The Braves are Powered by AA Battery

Alex Anthopoulos of the Atlanta Braves *(MLB.com)*

The Braves have a 73% chance of making the postseason, per Baseball Reference, despite a Tommy John surgery for Spencer Strider and another ACL tear for Ronald Acuña Jr. Somehow, Sean Murphy, Matt Olson, and Michael Harris II are all having bad years, while Ozzie Albies fractured his wrist and Austin Riley recently fractured his hand. The Braves also lost A.J. Minter to hip surgery, along with lefty reliever Ray Kerr to TJ. With the myriad of injuries and underperformance, how are the Braves jettisoned for a Wild Card spot? The answer is Alex Anthopoulos, one of the best POBO in the game.

Anthopoulos started his career with the Montreal Expos in 2000, before eventually winning Sporting News Exec of the Year in 2015 when his Toronto Blue Jays unexpectedly reached the ALCS for the 1st time since 1993. He then went to work under Andrew Friedman in LA, arguably the best executive in baseball then and now. After two years as a VP, he took the big job with Atlanta in November 2017 and hasn’t looked back. Since 2017, Alex has essentially popularized the team friendly extension, perhaps most famously signing future MVP Acuña Jr. to a $100M extension through 2026. In 2021, he signed Marcell Ozuna, who’s been a top 5 hitter in baseball over the last year and a half. In 2022, he let Freddie Freeman walk (scandalous) and traded for Matt Olson and extended homegrown stars Austin Riley, Spencer Strider, and Michael Harris II. In December 2022, Alex traded with Oakland for another one of their stars, catcher Sean Murphy. Now, building this roster of stars is impressive and a feat few execs could pull off. You know what was the most impressive to me? The 2021 deadline, and now perhaps even more, this past winter.

On July 10, 2021, Acuña Jr. suffered his first ACL tear. It was debatable at the time of the 2021 deadline whether AA should buy or sell, since it seemed highly unlikely the Braves could make a serious run. They picked up left handed power bat, Joc Pederson, on July 15th to bolster their lineup against right handed pitching. By the deadline, AA had also traded for Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario, and Adam Duvall for additional offense to supplant the loss of Ronald. Eddie and Jorge both put up a wRC+ north of 130 for Atlanta the rest of the way, with all four outfielders making an impact in 2021 as Anne Rogers wrote in her piece. As she points out, Eddie was the NLCS MVP, Joc helped beat the Brewers in the NLDS, Duvall hit two bombs in the World Series, and of course Jorge Soler was the MVP of the 2021 World Series. Not bad for a few corner outfielders acquired on the cheap, right? Just like that, Alex took the 2021 Braves from borderline playoff club to World Series Champions– legendary work.

Fast forward to this past winter, the Braves were experiencing a hangover from back to back eliminations by their division rival Phillies. They’re 2-6 in the division series against Philly in the last two seasons, despite having had a superior roster with better numbers. Anthopoulos needed to get some pitching, really only having Strider, Max Fried, and Charlie Morton slotted for 2024. Alex also knew he needed left handed relievers, and acquired Aaron Bummer almost immediately in November from the White Sox for some organizational depth pieces. Bummer has pitched in 44 games, to the tune of a 3.60 ERA, and has been a reliable lefty for skipper Brian Snitker. AA also picked up Reynauldo López in November on a 3 year/$30M deal, and López has overperformed by a huge margin. He’s got a 2.05 ERA in 20 starts, and made his first AS team. On New Year's Eve Eve, the Red Sox traded Chris Sale to Atlanta for Vaughn Grissom. Sale was coming off of a rough time in Boston, thanks in no small part to multiple injuries, but he’s 14-3 with a 2.62 ERA. He’s healthy for the first time in years and is primed to win his first Cy Young at 35 years old (currently a -450 favorite to win). Without López and Sale, the Braves would no doubt be behind the Mets, Giants, and Co. in the WC right now. These two acquisitions themselves should nominate AA for executive of the year, as he’s single handedly kept the Braves in the Wild Card race despite a historic injury pace.