Horrific offseason continues to plague Braves

When things are going bad — and boy, are they in Atlanta — finger-pointing will ensue. Every Braves fan believes they have the answer as to why this team is four games under .500 and already 9.5 games back in the NL East after just two months.

Some believe it’s the manager; others just point to an overall lack of leadership in the clubhouse. However, there’s really one correct answer as to why the Braves might miss the postseason for the first time in eight years, and it’s the man in charge of building the roster — Alex Anthopoulos.

Entering the offseason, the Braves had four clear needs:

• Outfield
• Shortstop
• Rotation
• Bullpen (Multiple)

Shortstop was always going to be difficult to address, given the lack of quality options, so Alex Anthopoulos gets a slight pass for that. The rest, however, was nothing other than a colossal failure.

The Braves opted not to spend a dime on the rotation or bullpen. They watched Charlie Morton and Max Fried walk out the door in free agency and didn’t do a damn thing, hoping that AJ Smith-Shawver, Spencer Strider, Grant Holmes, and Ian Anderson could string together enough innings to replace them.

Holmes has done everything they could have asked for, but Anderson never even made it out of Spring Training and now AJ Smith-Shawver is out for the season with an elbow injury. Add on another severe injury to Reynaldo Lopez, and the Braves now have a paper-thin rotation before the calendar even turns to June.

Nobody suggested Alex Anthopoulos go out and spend top dollar to retain Max Fried, but adding something to this group felt necessary, and the Braves did absolutely nothing. They weren’t even willing to tender a $5 million contract to Griffin Canning, who went on to sign with the Mets and is 5-2 with a 3.23 ERA through 11 starts this season. That is gross oversight, but it pales in comparison to the bullpen.

Right at the beginning of the offseason, it was revealed that Joe Jimenez would miss most, if not all, of the 2025 season. Then, the Braves let A.J. Minter sign with the rival Mets. One unfortunate circumstance and another understandable decision, given Minter was coming off a season-ending injury. However, to not make an effort to replace your top two set-up men in free agency? That’s nothing other than pure incompetence.

The Braves now have the 28th ranked bullpen in baseball, according to FanGraphs WAR. They have cost the team at least five wins, if not closer to 10, and there’s nothing to suggest it’s going to get any better. In fact, it’s likely to get worse, given their best reliever to this point — Daysbel Hernandez — has been the beneficiary of some incredible luck.

Hernandez is currently sporting a 2.31 ERA on the season, yet he is walking as many batters as he’s striking out (6.9 K/9 & 6.9 BB/9). Yeah… that’s a ship that’s about to come crashing down.

The only place the Braves actually spent money on is the outfield, and boy, did they get catfished. Jurickson Profar did Alex Anthopoulos worse than Lennay Kekua did Manti Te’o. Profar parlayed the one good season of his 10+ MLB career into a three-year, $42 million contract, only for him to be popped for PEDs just four games into his Braves career. Now, he’s ineligible for this year’s postseason — if the Braves even make it — and there are even further questions about what he’ll provide the club once he does return.

The Braves came into the offseason with four clear and obvious needs to fill. Alex Anthopoulos spent over $50 million this offseason (and had room to spend much more), and he managed to fill a grand total of zero of them. That’s levels of incompetence that shouldn’t even be possible. The Braves quite literally could not have had a worse offseason, and it’s already cost them anywhere from 5-10 games this season.