Jim Bowden grades the Braves offseason

Jim Bowden of The Athletic recently gave a mid-term grade for the offseason of all 30 MLB teams. For most clubs, these grades are incomplete because there are still a ton of blockbuster moves that could be made before now and Opening Day. But for the Braves, this is pretty much their entire offseason grade. Following the acquisition of Chris Sale, there aren’t many more moves that must be made, outside of adding a fourth outfielder and potential platoon candidate in left field.

Here’s how Bowden sees the Braves offseason to this point:

Atlanta Braves

Grade: B+

Key takeaways: This has been the most creative and resourceful offseason of Alex Anthopoulos’ career. The Braves’ two big goals this offseason were to improve their rotation and upgrade left field, and they accomplished both in unique fashion. Their best move was probably their latest, landing Sale from the Red Sox for Grissom, a deal that should work out well for both clubs. Sale, whom the Braves extended and now control through 2026, looked much better in the second half of last season, when he logged a 3.92 ERA over nine starts. Although he’s not an ace anymore, he’s still a top starter when healthy and will fit nicely in their rotation behind Spencer Strider and Max Fried and before Charlie Morton and Bryce Elder. The Braves believe they solved their left-field issue with the trade for Kelenic, a move that made Grissom expendable. They are hoping that Kelenic, who is only 24, finally has a breakout season this year. In addition, the Braves assumed a lot of bad contracts to add prospects via trades and dumped often-injured pitchers to improve both their bullpen and farm system. This has been a frenetic, high-risk but high-reward offseason for Atlanta and Anthopoulos, one of the best front-office executives of this era. Time will tell if their brilliant strategy pays off, but it’s hard to bet against them.

A B+ is a fair grade, but one sentence I vehemently disagree with is, “This has been a frenetic, high-risk but high-reward offseason for Atlanta and Anthopoulos, one of the best front-office executives of this era.”

It has been frenetic, and Anthopoulos is undoubtedly one of the best executives in baseball today, but I don’t see the risk the Braves have taken at all this offseason. There is some with Sale, who has barely pitched in the last four years, but he’s finally healthy entering a full offseason. Injuries are a concern for every pitcher, and the Braves bought low on one of the best pure stuff pitchers in the game. All it cost them was Vaughn Grissom, and he’s under contract for $10.5 million AAV over the next two seasons with a team-friendly option for year three.

Had the Braves gone all in on a guy like Dylan Cease and Corbin Burnes, they would have had to give up several of their top prospects for them to potentially walk at the end of the contract. That’s a lot more risky than what they did with Sale.

The Kelenic trade could also be viewed as a gamble by some, but again, it’s really not. He’s 24-years-old and was already more productive than Eddie Rosario last year in just 102 games played. The Braves acquired him for some cash, and now they have him under team control for five years. It’s a high reward move, but the risk is minimal. They didn’t send back any worthwhile prospects. All they did was eat about $20 million in the form of bad contracts that will be completely off the books in two years.

The bias in me would give Alex Anthopoulos an A for the offseason. The Braves had holes and he’s filled them brilliantly, avoiding risky long-term contracts and hanging onto all of his top prospects. The potential reward is immense, but the risk is minimal.