MLB’s Trade Deadline has come and gone and while the Atlanta Braves might not have been as active as many expected, they feel like they feel as though they patched their biggest hole with the acquisition of Jorge Soler.
Soler will no doubt provide a boost to Atlanta’s lineup with his bat. However, there are questions defensively and how he fits beyond 2024. Soler currently has a 115 wRC+ and that is after a slow start at the plate in his first season with the Giants. He’s got a 146 wRC+ since June 1 and given the current state of Atlanta’s outfield, that is a huge upgrade. Soler is projected to play right field but hasn’t logged a single inning in 2024 defensively. He’s also under contract for two additional seasons. Braves President and General Manager Alex Anthopoulos discussed that and much more Tuesday following the deadline.
“I think the one thing we’ve seen the last two years is you’re gonna need more than three,” Anthopoulos said of the outfield situation. “Injuries are part of it. Every year we’ve had to acquire bats.”
The Braves lost Ronald Acuña Jr. to a torn ACL earlier this season and are currently without Michael Harris, who is currently working his way back from a strained hamstring. The Braves are hoping that Harris can return sometime in mid-August. Anthopoulos said that they are currently projecting Acuña to be ready sometime around Opening Day 2025, but that will depend on how his rehab goes and how he progresses during the spring. Soler provides cover there.
“Knowing that we have two left-handed bats in that outfield with Harris and Kelenic. Ronald, we expect to be back around Opening Day. We’ll see. It’s a long ways off. Depends on how the rehab goes. Tut thats approximately at this time give or take in that area. Again, we’ll see how he looks coming into spring and how he progresses. You don’t know. Is he gonna need days? We’ve lost Harris two years in a row to injury.”
“You need that position player depth. It’s hard to find on-base with power and plus makeup. The fact that Jorge could play right field. I think people just think corner outfield and we don’t necessarily view it that way. A lot of players in baseball can play left field only because they don’t have arm strength. The fact that Jorge has some arm strength as well makes him an option and right.”
Soler played right for the Braves after he was acquired in 2021. He shouldn’t be mistaken for anything resembling a good defender out there, but his bat will give the 2024 team something that it is clearly lacking.
It is no secret that the Braves as a franchise love Soler. He was MVP of the 2021 World Series and hit one of the most dramatic home runs in franchise history in the clinching game. He ended up signing with Miami after the World Series, but Anthopoulos continued to have interest and explored reacquiring him multiple times.
“We thought we were very close to getting him at the trade deadline in 2022,” Anthopoulos said. “Ultimately we did the Iglesias deal. We discussed him in the 22 offseason with Miami again. Going into 23, in that offseason we had discussions again about him. He did a nice job for us in 21 obviously, but his body of work and the season he had last year for Miami offensively, that’s pretty impressive.”
Since winning the World Series in 2021, the Braves have saw their payroll increase dramatically. The team has spent great effort on locking up its core to longterm contracts. Heading into the deadline, it was unclear how much wiggle room the Braves had to work with in regard to the third tier of the luxury tax. However, Anthopoulos said that most of the reporting around the team’s luxury tax standing has been incorrect.
“I’ve seen this a lot in the winter with all the transactions we made. I understand there’s fan interest in that stuff. I think the biggest thing is that not everybody has the exact dollars that are maybe going back in deals. That’s not announced sometimes,” Anthopoulos said. “Cash considerations are announced but no one puts exact dollar amounts and that has an impact as well. We do not project to hit the third [tier] at all. I’ve seen some people say that we blew by it. That’s inaccurate. We still have room to add. It’s not something that we’re at right now if anyone has been reporting that. I would say it’s correct that we are below it and we project to be below it. I guess anything could happen but we project to be below it and we’ll see how that goes.”
With Ozzie Albies sidelined due to a broken wrist, the thinking was that Atlanta might consider adding an infielder. Nacho Alvarez Jr. has seen all of the playing time at second with Albies out, but has struggled at the plate. Anthopoulos said that they considered a lot of things, but added that Albies is trending towards a quicker return that was first anticipated.
