Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Braves

The Braves have committed 29 million in 2026 salary to two high-leverage relievers this offseason. Robert Suarez will collect another 32 million (walkout pending) through 2028. That's a lot to allocate to the back end of the bullpen. What does this mean for any more offseason signings? Well, when this front office splashes the cash over relievers it usually means that they found the starting pitching market prohibitively expensive. I don't think this keeps them from making a move at shortstop, though.

It has been a relatively quiet few weeks for the Atlanta Braves following the reunion with closer Raisel Iglesias and acquisition of super utility man (and, perhaps, starting shortstop) Mauricio Dubon, but that does not mean Alex Anthopoulos isn't working on other additions.

Jorge Castillo of ESPN is reporting that the Braves are interested in potentially adding free agent utility man Willi Castro to the squad. They'll have to deal with competition though, as apparently both the Rockies and Pirates are also checking in on Castro as well. Castro picked a pretty bad time to enter the offseason on a down note. Despite the fact that he was solidly productive for the Twins in the first half of the season,

Pope, 27, joins a new organization for the first time in his career. He was added to the roster in the final week of the regular season and got to make one appearance. On September 25th, with the Snakes down 8-0 to the Dodgers, Pope tossed two scoreless innings of mop-up duty. He allowed two hits and a walk while striking out one.

Earlier this year, April 16 to be specific, Spencer Strider made a long-awaited return to the mound after missing nearly the entirety of the 2024 season due to surgery on his elbow. Considering how poor of a start the Braves got off to in 2025, his return was truly a sight for sore eyes and the obvious hope was that his return was the catalyst to help revive both the pitching staff's and the team's fortunes as well.

We have a lot of things to be thankful for as Braves fans, but I want to shout out a few here: Alex Anthopoulos - Having a really smart, savvy guy in charge of baseball operations is a huge asset for this organization. Anthopoulos has balanced different timeframes really well and has been a responsible steward at the top of what is one of the most respected organizations in the league.

It is a beautiful, late autumn morning as I sip a cup of coffee and watch the lingering, golden yellow leaves of a maple tree fall gently to the ground. The smell of banana bread completing its final minutes of baking wafts through the air. For this, I am thankful. This is the fifth consecutive year that I've been fortunate enough to publish this editorial here at Battery Power.

Since Brujan is out of options, the split contract is essentially a workaround for that lack of ostensible roster flexibility: on a more generic contract, Brujan would have had little incentive to stick around upon being outrighted to the minors; this split contract presumably sweetens his pot a bit, but he forfeits the sweetener if he does reject an outright assignment in order to seek his fortune with another club.

The primary focus with Montgomery was simply to size him up against professional competition, seeing as though it had been almost a full year since he had faced any live pitching. Another area of intrigue was his glove as most scouts believe he is destined for a corner position - whether that be in the infield or outfield.

The BBWAA has officially revealed the ballot for potential induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2026 and the Atlanta Braves will have a trio of former players on the ballot this time around - though I'd imagine that all eyes will once again be on the one who has been on this ballot for nine times now instead of the two newcomers. Andruw Jones, Nick Markakis and Matt Kemp are the three former Braves players on the ballot this year.

Expectations were fairly minimal, but there were still some. Braunschweig received just a $2.5k bonus, but in his last three college seasons he hit at least .309 with an on base percentage of at least .428 in every season to go with a total of 64 stolen bases. Braunschweig went straight to Rome and played in 26 games there after signing his contract.

Here's something that bedevils me: for the last few years, the Braves have consistently made minor moves for relief-esque arms that have involved players with truly horrible stats. Look, the state of pitching development at this point is that teams probably don't care about stats, even advanced ERA estimators, in a vacuum. But still, it's been kind of crazy to me that the Braves are just consistently grabbing these guys that look way worse than your standard 26th man, and occasionally even using them in Triple-A,

There's not a whole lot of mystery surrounding the Braves' offseason needs. Ha-Seong Kim declining his player option leaves them back at square one at shortstop. They need more depth in a rotation that was battered by injury. They're potentially losing three high-leverage relievers (Raisel Iglesias, Pierce Johnson and Tyler Kinley) to free agency. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said on Tuesday that starting pitching and shortstop will take precedence early in the offseason.

This is due to a fairly new rule change to the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement, to incentivize teams to promote their talented young players in order to prevent them from keeping them in the minor leagues for six weeks to extend their service time. This rule, called the Prospect Promotion Incentive, is given to players who are Top 100 prospects that make the Opening Day roster.

The Atlanta Braves seem primed to add long-time Minnesota Twins coach Tommy Watkins to their coaching staff per multiple reports. Dan Hayes of the Athletic was first to report the news earlier this afternoon. As Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic noted, Watkins had been with the Twins for 27 years. Reporting on the Braves side indicated that Watkins' role with the Braves is not yet known, with the Athletic's David O'Brien suggesting it could be a 3rd base coach or major league coach role.

Both Cade Horton of the Cubs and Drake Baldwin of the Braves had seasons worthy of earning the award. However, if Baldwin were to win the award, the Braves would earn an extra draft pick near the top of the 2026 MLB Draft. While the pick itself could be valuable next summer to add talent, it also could be an additional asset that gives Atlanta extra incentive to make a

Look, the Braves are nothing if not loyal... for the most part. One thing they've loved to do in recent years? Bring back old friends for a last, or even not-so-last, hurrah. Off the top of my head, I can think of getting Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson back at the 2024 Trade Deadline, the seemingly never-ending saga of Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall came back multiple times, and even someone like Jesse Chavez seemingly had his presence on the team written in the stars.

Jones started the year in Augusta and was a part of the speedy Augusta lineup. He played 91 games there slashing .214/.350/.260 with 54 steals and 60 walks to 78 strikeouts - of course he also had only nine extra base hits in that time. After some promotions happened he ended up spending his final 31 games in Rome, where he hit .240/.308/.256 with 15 steals and 10 walks to 28 strikeouts, though with just two extra base hits.

Expectations were high for Fuentes in 2025 coming off a breakout 2024 with Augusta, where he pitched to a 2.74 ERA and 1.02 WHIP with 98 strikeouts over 75.2 innings as a 19-year-old. Fuentes had been a guy with potential before then, but it was his 2024 breakout that really saw his stock rise. Fuentes skyrocketed through the minors in 2025. He made just three starts with Rome, then five with Columbus, prior to his promotion to Gwinnett.