The Braves head into the offseason with some real breathing room on paper, but not nearly as much as the raw free-agent number suggests.
Atlanta has a long list of players hitting free agency, and the money attached to that group is significant. The club’s 2027 free agents include Ha-Seong Kim at $20 million, Raisel Iglesias at $16 million, Joe Jimenez at $9 million, Mauricio Dubon at $6.1 million, Martin Perez at $3 million, Tyler Mahle at $2 million, Lane Thomas at $1.5 million, Dominic Smith at $1.25 million, Brent Suter at $350k and Rowdy Tellez at $200k. Altogether, that comes to $59.4 million off the books.
That sounds like a windfall, and in one sense it is. Alex Anthopoulos will have money to work with. But the Braves are also carrying salary increases for players already under contract, and those bumps add up to $25 million.
Once that’s all accounted for, Atlanta is sitting at roughly $35 million to spend if payroll stays flat. That number could grow if the team avoids a salary cap, but the looming MLB lockout leaves that part of the picture cloudy until a new CBA is settled.
The bigger problem for the Braves is that two contracts are already weighing them down. Jurickson Profar is still owed $15 million even after not earning anything during his suspension this season, and the expectation is that he may never play for Atlanta again after two separate PED suspensions. With no obvious trade market, the Braves may have to absorb the full cost just to move on.
Spencer Strider is the other major drag on the books. He’s due $22 million while injured and ineffective, and Atlanta is expected to explore trade possibilities aggressively. Even so, finding a buyer could be a long shot, and the most realistic outcome may be the Braves eating a significant portion of the deal to create room.
That’s where the offseason really begins for Atlanta: trying to patch a roster with holes while working with limited flexibility. Roughly $35 million can only stretch so far, and unless ownership is willing to spend well beyond that, Anthopoulos is facing a tough task.
In Other News...
Ronald Acuna Jr. Is Suddenly At Center Of A Braves Debate
Ronald Acua Jr.s recent postseason was a frustrating one, with his offense falling quiet in both the NLDS and the Wild Card rounds. For a player who has long sat at the center of Atlantas identity, that kind of October stretch naturally gets magnified, especially when the Braves are already navigating the kind of winter questions that come with another early exit.
Even so, any discussion around Acua is bigger than one rough postseason, because his contract situation gives Atlanta a layer of control that teams rarely enjoy with a star of his caliber. The debate now is less about what he has meant to the Braves than what his long-term place should look like as the organization weighs its options heading into the offseason. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Prospects Got A Brief AFL Chance To Show Something Monday
Only one of the three scheduled Arizona Fall League games got on the field Monday, and even that one was trimmed to seven innings, but it still gave a couple of Braves prospects a quick stage in a 6-2 Scottsdale Scorpions win over the Glendale Desert Dogs. For Atlanta, any Fall League action matters, especially when so much of the schedule can get squeezed by weather or other delays, because those extra innings and extra at-bats are part of why these assignments exist in the first place.
Isaiah Drake got the start in left field for Glendale before being pinch-hit for in the sixth inning, and Owen Carey took over in left to finish the game. In a day with limited chances around the league, both got a brief look in the outfield, the kind of small but useful exposure the Braves can still track as the Fall League moves along. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Offseason Pressure Is Building As Contreras Regret Grows
Alex Anthopoulos is already laying the groundwork for an important Braves offseason, and the biggest decisions are starting to stack up before the winter even formally begins. One area drawing attention is Jurickson Profar, whose future is set to come up in internal discussions soon as Atlanta sorts through its roster priorities and evaluates where it wants to spend its energy after the season.
There is also a clear sense that the Braves want to move quickly on some familiar faces once the World Series ends, using the exclusive negotiating window to try to keep Mauricio Dubon and Tyler Mahle in the fold. All of it sits against the backdrop of the William Contreras trade to Milwaukee, a move that still lingers for Atlanta as Contreras continues his playoff run and gives the Braves another reminder of what they gave up. [Read more 🡒]