Did the Atlanta Braves go wrong on the rebuild?

Here we are in the 2020 season and the Atlanta Braves rebuild is long gone.

Yet, the Atlanta Braves are still seemingly lacking in the starting pitching department.

Certain things are out of control — like the injuries to Mike Soroka and Cole Hamels this season — but besides Soroka and Max Fried, hardly any of the young prized pitching prospects the Atlanta Braves had in the system have panned out so far.

Certainly, it’s still too early to really evaluate their future and it’s too early to give up on them now.

However, it’s still hard not to look at how other teams handled their recent rebuilds and how they are succeeding now.

• The Cubs went after bats, to begin with, and then let the arms come to the organization by trade’s or free agency.
• The Houston Astros did much of the same when they collected bats through trades and the draft, then turned around and used prospects and money to acquire the likes of Gerrit Cole, Zack Grienke, and Justin Verlander.

Both teams have won a World Series in the last half-decade.

Now of course, it is not fair to sit here and say that the Atlanta Braves have a terrible lineup and should have got more hitters. Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna, and Ozzie Albies should carry this lineup for years to come (lock Freddie up now!).

I think the mistake was made when the Atlanta Braves sort of seemed hesitant to trade away some of these young pitching prospects to acquire proven veteran starters. We all know that prospects bust more likely than they boom…especially when they are pitchers.

My stance has always been take the proven commodity. The Atlanta Braves had enough prospect currency at any given time over the last 3 or 4 years where they could have moved some of them and still had a good amount of arms left in the system.

The fear of losing always outweighs the gain of winning. A motto that’s been said and seems true that the Atlanta Braves were afraid to move some of these young arms in fear of losing a future ace. Sometimes you gotta gamble.

On the bright side, pitchers like Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson, Tucker Davidson, and a few others can still make their career’s great and become a very great 1-5 with Mike Soroka and Max Fried.

Let’s hope that’s the case and it’s a while before we see anything close pitching-wise to the way this 2020 season has gone thus far.