The Winter Meetings are quickly approaching. In just a few days time, the largest offseason gathering in baseball will commence in Dallas.
During the Winter Meetings, there’s always the opportunity for free agent and trade splashes. The Atlanta Braves will be looking to make something happen during that span.
Making something happen requires a game plan – including having a list of your biggest needs in order.
MLB.com’s Mark Bowman discussed the Braves shopping list for the Winter Meetings in a story on Thursday. To keep it simple, he included the need for an outfielder, a starting pitcher a reliever in said order. That doesn’t mean that’s necessarily the Braves’ order of priority, but it’s worth making a note of.
One notable position that was missing was at shortstop. Despite Orlando Arcia being statistically the worst clutch hitter in 2024, this position did not get mentioned in the piece.
With all the speculation since the start of the offseason, it’s interesting to see it not come up as even a footnote. It could mean a few things. The other positions could be a hotter commodity, forcing the Braves to go after them first in order to not lose out on potential upgrades.
While Ken Rosenthal recently wrote that outfielders will likely come later on for them, the same was not said for pitching. Some notable starters are already off the board, including Blake Snell, Luis Severino, Yusei Kikuchi, Frankie Montas, Kyle Hendricks and Matt Boyd. This is only going to grow next week.
Another possibility is they see the writing on the wall and don’t think they’re going to get one of the bigger shortstops. This could be due to their desire to stay under the luxury tax for a year to reset it or there are early signs that the asking price for certain trades is too steep.
A third scenario, which I don’t think is the case but still needs to be mentioned, is the Braves might think they have an in-house option.
They could be ready to roll with Orlando Arica again because of his low salary and see if he bounces back. They might also be ready to see if top position player prospect Nacho Alvarez is ready to give Major League pitching another go. The Braves already acquired shortstop Nick Allen from the then-Oakland Athletics. He hasn’t shown yet that he can handle big-league pitching, but those Triple-A numbers could be enticing enough to give him a go.
In 41 MLB games in 2024, Allen slashed .175/.216/.247 across 105 plate appearances. However, in 81 Triple-A games, he slashed .345/.431/.497 – a staunch difference.
In another scenario, it would be more realistic to take the risk, but after last season’s offensive woes, it’s very risky waiting to find out if Allen is simply a Quad-A ballplayer or not.
To be fair to the reported prioritized positions, there is still merit to them being higher up on the list.
The Braves now have two open holes in the starting rotation, and Spencer Strider isn’t going to be able to fill them by opening day. Even after that, they need the rotation depth. Injuries happen and having experienced options will be valuable. They had to role with No. 2 prospect AJ Smith-Shawver in the Wild Card series because Chris Sale went down at the end of the season.
They’re going to be without all-star right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. as well to start the season and will need someone in left fielder even after he returns. As for the bullpen, setup man Joe Jiminez is going to be out for potentially all of 2025 and there is no guarantee that AJ Minter will re-sign.
There are plenty of gaps to fill, and this is what they decided needs to be taken care of first and foremost. We’ll find out how it’s addressed at the Winter Meetings soon enough.
