This Sunday marks the beginning of the annual Winter Meetings for Major League Baseball. The four-day long gathering of front office members, agents and some players is a major event that takes place each offseason and it’ll be taking place in Dallas in the Lone Star State this year. Sometimes the meetings come and go without much to talk about that’s actually newsworthy but sometimes you hear about John Coppolella having lunch with Dave Stewart and the Atlanta Braves end up trading for Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte. When you get that many movers and shakers in MLB in the same area for that long, something’s usually going to happen.
As far as baseball’s offseason goes, it’s been another relatively slow start. The big domino of Juan Soto’s free agency decision has yet to fall but word on the street is that it could happen at some point next week. If that’s the case, then the Winter Meetings could be the backdrop for pushing any potential Soto deal towards the finish line. I’d imagine that once Soto signs his mega-deal that we’ll start to see the rest of the market get active — or at least make sure the Dodgers aren’t the ones snapping up everybody else out there.
With that being said, the Braves have been a bit busy since the season ended. While the Dodgers were still nursing hangovers from their World Series celebrations, the Braves made the first trade of the offseason by sending Jorge Soler (and the $26 million that they still owed him over the next two seasons) to the Angels in exchange for Griffin Canning. I made sure to mention the money because Griffin Canning is no longer with the Braves after the (non-)tender deadline came and went. Ramón Laureano and Huascar Ynoa are also free agents as well.
Speaking of free agents, Max Fried is on the market after declining the Qualifying Offer of one year and $21.05 million from the Braves and while a reunion would make sense for both parties, it really wouldn’t be particularly shocking if Max Fried found a new uniform to pitch in for 2025 and beyond. Reunions with A.J. Minter and Charlie Morton would also make sense as well but time will tell if that’ll happen in the future.
Those reunions make sense because those are the biggest positions of “need” for the Braves right now. I added the scare quotes because the Braves are in a pretty good place as far as their roster goes. For the sake of a refresher, here’s what ZiPS had them looking like back in late-November:
With stars Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider both expected to be late to the early-season party due to their respective injuries and Joe Jiménez looking likely to miss most of (if not all of) the entire upcoming season, it seems like it’s pretty safe to assume where the Braves need to fortify their roster. A middle-of-the-rotation starting pitcher would be golden, an outfield bat would be nice, an improvement at shortstop would be a massive bonus and they could probably do with some additions to the bullpen as well. Other than that, there aren’t too many serious holes for the Braves to worry about filling and hopefully we’ll at least hear about what Atlanta’s going to do to when it comes to strengthening their roster going forward.
Earlier in the offseason, the Braves were linked to Walker Buehler and Nathan Eovaldi, so we at least have a bit of an idea that the Braves are indeed looking to shore up their rotation. They’ve also been rumored to be linked to Willy Adames but that’s only because of the fact that an improvement at shortstop makes all the sense in the world for the Braves. It’s just the fact that Atlanta hasn’t really been known to make huge free agency splashes with Alex Anthopoulos at the helm (preferring to make their splashes via trades and/or contract extensions) which really makes it a bit tough to believe that the Braves may be in on Adames. Still, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if the Braves do eventually find themselves seriously pursuing any of the aforementioned options, with starting pitching being the most likely and pressing need that should be addressed.
In addition to potential wheeling and dealing, there’s the usual happenings at the Winter Meetings. The results of the Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era will be revealed and we’ll know by Sunday night if any of Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris, Tommy John, Dave Parker and Luis Tiant will have their tickets punched for a trip to Cooperstown immortality.
The MLB Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, December 10 and while the Braves aren’t involved, we will know where they’ll be drafting once this is finished. The Rockies and Marlins currently have the top odds of landing the first overall pick at 22.45 percent. The White Sox aren’t eligible for the lottery despite having endured the worst season in the modern era of baseball. Hoo boy.
The Rule 5 Draft will be held on Wednesday, December 11. The Braves added Domingo Gonzalez to their 40-man roster in order to protect him but other than that, they’ve left some prospects open to potentially getting snapped up in the Rule 5 Draft. It’s not likely but it’s possible!
