Braves News Rundown: Awards galore, Jacob deGrom, Hall of Fame, more
By Eric Cole
If you are looking for Atlanta Braves news from yesterday, the biggest source of it came from the announcement of the BBWAA awards finalists on Monday evening where the Braves were very well represented.
The night (for the Braves at least) began with Max Fried being named a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award. This was a tough field to start with and the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara feels like a heavy favorite to win given the insane season he had, but it is nice to see Max getting some love.
Next came the Manager of the Year candidates where Braves manager Brian Snitker got some much deserved love as a finalist. Coming back from being double digit games down to a Mets team that really didn’t lose much is a hard thing thing to pull off. That Snit was able to keep the Braves pushing for as long as he did deserves some acknowledgement.
Finally, we have the Rookie of the Year awards where, to the surprise of no one. Michael Harris and Spencer Strider were both named finalists. We think Harris is probably the favorite given how these awards have been voted historically and the fact that Strider missed some time late, but this could be a close one.
More Braves News
Elsewhere in the Braves-o-sphere, the Contemporary Era ballot for the Hall of Fame was announced. In the field of eight names on the ballot were Dale Murphy and Fred McGriff who both have intriguing cases for induction.
On site, we also had some arguments for and against some free agent options for the Braves. Trea Turner appears to be a very tempting option to replace Dansby Swanson if the Braves are unable to bring him back. However, despite some of the smoke surrounding his desire to come to Atlanta, Jacob deGrom may not be as great a fit as some may think.
Finally, Matt Olson gets some love for his work as a Braves in 2022. He had some big shoes to fill and it wasn’t always easy going, but Olson proved his worth by and large and showed signs that he is going to be an important part of the Braves’ future.
MLB News
The biggest news around the league were the BBWAA awards that were mentioned above. If you need a comprehensive look at all of the finalists, you can click right here.
The other interesting tidbit that came out from across the league was regarding Shohei Ohtani. The Angels are a bit of a dumpster fire at the moment despite having two of the best players on planet Earth in Ohtani and Mike Trout on their roster. With Ohtani soon to command a very, very significant contract after his deal with the Angels runs out at the end of 2023, there has been a lot of chatter that he could get traded before then. However, Angels GM Perry Minasian put that to bed for the moment when he very clearly stated that the Angels are not going to trade Ohtani this offseason.