This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it recurrently in your inbox.
In the event you had Chris Sale and Jarred Kelenic in your Braves offseason bingo card, you then should be Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos.
Despite the fact that historical past had taught us to anticipate not less than one Anthopoulos offseason shock, no person was anticipating Kelenic and Sale would find yourself filling the Braves’ high offseason wants. There’s definitely some danger and uncertainty connected to each gamers.
However Atlanta didn’t dip into its prospect capital or take any long-term monetary dangers to achieve a few high-ceiling gamers. As groups have been keen to take a decade-long danger to get high free brokers the previous two winters, Anthopoulos has skillfully strengthened his roster with out probably burdening the workforce’s long-term payroll projections.
Strengthening the bullpen has been considered one of Anthopoulos’ Most worthy acts this offseason. After seeing his mighty offense silenced by the Phillies’ energy arms through the Nationwide League Division Sequence, he has constructed his personal fleet of hard-throwing relievers with the additions of Reynaldo López, Aaron Bummer and others.
Anthopoulos added yet another shock on Thursday morning, when he gave Sale a two-year, $38 million deal. The southpaw will primarily be free this yr due to the $17 million the Purple Sox supplied within the commerce. However by committing a $22 million wage to Sale for 2025, the Braves are proving they really imagine he can keep wholesome.
The Braves tried to maintain Aaron Nola from re-signing with the Phillies. In addition they had some degree of curiosity in Sonny Grey. However their curiosity in buying and selling for Dylan Stop was overblown and Anthopoulos has correctly stayed away from the long-term offers for many free brokers, particularly these of the beginning pitching selection.
Anthopoulos isn’t averse to long-term offers. He was keen to take an opportunity on Nola, and his payroll features a plethora of long-term commitments by way of the extensions given to his younger stars. However should you’re going to take a danger, it appears a lot wiser to roll the cube on 20-year-olds (Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, Spencer Strider, and many others.) than free brokers who will spend a good portion of their contract of their 30s.
Sale is definitely a danger, however the Braves imagine he is price a short-term gamble.
Accidents ended the dominance Sale displayed whereas ending inside the high six in balloting for the American League Cy Younger Award for seven consecutive seasons (2012-18). The 34-year-old lefty underwent Tommy John surgical procedure in 2020 and battled each a rib fracture and proper wrist fracture through the 2022 season. He totaled simply 11 begins from 2020-22.
Sale’s damage woes continued this previous season as he frolicked on the injured listing with a stress response to his left scapula. He ended up posting a 4.30 ERA over 20 begins. He had a 3.92 ERA within the 9 begins he made after he returned from the IL in August.
Sale is a short-term danger identical to Josh Donaldson was in 2019.
The Braves had been sensible to signal Donaldson and even wiser to not double down on him. Now they will hope to get the identical risk-reward worth from Sale.
Anthopoulos mentioned there are not any plans to have Sale start the season late, however he acknowledged the left-hander hasn’t thrown greater than 102 2/3 innings in any of the previous 4 seasons. So, if the 34-year-old left-hander goes to be a possible distinction maker in October, the Braves might want to use some warning all through the season.
Atlanta will use a few of its beginning pitching depth to create an additional day of relaxation each time potential, and Sale may be restricted to 5 innings throughout a lot of his early-season begins. Anthopoulos additionally talked about the worth of often not throwing between begins.
This can be a calculated danger that doesn’t jeopardize the membership’s future monetarily or by way of prospects. There’s no assure it’ll work, but it surely’s simpler to take a short-term gamble than one that might adversely have an effect on the payroll for a few years to return.