“We were looking at all kinds of things,” Anthopoulos answered when asked about the possibility of acquiring an infielder. “The deadline is short term, long term, every area, every position. You’re open minded on things. We looked at all kinds of things. It’s still a month plus out, but we think Ozzie is trending early September to be back which would be great. Again, we’re still far enough away and we’ll see how that goes. We’ll obviously use the players we have to try to get through that.”
Another player that could be in the mix at second soon is veteran infielder Whit Merrifield who is currently dealing with a finger injury that he suffered in his first workout with the team. Anthopoulos said that having Merrifield didn’t sway their thinking on adding an infielder.
“we haven’t had a chance to get him going yet because of the incident that happened when we first signed him,” Anthopoulos said of Merrifield. “He should be starting to come around here soon. This is a guy that got an $8 million dollar contract in the offseason and just got off to a slow start. A remendous teammate and has had a lot of success. To be able to grab him when we did, there’s obviously an upside there. Once he gets right and his health comes back, Snit will be the one that decides how all that stuff works out. Obviously we were excited to acquire him.”
Merrifield signed a one-year deal with the Phillies during the offseason but hit just .199/.277/.295 with a 64 wRC+ in 54 games with them before he was released. With Alvarez struggling, it won’t be surprising to see him get an opportunity but Albies potentially being back in early September clearly was part of the equation.
The Braves have been able to stay in the playoff hunt in large part due to the performance of the starting rotation. Even without Spencer Strider, the group of Chris Sale, Max Fried, Reynaldo López and Charlie Morton has exceeded expectations. However, Fried is currently on the injured list and the Braves appear to have dodged a huge bullet with Lopez, who left his last start with forearm soreness.
Anthopoulos said that they explored adding what he termed a “frontline starter” but ultimately things didn’t line up.
“I would say we explored rotation stuff but it was if we could get a frontline starter or someone like that,” Anthopoulos said. “You find room for those guys. We had some contingencies and so on but we didn’t get close. We still had discussions up until the last hour. Right now, we have five that we like.”
“Fried and Lopez, we obviously didn’t put Lopez on the IL,” he added. “We’re still taking it day-to-day with him. He’s lined up to pitch on Saturday. If he’s not available to pitch on Saturday, then we’ll just make the adjustments and so on. He seems fine and the MRI was clean like Snit said. We expect him to pitch for us soon. Max threw a bullpen and felt really good. He’s progressing towards coming back very soon. Right now, assuming health, we like the five that we have. Again, you’ve got two months and you’re likely going to have other bumps in the road across the board.”
Fried is eligible to come off the injured list on Friday, but it isn’t clear if he will need to make a rehab start before rejoining the rotation.
Anthopoulos said that despite the number of injuries that they have dealt with, they never considered the possibility of selling. He said that it was clear to the other 29 teams that they were planning to add. If anything, recent postseasons have shown that if a team gets in, then they have a chance.
“We’re in a playoff spot. I know we haven’t played to expectations, but we’re leading the wild card by half a game or whatever it is,” Anthopoulos said. “Our players put us in that position. I think it’s remarkable for what we’ve been through to still be the number one wild card team. Snit, the coaches, the players have put us in that position.”
“We have a team very much capable of getting to the playoffs. If we can get to the playoffs, with health of course, we feel we have a strong rotation, a very strong bullpen and an offense that has the upside to be much better than it’s shown. Look we’ve seen the last two postseasons. The sixth seed in the NL, got to the World Series. Not saying that people are shooting for that spot or that’s going to happen but it’s just more of a reminder of the variability of the postseason and that anything can happen. We had a great season last year. The Dodgers had a great season. The Diamondbacks during the season didn’t get the win totals, but they played their best baseball when they needed it and they rode it all the way to the World Series. Same thing with the Phillies in 2022. If you get in, you’re giving yourself a shot”
