Did the Braves Move Too Quickly on Starting Pitching?

With the starting pitchers being traded, we wonder if the Atlanta Braves might have jumped the gun on the starting pitching market this offseason.

There was a lot of excitement for the Atlanta Braves in the early going of this offseason when they signed Drew Smyly and Charlie Morton for a combined $26 million.

And honestly, that was exactly what the Braves needed — a couple of veterans to help stabilize the rotation and add depth.

But now looking at what the San Diego Padres have done in acquiring Blake Snell and Yu Darvish, you can’t help but wonder if Alex Anthopoulos pulled the trigger too soon.

I know his m.o. as GM for the Braves has been to go after the guys he wants early, and that’s exactly what he did with Smyly and Morton.

However, with the weirdness of this offseason, it might have been best to see how things were going to play out.

I’m not sure if at that time we knew starters like Snell, Darvish, and Sonny Gray would be available in trades.

We have to also keep in mind that AA has preferred free-agent signings rather than making big trades, and I don’t know that the Braves could have matched what the Padres gave up for Snell or Darvish — especially Snell.

As I keep saying over-and-over again, the farm system for Atlanta is very thin in the lower levels.

But I think if you ask most Braves fans if they’d rather have acquired Snell and Darvish or Morton and Smyly this offseason, the answer would have been obvious.

Especially when you consider the team control both Darvish and Snell have at a reasonable cost — they’ll both combine to make $33.1 million in 2021.

Again, there is no guarantee the Braves could have gotten those guys, but we kind of took ourselves out of the race early by signing Smyly and Morton.

I’m still very happy and confident in the starting rotation we have, but I hope we don’t look back on this offseason and wonder what could have been if AA had been a little more patient.