Would you trade a 2024 championship for not playing in the World Series again for a decade?

One of the most common discussion points about the Atlanta Braves and their dominance in the 1990s and early 2000s, where they won fourteen straight championships and the 1995 World Series, is that it was ultimately an underachievement.

You see, Atlanta made the postseason for fourteen straight seasons, but only one won championship during that span. Their only World Series championship came in the strike-shortened 1995 season (144 games instead of 162), and they played for and lost the World Series in both 1996 and 1999 to the New York Yankees.

Many fans expected more than one championship given the divisional dominance and a Hall of Fame trio atop the rotation.

In light of Atlanta's recent trend of regular season dominance and the mixed postseason success - six straight NL East titles have resulted in one World Series championship (2021), with an NLCS elimination (2020) and four Divisional Series eliminations (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023) - have expectations shifted?

MLB.com writer Will Leitch wrote an article in which he attempted to "predict" the next ten World Series matchups, choosing the two teams and who would win for every season through 2033.

And reactions were mixed.

You see, Leitch had Atlanta defeating the Baltimore Orioles in 2024...and then he had Atlanta not even making the World Series again for the rest of the ten years.

Spoiler alert! pic.twitter.com/sb6yhqU1pv
— MLB (@MLB) January 11, 2024

And not only that, Leitch had division rivals New York and Philadelphia both winning a World Series during that span, although interestingly he had the Mets doing it significantly earlier than the Phillies.

Here's what Leitch said about Atlanta's 2024 victory:

It is reasonable, after everything we’ve seen this offseason, if you have come to the conclusion that the Dodgers currently employ every player in baseball. But for all the (incredible) additions the Dodgers have made, it is my humble duty to remind you that we spent most of 2023 in awe of the Atlanta Braves, who had one of the best offenses in baseball history and had some pretty terrific pitching as well. Even with the Dodgers adding Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernández, the Braves, to these eyes, still look like the best team in baseball.
The Chris Sale move is exactly the sort of smart tactical move a team with an eye more on October than the regular season makes, and considering October has been the only month anything has gone wrong for the Braves the last couple of years, that seems to be quite sensible thinking. So they’re the clubhouse faves.

Reactions were...mixed. The Braves Today group chat was surprisingly divided over it, with the two camps evolving into either "this team's too good to only get one shot at it in the next decade, so I'd rather turn down the guaranteed win for multiple chances" and the opposing "with this current format making it even harder to get one, a win once a decade is the most you can reasonably expect."

(There was also the minority opinion of "as long as the Mets and Phillies never win", so...bad news, Kyle.)

So I asked Twitter, because Twitter's obviously real life and that'd answer the question without any sort of controversy at all, right?

#Braves fans: Would you take a World Series victory in 2024 in exchange for not even *appearing* in the Fall Classic again until at least 2034?

Opinions are divided amongst the @braves_today staff. Let us know which one and why, and it might just make it into the story! https://t.co/MORPtFNNZC
— Lindsay Crosby, big baseball guy (@CrosbyBaseball) January 11, 2024

And for the most part, the reactions trended towards "no" but it was still divided.

Several folks had the perspective of "no, the Braves should be able to compete yearly". Which I get!

The most nuanced take and my favorite argument in favor of taking the 2024 championship was a look back, from twitter user "Balefire" - since Atlanta won it in 2021, a 2024 title would be two in the last four years.

(And then also made a great point that the Los Angeles Dodgers guaranteed over a billion dollars in contracts this offseason to only get two World Series titles in the next decade, which is a hilarious return on investment.)

What do you think? Would you trade a 2024 championship for not making the World Series again until at least 2034? Let us know!

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