With J.T. Realmuto saga over, what’s next for the Atlanta Braves?

The long-awaited trade of the Marlins catcher did not include the Atlanta Braves, so now where does the team go from here?

Many Atlanta Braves fans are currently in mourning while many more are throwing things about their offices or places of residence with the news that J.T. Realmuto was traded today – to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Not only did he not come to the Atlanta Braves, he went to a direct division rival.

Plenty have begun the “sky is falling” and “2019 is over already” discussions on social media, so that certainly doesn’t need to be done, especially after hearing that perhaps General Manager Alex Anthopoulos knew what he was doing:

So, Anthopoulos made all of the prospects available, but that apparently meant to the Marlins that they would receive all of the prospects for Realmuto, and talking down from that point wasn’t happening.

So where do the Atlanta Braves go from here?

The team could simply stay pat. The 40-man roster includes depth at every position in a rare manner in recent Braves history, allowing the team to absorb any injuries to their top guys without seeing a significant drop-off. This is a model Anthopoulos’ predecessor, the Dodgers, has used well over the last half-decade, rarely having a superstar player on offense and really having Clayton Kershaw as their primary “star” overall, but creating so much depth that the team has no problem absorbing the loss of any one particular player.

There are still plenty of moves to potentially be made before the end of spring training. Remember that the team acquired Anibal Sanchez last year during spring training, and there are plenty of players who will find themselves in a roster crunch somewhere that could make sense as a bullpen or bench piece if the need appears in Spring Training.

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• Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 6-10

Of course, the big move is still possible as well, though whether the funds are or not is in question. Last season’s trades with Baltimore and Cincinnati that acquired

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, added roughly $7.5 million to the 2018 salary structure. With an incredible upcoming free agent class and many of those free agents on current “bubble” competitive teams, the team could want to retain $10-15 million of the budget for midseason deals.

Regardless, many are ready to see the “big money” move right now – signing Craig Kimbrel, Bryce Harper, or even Manny Machado. The typical comments from those discussing such moves with the current budget available is to somehow convince another team to take on all of the salary of veterans Julio Teheran ($11+ million in 2019), Darren O’Day ($9 million), and/or Ender Inciarte ($5.7 million) to make salary room to make that big signing.

That would definitely reduce the depth of the roster in order to bring in one “big name” guy, but whether it would bring about any additional value over having the depth of retaining those players (and the likely prospects that would need to accompany them in a deal in order to move their salary) for 2019.

In short, what do the Atlanta Braves do next? I honestly don’t know, but the current team as constructed is deep enough to withstand whatever comes its way, and that is something the rest of the division currently cannot say, so before worrying about “paper championships”, let’s give those in the front office credit where credit is due in the work they’ve already done on this Braves roster and know that they aren’t done, either.