Atlanta Braves podcast S2E25: let’s get back to the future

If you like what Alex Anthopoulos did for the Atlanta Braves at the trade deadline, you might really like these moves — and more — come this Winter.

Remember this when we get to December:  the Atlanta Braves acquired four new major league outfielders this Summer at the trade deadline.

When we peruse the list of possible free-agent outfielders that might be available this Winter, the names are… largely underwhelming.

So if the Braves had chosen to either pass on extra outfield help or just stick with a couple of options, things would still be a bit light for their OF roster come next Spring.

But now they have options.  Lots of options.  Alex Anthopoulos pretty much cornered the market on the outfield and they now have first dibs on retaining everyone on their roster.

How many?  Allow me to refresh your memory:

• Joc Pederson
• Jorge Soler
• Adam Duvall
• Eddie Rosario
• Abraham Almonte
• Guillermo Heredia
• Travis Demeritte (minors)
• Ehire Adrianza (yeah, he’s supposed to be an infielder, but glad we’ve had him)

…and that doesn’t even count Cristian Pache, Drew Waters (both at Gwinnett), and the arrested guy… who we’re guessing won’t matter anyway.

Are all of these players in the category of “impact players”?  No, but eventually, we’ll get Ronald Acuna Jr. back in 2022 (around the All-Star break) and he’s certainly in that rare group.

But almost all of them are veteran major leaguers who can contribute immediately to a team — as we’ve seen.

The real point here is that for clubs needing outfield help this Winter… they won’t have very many options, because Atlanta may already have the best ones snagged… or at the very least, we’ll have some choices.

We talk about the current makeup of the roster and some projections for 2022, including a discussion about some of the things that Anthopoulos may have tried to do in July… and might very well revisit in the off-season.

You too, have options:  this podcast can be heard with the built-in player (below) or via this handy download link for consumption at your leisure.

If you’re a podcast aficionado, then your favorite subscription site probably already has it ready to go as well… heck:  I see a bunch of y’all already had it downloaded before we even had a chance to promote it here!

Regardless:  we thank you for taking some time to hear our extended thoughts on these subjects — it’s handy for us to do so in a format that allows us to express ourselves more freely than the written word can afford.

As always:  Go Braves!