Nationals World Series championship shows Braves aren’t far off
With the Washington Nationals winning the 2019 World Series, it shows that the Atlanta Braves are far off from doing the same.
It’s never fun watching a division rival like the Washington Nationals win a World Series while the Atlanta Braves are sitting on the couch.
But if you’re going take anything positive out of the Nationals winning the World Series, is that it shows that the Braves have what it takes to do the exact same thing.
The Braves proved during the course of the regular season that they are a better team than the Nationals.
Now, both teams were playing at a completely different level in the postseason. But still, the Braves were 11-8 against the World Series champions this year.
And that includes going 5-2 against them in September to put the NL East away.
At the same time, it stings as a Braves fan knowing this team was good enough to win a World Series when at full strength.
But looking towards the future, hopefully this team now believes they have what it takes to win a World Series after watching a team they beat all year get it done.
As Alan Carpenter pointed out in this article, the foundation of the Braves is really built the same as the Houston Astros and Nationals.
They have a young core of players they’ve developed through the draft and international signings, and a solid group of contributors they got in one-sided trades.
The only difference is that the Astros and Nationals made the big trades and spent big money when they knew it was time to go for it all.
We’ve yet to really see the Braves do that with AA.
The Astros finished 2019 seventh in team payroll at over $168 million, and the Nationals were right behind them at with just over $168 million as well.
Meanwhile, the Braves finished just above league average at $137 million.
That was still a big number for the Braves, and they did make some high dollar moves (Josh Donaldson, Dallas Keuchel, Mark Melancon) in order to go for it in 2019.
But if they are going to take that next step with this young core, they may have to spend a little more.
They need at least one more top of the rotation starter, and they have to either re-sign Donaldson or get another big bat for the lineup.
That’s not too much to ask for a chance to win a World Series, right?
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We’ll see what AA and the front office can do this offseason. But they have a team that is capable of doing big things with a little more help.