Atlanta Braves Camp Chop: Thoughts on Harper and the Philles

Looks like the Phillies might get their wish… potential Braves’ implications are involved.

While the Atlanta Braves continue to sit idly on the sidelines and watch this episode of Kabuki Theater continue to play out in Las Vegas, agent Scott Boras may end up getting his wish… step 20-ish in his Manual For Free Agency Profit is underway:  “get the owner involved.”

John Middleton is the managing partner of the Philadelphia Phillies ownership group.  Wikipedia’s latest reckoning is that he holds a 48% ownership stake in the Phillies and that his philanthropy endeavors are focused on ‘ending homelessness’.

It seems that this weekend he may be focused on the attempt to spend a lot of stupid money to provide Bryce Harper with a new home.

This is not nearly a done deal, but there are probable implications for Atlanta – and Philadelphia, of course.  Let’s talk about some of them:

• Media reports – from way back in this free agency season – have consistently suggested that Harper doesn’t prefer Philadelphia.
• That makes things tougher on Scott Boras (insert sound of tiny violins playing a lament for him), since he is almost forced to keep the Phils interested to have any market for Harper at all… it’s essentially that club and the Padres now, with San Diego being the less enthusiastic of the pair.
• If the Phillies manage to sway him about life in Pennsylvania, that could be the end of spending for them… which leaves Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel in a position of having to take whatever scraps might still be on the table.
• I still have to believe that the Braves are waiting for the price of one of these players to drop – with Kimbrel being the most likely.
• The frustrating part for the fans is that the Braves are apparently convinced that the bullpen is good enough without him.  That might be, but recent history suggests that teams with deep bullpens are the ones that win in the playoffs.

I’m sorry – I’ll stop there… I’m still beating my dead horses again, aren’t I?

On Field Threats

If the Phillies do end up with Harper, this is what their position player starting 8 would look like:

• OF – McCutchen / Herrera / Harper
• INF – ??? / J Segura / Cesar Hernandez / Hoskins
• C – Realmuto

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves Acquire Lewin Diaz from the Orioles
• Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 6-10
• Braves News: Giving the bullpen some love, Trevor Bauer reinstated, more
• Atlanta Braves: Which offseason moves have other NL East teams made?
• Show the bullpen some love

The question mark is for Maikel Franco at third base.  Something that might have flown under the radar on Thursday was that the Phils signed Trevor Plouffe to a minor league deal.  If either Franco or Kingery flounder this Spring, Plouffe could step in to one of their roles.

None of this trio is likely to be a game-changer, but all could benefit from having McCutchen, Harper, Hoskins and Realmuto in the same lineup together.

In other words, their offense could be just as strong as what the Braves have put together.

We’ll look at that more closely when we launch our NL East positional rankings series (“soon™”), but in the meantime, we’ll stall on this topic a bit while we see when the player who lives in Vegas chooses to leave Vegas… and in which direction.

So We Start ‘Games’ Today

It’s still odd that the mandatory reporting date for position players was the 21st, given that games start today – just 2 days later.  Still, we aren’t aware of anyone reporting later than Monday of this week, so at least the team figured out that an early start would be helpful.

So far, the only injury known is that of Mike Soroka‘s balky shoulder, though we haven’t seen/heard of how Dansby Swanson‘s repaired wrist is treating him.

With a 2 hour bus ride for the traveling squad – and beat writers beating along behind that bus – there won’t be a lot of new news until the game happens, so we’ll have to wait out both of those stories.