The Braves’ rotation mess has a clear root, and it sits with Alex Anthopoulos.
There’s no denying what Anthopoulos has done well in Atlanta. He helped make the 2021 World Series run possible with his work at that trade deadline.
He locked up younger players in extensions that drew plenty of praise at the time. Even some of the cheap pickups paid off, Tyler Matzek among them.
But when it comes to bringing in starting pitching from outside the organization, that’s been a stubborn blind spot, and it has become a real problem.
Anthopoulos knows the Braves need arms. He said as much earlier this year, before the latest wave of rotation injuries, and strongly suggested he wanted to move early and aggressively on the trade market to fix it.
The issue is not awareness. The issue is how Atlanta values those pitchers.
For all his success, Anthopoulos and his front office keep pricing starting pitching in a way that knocks the Braves out of the conversation before talks really begin. He clearly sees starters as overvalued in free agency and trades, but he does not get to set the market.
That mindset has already narrowed Atlanta’s options. Anthopoulos has shown a willingness to sign starters, but only on short-term deals.
That may feel prudent with the risks pitchers bring, but it wipes out most of the free-agent pool. Most clubs need five starters, and plenty of them are willing to take on longer deals.
The market doesn’t bend because one team wants it to.
Atlanta has felt that limitation for years. Anthopoulos has not signed a rotation arm of real consequence since taking over.
The trade route has produced more, with Chris Sale standing out as the obvious win, but even that was a special case. Atlanta benefited from Sale’s injury history and Boston’s financial situation, and then got some luck when it all worked.
The same pattern shows up in the way Anthopoulos talks about trades. He likes the idea of adding pitchers who can help now and later, which means targeting arms with team control.
On paper, that makes sense. In practice, those pitchers cost a lot, and Anthopoulos has not been willing to pay that price.
When was the last time he made a major trade for an established starting pitcher with team control outside of Sale?
He has absolutely been right on plenty of moves. Matt Olson would not be a Brave without him.
The Raisel Iglesias deal came together at the buzzer and worked out well. The front office has also drafted Drake Baldwin, Michael Harris II, and now Eric Hartman.
But with rotation help, Atlanta keeps trying to play by a market that no one else is really following, except the teams that won’t spend on anyone at all.
That leaves the Braves leaning on shaky pitching depth and unproven young arms. Sometimes that gamble has held up.
Right now, it hasn’t. If Atlanta wants to keep itself in the race, it has to accept a simple truth: it does not get to decide what starting pitching should cost.
In Other News...
Braves Quietly Got Back A Bullpen Arm They May Desperately Need
For most of the season, Atlantas bullpen has looked like one of the clubs quiet advantages, but the last stretch has brought a little more unease. Raisel Iglesias has blown a save, Dylan Lee has had shaky outings and Didier Fuentes is nearing the break, which has made the relief picture feel less settled than it did a few weeks ago.
Into that mix comes Danny Young, the left-hander the Braves have quietly gotten back after his injury layoff. His early work this season has been encouraging enough to give Atlanta another option for mid-to-high-leverage spots against left-handed hitters, and perhaps a way to ease the load on some of the other arms that have been asked to carry more lately. The bigger question is how quickly the Braves lean into that role, and whether Young can turn a useful return into something more than just a temporary fix. [Read more 🡒]
Walt Weiss Decisions Just Cost The Braves A Game They Had Won
The Braves had enough offense to put themselves in position to win, but the game slipped into the kind of extra-inning mess that usually leaves a manager under the microscope. Atlanta scored six runs and still could not finish off the Mets, with the lineups missed chances and a thin bench leaving the club in a difficult spot once the game stretched beyond regulation.
Walt Weiss choices only made the margin for error smaller. The Braves were already navigating a less-than-ideal setup in extras, and the way the bullpen and lineup were handled became a major part of why a game that looked won turned into a loss, even before the final inning had fully played out. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Cant Afford Another Quiet Deadline From Alex Anthopoulos
With the trade deadline approaching, the Braves look like a club that cannot simply sit back and hope the rotation and outfield sort themselves out. ESPNs latest best-fit rundown had Atlanta attached to 17 of the top 25 deadline candidates, which is a pretty clear sign that the market sees a team with real needs and a front office that should be active. Starting pitching remains the obvious priority, and the list of names floating around ranges from Tarik Skubal and Joe Ryan to Sonny Gray, Reid Detmers, Casey Mize, Jose Soriano and Freddy Peralta.
The outfield search is a little murkier, with Taylor Ward looking like the most realistic target if Atlanta wants to add a bat without emptying the system. Shortstop is another area worth watching, but the price tag on the top names would be steep enough to make any deal complicated fast. For Alex Anthopoulos, the pressure is less about making a splash than avoiding another deadline that leaves the roster looking almost exactly the same when the dust settles. [Read more 🡒]