Braves Ranked With One of the Best MLB Ownership Groups

The success a professional sports organization experiences starts at the top. In baseball, few ownership groups have been better than Liberty Media, which owns the Atlanta Braves.

Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer ranked the Braves ownership group the third-best in the MLB.

"The entity that owns the Braves is technically separate from Liberty Media, but it's easier and generally fair game to think of the franchise as having had a continuous ownership group since 2007," Rymer wrote. "Whatever the case, it's been a good time in general and a downright spectacular time since 2018.

"The Braves are third in both regular-seasonand postseason wins for the last seven seasons, with last year marking their first season without a playoff W since 2017."

As of Feb. 8, the Braves will actually see a decrease in payroll. But compared to other ownership groups, Liberty Media can hardly be accused of being cheap.

Rymer called Atlanta "Extension City" because of all the young stars they have signed to big contracts over recent years.

Part of the Braves' strategy has been to sign their young players before arbitration. That gets the players a pay raise earlier, and the team can actually save money in the long run. The fact it's a cost-saving initiative has been a source of some criticism, but Braves fans mostly ignore it because the end result is still Atlanta keeping its home grown talent.

Of course, there are a few exceptions. Freddie Freeman's departure still hurts, though, Matt Olson could help Braves fans forget about it again with a nice bounce back season in 2025.

This summer, the Braves could really miss starting pitcher Max Fried. But if Spencer Strider returns to form when he comes back, and Spencer Schwellenbach continues to develop, Fried's absence could be not as bad in the long run.

It isn't the perfect ownership group, but coming off seven consecutive postseason berths, it's hard to complain too much. Expectations are also high again for 2025 because of the team Liberty Media helped assemble.