The Atlanta Braves have been baseball's best regular season team the last two seasons. Each time, they have not advanced past the National League Divisional Series after being defeated by the Philadelphia Phillies.
So the team, specifically president of baseball operations Alex Anthopolous, now must figure out how to get his team across the finish line. For a Braves team that is incredibly talented, the answers will not be easy to find. Where are they coming up short? What does Anthopoulos need to add to the roster? What buttons can Snitker push differently?
Here are some answers to those questions.
Determining the future of Brian Snitker
The Atlanta Braves have every intention of keeping Snitker, and rightfully so. He's one of baseball's best managers. The locker room loves him, and the players would surely be incredibly upset if the team moved on from him, especially after one of the best regular seasons in franchise history.
Besides, if the Braves ever let go of Snitker, he would surely be picked up in an instant by another franchise. Snitker isn't going anywhere. He'll be managing the team for the foreseeable future and Anthopolous will be the one making the decisions in the front office.
Pursuing starting pitching upgrades
In the National League Divisional Series, the Braves' lack of starting pitching depth revealed itself as arguably the club's biggest weakness.
Spencer Strider, the team's ace, was healthy. But they were without Charlie Morton, one of their most important veteran pitchers. Max Fried, their best left-handed pitcher, was coming off a blister issue and allowed three runs, six hits and four walks in four innings pitched in a 5-4 loss to the Phillies. Kyle Wright, who won 21 games in 2022, pitched in only nine games this season and is out for the 2024 season.
So the Braves need rotation help. Badly.
The Braves tried for a starting pitcher at the trade deadline, according to sources, but ultimately came up empty. The free-agent class has an abundance of talented options, headlined by Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Aaron Nola, among others.
But Anthopolous has shown an ability to be creative in trade talks, and has also shown that he can extend players as part of trades (see: Matt Olson, Sean Murphy). So it would hardly be a surprise to see Anthopolous explore the trade market and bolster a unit that needs multiple arms.
Adding veteran players to locker room
One thing that rival executives believe that the Braves are missing is key veteran players in the clubhouse.
Those same executives point to the impact that Evan Longoria and Tommy Pham have had on a young Diamondbacks team. Of course, those two situations are different. The Braves are a perennial contending team while the Diamondbacks were a fringe playoff team entering the regular season.
But the Braves, like the Diamondbacks, have a young roster. Having multiple veteran players could have helped the team navigate the Orlando Arcia situation, where he taunted Bryce Harper in the locker room, a lot better than they did. Because what should have been a non-story turned into a big story because of how the Braves handled that in the locker room.
It wasn't why the team lost. The Phillies outplayed the Braves in every facet. But adding some veteran players to the locker room should be something the team actively pursues this winter. An underrated need.
