Braves Offseason was "Sneaky Good", According to Anonymous NL Exec

The Atlanta Braves and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has done WORK this offseason.

And MLB is recognizing what he's done.

After executing a dizzying series of trades to add to the lineup (LF Jarred Kelenic), rotation (LHP Chris Sale), and bullpen (Aaron Bummer, Ray Kerr) as well as signing free agent pitcher Reynaldo López and re-signing relievers Pierce Johnson and Joe Jiménez, MLB executives are talking about Anthopoulos in glowing terms.

Mark Feinsand, writing on MLB.com, polled front office executives about the "under the radar" moves this offseason, asking which teams surprised the rest of the league with their work.

And of course, Atlanta was in that group.

Citing an anonymous NL front office executive, Feinsand relayed that the official admitted to liking what Atlanta did this offseason. "Johnson, Sale, Kelenic, López – they’re not big names or big contracts, but they added pieces around what is already a really good group” said the anonymous executive, who was granted anonymity to discuss another team's offseason in detail.

It would have been easy for the Braves to rest on their laurels and "run it back" after winning the NL East with the best power-hitting offense in baseball history - Atlanta tied the single season homer record, set by the 2021 Minnesota Twins, with 307 homers despite not having Minnesota's advantage of "juiced baseballs". Atlanta also had the first ever team slugging over .500, coming in at .501 on the season.

And while Atlanta is returning virtually everyone from that lineup, they replaced the expiring contracts of Eddie Rosario and Kevin Pillar in left field with trade acquisition Jarred Kelenic, a former top prospect that has reported to spring training early in an effort to get acclimated with his new ballclub and start 2024 off on the right foot.

FanGraphs projects Jarred Kelenic to outproduce Eddie Rosario in left field

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