Atlanta Braves earn B+ in The Athletics’ offseason grades

Jan 31, 2023 - 9:00 PM

As January comes to an end, our focus turns to pitchers and catchers reporting and the beginning of spring training, it is worth another look back at the offseason as a whole. Tuesday, The Athletic’s MLB writers handed out offseason grades for all 30 teams and the Atlanta Braves came away with a B+.

The Braves had an eventful offseason with the headline move being the acquisition of catcher Sean Murphy in a trade with the Athletics. As they tend to do, Atlanta wasted no time locking Murphy up with a six-year extension. Atlanta also added some depth to the bullpen with the additions of Joe Jimenez and Lucas Luetge.

Other than the addition of Jordan Luplow, Atlanta failed to address left field and will be banking on a bounce back season from Eddie Rosario. Additionally, the Braves elected to go with internal options in Vaughn Grissom and Orlando Arcia to replace the departed Dansby Swanson.

It wasn’t a perfect offseason, but one that was somewhat predictable given the amount of longterm extensions that the team handed out since the start of the 2022 season. The core is intact, now it is just about adding the supplemental pieces.

Only three teams had better grades than Atlanta and two came are from the NL East. The Mets replaced Jacob deGrom with Justin Verlander, but largely doubled down on their existing core. This would have certainly looked different had they completed the deal with Carlos Correa.

The Phillies landed Trea Turner on a monster deal and then added bullpen pieces in Craig Kimbrel, Gregory Soto and Matt Strahm. They will be without Bryce Harper until around the All-Star break, but it can’t be denied that they had a strong offseason.

So with that as the backdrop, let us know your grade for the Braves’ offseason.