Perspective on the Atlanta Braves rebuild

The Atlanta Braves are coming to the end of the third year of their rebuild. Some fans think it should be complete, others say it’s going well. Who’s right?

Twice in the past three weeks I’ve seen fans comment that suggest the Atlanta Braves rebuild is in awful shape. The complaints fall in to four general categories.

1. The trades made were all or mostly bad
2. The kids should have been used sooner
3. The Cubs/Astros did it better and faster

I’ve answered this is comments but for some reason everyone doesn’t read every comment I make. For those who don’t here’s what I’ve said there with more data.

Trades

When John Hart took over the major league team was saddled with bad contracts and players who were going to be free agents following the 2015 season. The minor league system was the worst in the majors with no players on MLB’s top 100 prospect list and few pieces with any projection.

Righting the ship required a bottom up rebuild and Hart promised to do that quickly. To rebuild the quickly the team had to reduce payroll and restock the minors. This process was bound to cause hard feelings among fans who saw favorites leave with no immediate benefit visible on the field.

I didn’t agree with every trade and not every trade was a winner.  So far the trades netted seven players who were first round draft picks.  While Chris Withrow and Aaron Blair have not lived up to that ranking, the value returned is certainly well above average.