Atlanta Braves

For the second straight season, the Atlanta Braves and Max Fried entered an arbitration hearing to decide the left-handers compensation for the upcoming season.Last season, Max came out on top.This season, it was the team the arb panel sided with, setting Fried's 2023 salary at the $13.5M figure the team filed instead of the $15M figure Fried's camp filed.

Apparently today was the coldest morning in Boston since 1957 - like -10 F (which is -23 C for most of the world).I spent part of it napping with a cat on me.Good times.In baseball news, the Dodgers signed (among others), old friend Robbie Erlin.He will always stick out in my memory as a baseball example of the gods laughing at the best-laid plans of mice and men.

As if Atlanta Braves fans needed another reason to be excited for the start of Spring Training.Eno Sarris released annual list of bounce back candidates for the upcoming season and Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. topped the list.As Sarris points out, tabbing Acuña for a bounce back is easy pickings now that he is even further removed from his ACL injury.

One of the biggest storylines heading into spring training for the Atlanta Braves will be who is going to replace Dansby Swanson at shortstop.The Braves have a veteran option in Orlando Arcia, who has been a starting shortstop in the past, but the most intriguing option is probably Vaughn Grissom.Grissom has spent time in New Orleans this offseason working with infield coach Ron Washington.

The name Schuerholz is very familiar name in Braves country.Hall of Fame executive John Schuerholz played a big role in putting together many great rosters during the Braves historic run of success in the 90's and early 2000's.Now, Jonathan Schuerholz, a former Braves minor leaguer and current front office member himself with Atlanta, is starting to generating interest from other MLB teams.

The international signing period will begin Sunday and the Atlanta Braves will be in their second year with a full bonus pool post MLB Sanctions.Atlanta's 2022 signing class was headlined by infielder Diego Benitez and outfielder Douglas Glod.You can find all of the details you need to know for this signing period in our handy primer.

While it is does not involve a player, coach, or executive, it is significant that the Braves will be searching for a new play by play voice for television for their games moving forward.Chip Caray, who has been with Atlanta since 2005, is leaving the Braves to become the new play by play voice for the Cardinals.

Braves Franchise History
1973 - Warren Spahn becomes just the sixth player to be elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.Spahn received 316 of 380 votes to gain admission.2008 - The Braves avoided arbitration with reliever Rafael Soriano by signing him to a two-year, $9 million deal.

Welcome back to part two of the Battery Power top 25 Atlanta Braves prospects.We are jumping now into the top 20 prospects, and we're continuing strong with the theme of new additions to the system.The Braves have added a lot of talent while dealing away a lot of the incumbent top prospects leaving us with a lot of new names to break down this year.

Given the roster the Braves have assembled, it would require some special contortions to develop a forecast that doesn't have the club looking like a superb contender in 2023, and to no one's surprise, Dan Szymborski's ZiPS, via Fangraphs, indeed does not engage in contortions of any sort.I'll just quote the man himself to summarize:

The Braves ought to be one of the teams competing to lead the majors in wins in 2023.

This has been a very unexpected offseason so far.There have been bucket loads of cash poured on free agents.The Braves have spent less than 5 million in the same free agent market.There has been the "where in the world is Carlos Correa's ankle" hysteria.But the most unexpected move of all, in my opinion, happened yesterday.