Now, will he get extended? The situation, right now, looks similar to what we saw with Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson. He’s not likely going to take a severely below-market value deal anyway. Him being the team’s union rep though doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not he gets extended. So there not being any signs really doesn’t tell us anything.įried’s comments early in spring seemed to indicate that the two sides haven’t discussed an extension, but he didn’t really say that, so it is hard to assume. to Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider, there was no reporting until the press release was issued. First there were no signs that any of the extensions the Braves have handed out were going to happen. Ok, we have reached the Max Fried portion of the mailbag. Just seems unlikely to me he will get extended. He’s the union rep, so taking an extension would “look bad.” He’s of an age he really only has one contract in him to make bank. This week Max made a reference to the team not reaching out to him. He really needs to be able to get ahead in the count for his changeup to be most effective.ĭo we need to stop with the Max Fried extension talks? I understand extensions can happen any time (Austin Riley for example) but there are no signs this is going to happen. He had a lot of success early on, but struggled to command his fastball last year. It is always been said that he needs something else to play off his fastball and changeup. I think he was one of the players that was affected by the shortened spring. He had a shoulder issue in 2021 and then just never looked right after coming back from the injury in 2021, nor last season. I think the biggest thing for Anderson is just getting healthy. We know he spent part of the offseason working at the pitching lab at Wake Forest. With that in mind, what went wrong? What does he need to improve on to get back to the pitcher of old? How hard will this be to do? Is it a simple adjustment or a complete reset of his game?Įarly reports on Anderson have been good and he has reportedly worked to add a slider to his repertoire. I didn’t get to see him pitch at all last year. My answer would have been the same even if Justyn-Henry Malloy hadn’t been traded to Detroit. Obviously, that could change with a strong start to the minor league season, but if they are in serious need of help, I think they look outside the organization. If they need help beyond that, it is hard for me to think that they would turn to an internal option. I think there is a chance that Pillar makes the club out of Spring Training. If Rosario, Luplow, Hilliard, all can’t get the job done in LF, do you think that the Braves may call up some of our minor leaguers? I would really like Jesse Franklin to have a chance, but maybe Justin Dean or Cody Milligan, I would guess that Kevin Pillar would get a chance. The Braves have so many other options here, whether it is Jordan Luplow, Sam Hilliard, Kevin Pillar or someone else who emerges at the end of camp, I don’t really see them making any rash moves in left until the Deadline. Rosario is playing in the World Baseball Classic for Puerto Rico and should be able to improve on what was essentially a lost season for him in 2022, because it was so bad that it’s hard to see him repeating what was one of the worst seasons in the majors.Ĭan he improve enough? That is hard to say, but given the amount of money owed to both him and Ozuna, you figure they are going to get a lot of chances to show they’re not awful. We will have to see how that plays out over the first few weeks of the Grapefruit League season. I don’t personally see Ozuna as anything more than a DH, but it does sound like he is going to figure into the mix in left field. Alex Anthopoulos said earlier this week that it was an open competition and wouldn’t elaborate on the status of Marcell Ozuna beyond Spring Training earlier in the offseason. We will have to see how the left field spot shakes out during the spring. If that duo can handle things defensively, then I feel like they are going to get a lot of rope. It feels like they really want Vaughn Grissom to end up with the shortstop job, but if he can’t, then they have someone in Orlando Arcia that has been a starting shortstop in the majors before. If everyone else is performing, then they can probably afford to go that route. I expect the Braves to give both situations a lot of time, perhaps even until the Trade Deadline. If that’s the case, how early in the season might we expect to see a trade to fill either hole? I could see one, but it seems unlikely that BOTH of the Braves’ big position player gambles (LF, SS) will work out successfully. We will do it again soon, but let’s get right to it. A huge thank you to everyone that took the time to send in questions for our first mailbag in a long time. The Grapefruit League season is back and so are the Atlanta Braves.
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