Atlanta Braves To Make The Playoffs in 2016? John Hart Doesn’t Think So

On Monday afternoon, the Atlanta Braves President of Baseball Operations John Hart, General Manager John Coppolella, and Manager Fredi Gonzalez held an end-of-season interview with members of the media in Gonzalez’s office.  Many topics were discussed during the meeting, but one topic was the 2016 season.

The Braves ended the 2015 season on Sunday with a 67-95 record.  That’s their worst record since the 1990 season when they finished the season with a 65-97 record.

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This marks the second straight year where the Braves ended with a losing record.  Hopefully the run of under .500 records won’t be as bad as the Braves were from 1984-1990 where they had seven consecutive seasons with an under .500 record.

The second half of 2015 was unacceptable and the Braves front office knows this.  After all the transactions the Braves made in the offseason, in the back of our minds we all knew this was going to be a rebuilding season…though few of us admitted it.

2016 will be different…claims the head honchos of the Braves.  But how different?

Rebuilding the bullpen is the first priority and getting a boost to the offense is second.  The Braves probably won’t be spending too much for the 2016 season with the main focus on the 2017 season as they move into the new ballpark in Cobb County.

With the combination of improvements, but not major ones and the prospects they traded for still developing either in the minors or majors, don’t expect the Braves to make the playoffs in 2016.

During the meeting with the media on Monday, Hart mentions 15-20 more wins is what they will try to accomplish in 2016.  That means an 82-80 or 87-75 range.  To predict a win total a day after the season ends is impossible.  But what it does tell me is that the Braves, Hart and Coppolella will try to be competitive and sign some potential free agents.

Are those numbers exciting to think about?  No, not really.  But Hart could have thrown any number of games out there based on where the Braves are at on October 5th (yesterday he said this).

He wants and expects the Braves to get better and that’s something we should be excited about.
Here are a few quotes from David O’Brien’s article, who attended this event

"“We know that there’s some limitations that we have offensively, as we sit here today,” Hart said. “But we think we can make progress offensively. We can make significant improvements within our pitching.”“How does that translate? Does that translate to another 15 wins, 20 wins? Maybe. Then you look up and you might have a trade deadline that might be totally different, if we’re sitting there at .500 and five games out. We might be in a completely different situation as we go forward. We’ll not have the financial limitations that we’ve had.”“I don’t think we’re Pollyana, where we look up and we’re going to immediately be a 100-win club. No, that’s not going to happen in ’16. We feel we’re going to be significantly better going into 2016 than we were going into 2015.”"