevor Story.

Let’s talk about it.

Pitching is likely the major need

Notice how I didn’t say starting or relief pitching, because they need all of it.

The Braves made the postseason in 2024 on the strength of one of MLB’s best rotations. Atlanta starters put up a 3.58 ERA, third in baseball and behind only that of Seattle (3.38) and Kansas City (3.55), two teams that play in more pitcher-friendly ballparks than Atlanta’s Truist Park.

But this season, injuries have prevented that from repeating. All five Opening Day starters not only spent time on the injured list, but missed at least two months on the 60-day. I like to use the stat about Atlanta using between 10 and 13 conventional starters every season of the past four when I talk about the rotation. This season, the Braves are already at 14 (plus three different openers).

Even with the news of Reynaldo López wanting to stay in the rotation versus the seemingly strong desire among the fanbase to install him as the closer and the emergence of Hurston Waldrep, starting pitching is still needed. AJ Smith-Shawver (Tommy John surgery) and Grant Holmes (attempting rehab of a UCL tear) are likely not options to start 2026. Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, and Spencer Schwellenbach have all spent time on the injured list this season, although both Schwellenbach’s (fractured elbow) and Sale’s (fractured ribcage) injuries are somewhat fluky versus something that should either linger or recur.

Grabbing one or even two starters from the plethora of options available this winter should give Atlanta enough depth to make it through a season, barring a 10th percentile outcome (five starters on the 60-day IL) like they had this year.

Relief pitching’s in a similar place. Atlanta’s attempt to capitalize on the year-to-year fungibility of relievers by grabbing a bunch of replacement-level guys hasn’t worked. They’ve gotten decent performances out of a few of them, but who from the giant mass of minor league signings last winter is still around?

In fact, several of Atlanta’s most promising new additions weren’t from that group, either being internal prospect promotions or trade acquisitions during the season.

Yes, it’s nice to get Rolddy Muñoz and Hayden Harris their MLB debuts this year versus in a competitive 2026 season. No, they can’t as of now be counted on to hold down meaningful bullpen roles all year.

I’d argue that Atlanta’s bullpen, while not as bad as much of Braves Country has made it out to be, hasn’t exactly been an asset this season. They spent too long cycling through marginal relievers before they found options that seemingly worked in middle relief - trade acquisition Tyler Kinley, former prospect Dylan Dodd, and 28-year-old Daysbel Hernández.¹

But some sort of experienced setup man and/or closer is needed. Maybe that’s re-signing Raisel Iglesias, or it’s grabbing one of the many promising backend options on the market this winter. (Grae went over some of those options last week). Grabbing one free agent (let’s assume it’s a closer) would potentially give you this bullpen next season:

FA CLOSER
Joe Jiménez
Dylan Lee
Pierce Johnson
Tyler Kinley
Daysbel Hernández
Dylan Dodd
Joey Wentz (long/swing)

Atlanta could trade Aaron Bummer (and his $9.5M salary for 2026) and still have three lefties in Lee, Dodd, and Wentz in the pen.

See how one signing plus the return of Jiménez from his knee injury can answer a lot of questions about the pen?

Upgrading the offense shouldn’t be ignored

While I don’t think the offense needs to be the focus anymore, given the resurgence of Harris, Profar, and Albies combined with the acquisition of Kim, I do think there’s one or two areas that could be addressed.

The first is utilizing the flexibility of an open designated hitter spot by adding another starting-caliber option in the outfield. Both Jurickson Profar and Ronald Acuña Jr. have defensive and/or injury concerns that could be somewhat mitigated by putting each one in the DH spot on occasion.

This is another area where Alex Anthopoulos has already started to look at options by acquiring Jake Fraley off waivers last month. While he’s not a no-doubt starter, hitting just .248 for his career, he does provide a lot of the individual components you’d need from a starting corner outfielder: Speed (61 career steals), on-base ability (career .334 OBP & a 10.4% walk rate), and just enough defense (+3 OAA for his career in the corners). Fraley’s has one final year of arbitration before hitting free agency in 2027, although if he impresses either down the stretch this year or early next season, a short extension to keep him out of the free agent market during a potential lockout would likely be welcomed.

The Braves also have Eli White, who is still under team control through 2028, as well as prospect Carlos Rodriguez and former major leaguer Connor Capel in Gwinnett. It’s likely they at least “kick the tires” on both free agent and trade options this winter, similar to reports from the trade deadline that they discussed Byron Buxton with the Minnesota Twins.

Another area is utility infielder, understanding that all non-Matt Olson options around the diamond have missed significant time due to injury in the last two seasons. This is another area where the open designated hitter spot gives Atlanta flexibility to get a bat into the lineup on a frequent basis while waiting for injury to open up an everyday spot.

There are several options in free agency, from Willi Castro, Dylan Moore, Amed Rosario, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Jorge Mateo.

But having Nick Allen on the bench also allows the Braves the flexibility of getting a really great hitter that can’t necessarily hang as the replacement shortstop if Kim goes down; worst-case scenario, they can play Allen at short and utilize pinch-hitters late in games, like they’ve done this season. Would second baseman Brandon Lowe, who has backed off of playing corner outfield in recent years but also has 154 career homers, fit in Atlanta?

This all depends on money

As I discussed back when we broke down Atlanta’s payroll, there’s a lot of moving parts here. Does Atlanta want to get back to 2023 salary levels, where they were just barely below the third luxury tax tier? That’d give them around $62M available to spend on salary and tax combined once accounting for Kim’s 2026 salary. If they’re just willing to get back to the CBT threshold, that’s roughly $25M available. If they only want to repeat this season’s payroll? Well, Kim would account for almost all of that.

But if I was designing a realistic offseason for Atlanta, one where they extended into the CBT but not to the third tier, and attempted to address all of these areas, it might look like this (all player salaries roughly derived from Spotrac market valuations):

SP: Zac Gallen, 1/20M w/ $22M club option for 2027
RP: Gregory Soto, 2/15M ($7.5M AAV)
OF: Fraley and/or White
IF: Kim, 1/16M
UTIL: Jorge Mateo, 2/5M ($2.5M AAV)

See how hard this gets? I gave myself $50M there and still couldn’t fill all the spots, spending $46M and not addressing the outfield with an external add and not adding an additional bat for the infield, just a light-hitting utilityman.

You can play around with this and it usually comes across the same - something gets left out. Let’s prioritize adding a bat and a starter, seeing what’s left after that.

IF/DH: Brandon Lowe, 3/45M ($15M AAV)
RP: Hunter Harvey, 1/7M w/ $10M club option for 2027
UTIL: Allen and/or Eli White
OF: Fraley and/or White
SP: Ranger Suarez, 5/135M ($27M AAV)

That’s $49M and we didn’t add utility or outfield coverage, relying on internal options there. You can probably save a bit on the bat if you grab an outfielder, as that supply is just more, but you get the idea here.

The more Atlanta can do via trades, the more options they give themselves this winter. Because filling every need is very difficult (and expensive) in free agency, and it’s incredibly likely that all of these values here end up being under what the player actually gets.

But by adding Kim, they’ve gone a long way towards starting to put the puzzle pieces together, because that was the hardest one to find of them all.

1. And Luke Williams, who is sporting a 3.00 ERA on the season.