2020 Atlanta Braves: Four lessons learned
A great season for the Atlanta Braves came up short, but this club isn’t done.
The Atlanta Braves will start over again in 2021, and hopefully will do so with even higher expectations… and perhaps a full season to work with?
We expected this team to compete well in 2020, to perhaps win the division despite multiple obstacles, and to hopefully get through at least one playoff round. They did all that and more.
Still, there are things we’ve learned from 2020 that can be used to refuel this club for the next foray in 2021… hopefully, Alex Anthopoulos and Brian Snitker can work their magic to get another World Series contender — and winner — for next year and beyond.
4. Pitching Matters
There are so many ways we could break this category down, but the bottom line is that the Atlanta Braves did everything they possibly could do in the playoffs to provide quality pitching despite the limited resources available.
Arguably, what this staff did was enough — but it was a high-wire act of Wallenda proportions that made it happen. Who could have guessed the kinds of results that were turned in by Bryse Wilson, A.J. Minter, and Huascar Ynoa?
That scenario can’t be repeated (or at the very least, that can’t be the main plan of action)… the Braves need five reliable mound options in their starting rotation. But despite that declaration, it’s actually plausible that 2020’s rotation scramble-fest could be repeated.
3 names have emerged: Mike Soroka, Max Fried, and Ian Anderson. But getting more stable-mates to go with them (Wright? Wilson? Foltynewicz? Newcomb? Others?) is going to be a challenge.
One of the reasons we were all begging for the Braves to make a deadline deal was because this year’s free-agent class is so weak.
While Mike Clevinger broke down for the Padres, they at least still have him for two more years of control. This Winter, the options start with Trevor Bauer, then a large gap, then maybe Marcus Stroman, then… a lot of 3-5 slot guys.
We all saw the results of being undermanned this season, but a fix for this problem in 2021 is going to be difficult to accomplish.