MLB.com ranks Atlanta's offseason roster as the best in baseball

Now that we're in the throes of the offseason and front offices are discussing upgrades at the General Manager meetings, MLB.com took a look at each offseason roster as it currently stands and ranked them 1-30.

The Atlanta Braves are doing pretty well at the moment, according to MLB.com's Mike Petriello.

Ranking the Braves at #1 right now, Petriello points out that Atlanta's returning most of the best offense in baseball history, and the one glaring position player opening, left field, isn't actually that hard to fill in free agency.

The Braves just had arguably the best offense in baseball history – they’re the only club ever to slug .500 in a season – and they’ll be returning essentially the entire starting lineup outside of left field, so it’s not hard to see why this roster looks to be baseball’s best again. They’ll need to do something about left, where Rosario and Pillar are off to free agency and there’s no obvious internal replacement, but that’s generally not a tough thing to find on the market. Maybe it’ll just be Adam Duvall yet again.

Like the rest of us, Petriello thinks Atlanta needs to focus on starting pitching, pointing out that Charlie Morton, who saw his 2024 club option picked up on Monday, is 40 years old and casting doubt that Bryce Elder's as reliable as expected, given how the back half of his 2023 season went.

(Elder went 5-2 with a 5.11 ERA in 13 second half starts, striking out only 48 batters as compared to 80 Ks in the first half with a 2.97 ERA)

With Kyle Wright out for 2024, Morton at age 40 and a retirement risk, and Max Fried, Michael Soroka, and Yonny Chirinos all in their final year of team control, signing a frontline pitcher with multiple years of control would be the best-case scenario, but it's unknown whether or not Atlanta will spend the money required to acquire that player in free agency or make lower-budget selections.

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Current Atlanta Braves 40-man roster
Key offseason dates for the Atlanta Braves
2023 Atlanta Braves Club options
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