Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Braves

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 first half of the season he spent with the High-A Rome Emperors where he appeared in 26 games and had a spectacular 1.75 ERA, and 2.25 FIP. He limited walks quite well, with a walk rate that sat at 2.50 per 9, and struck out a rotund 10 batters per 9. If you were not able to get on base via walk, you were not going to find much success with the bat as he allowed just a .182 batting average against

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.

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.

Tim Hyers will return for his second year as hitting coach, as expected. It was an uneven first year under Hyers, but the club hit much better in the second half of the season (107 wRC+) than the first (96 wRC+). All eyes will be on Atlanta's hitters to see if they can collectively rebound and get back to the heights of previous campaigns.

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.

Carrasco, 38, is a long-time big league veteran who started three games with Atlanta last summer when the team was at the apex of injury issues with the starting rotation. He was designated for assignment but re-signed with the organization and finished the year with Gwinnett. Vines, 27, didn't pitch last season due to injury, but has been in the organization since being drafted in 2016 and has nine major league games under his belt, appearing with Atlanta in both 2023 and 2024.

Atlanta Braves Holdings, Inc. released their third quarter numbers on Wednesday. Yes, one of the benefits of the Braves becoming an asset of a large corporation and later spun off is that they are compelled to tell us all about their money. You don't get that kind of transparency with the Miami Marlins or the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who knows what they're up to. But the Braves had a good third quarter of the year.

Back before the 2025 season, I wrote an article that the 2025 bullpen could look a bit different than the bullpen of the three most recent Braves seasons. Basically, that article had a table that indicated: Braves' bullpen preseason projected rank was top four or better from 2022-2024, top eight the two seasons before that, and then dropping to ninth ahead of 2025; Braves' bullpen finished in the top ten in fWAR each year from 2020-2024;

After a college career that spanned two seasons at Ohio State and one at Arkansas, the Braves took Landon Beidelschies in the 6th round of the 2025 draft, using the 187th selection on the Razorback. He received a signing bonus of $297,500 to leave college early and begin his professional career. What were the 2025 expectations? Obviously since he was a 2025 draftee, the expectations for Beidelschies were understandably low.

While the scouting reports are fully behind a paywall there are still some interesting tidbits for those without an account - including Baseball America's Best Tools update which has quite a few newly drafted Braves prospects. For example Conor Essenburg, the fifth round draft pick out of 2025, claims the Braves best power hitter, while Briggs McKenzie takes home best curveball, and best changeup. Not surprisingly, Alex Lodise took home best infield arm, and best defensive infielder.

Kinley will receive a $750K buyout and head into free agency rather than collecting a $5.5MM salary for the 2026 season. The move to decline Kinley's option is something of a surprise. The right-hander pitched to a 3.96 ERA with a 3.69 FIP in 72 2/3 innings of work overall in 2025, but those solid yet unspectacular overall results don't tell the whole story.

The Braves picked up Carrasco from the New York Yankees prior to the Trade Deadline on July 28. He'd signed with the Yankees as a minor league free agent prior to the season and had spent time on the big league roster before being designated for assignment by New York in June. He returned to the Yankees organization, pitching at Triple-A, prior to his trade to Atlanta.