The Atlanta Braves took home the NL East title on Saturday for the first time since 2013 when the team employed the Upton brothers and Craig Kimbrel. Atlanta has accomplished this feat using almost exclusively home-grown talent from their farm system which has routinely been ranked 1-5 over the past three years.
Now, with division title in hand and with nearly all of their regular position players under contract until at least 2020, the Braves can begin to focus on positions to invest their surplus payroll into. Not only will they have the means to sign a top player this offseason, but they should be the number one destination in all of baseball at this moment. Let me explain.
The Braves were the youngest team in baseball last season on both sides of the ball (pitchers and position players), and they still made the playoffs running away with the NL East. Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuña Jr. look like perennial MVP candidates and Ozzie Albies, Johan Camargo and Dansby Swanson have played like All-Stars in 2018, so instead of asking the question of why a free agent would want to choose Atlanta the real question should be why wouldn’t they?
Now, deciding on which positions to fixate on is another story. The Braves have gotten 14.5 fWAR out of their infield, 10 fWAR from their outfield, 3.4 fWAR from their catchers, 9.3 fWAR from their starting staff, and 5.7 fWAR from the bullpen. Those numbers already look very solid, but there are definitely a couple of places the Braves will have to patch up after this season.
For starters lets look into Atlanta’s pending free agent list. Nick Markakis tops the list on the position players side with Kurt Suzuki close behind. Now, overall Markakis is having the best season he has seen in a Braves uniform, but most of that is due to a torrid first two months of the season. Since June first Markakis is hitting .283/.350/.417 with a 103 wRC+ which is considered to be replacement level production. Much of Braves country has fallen in love with Markakis for his stoic expressions and consistency, but if the front office is thinking practically this would be the position to upgrade at. Not to mention there is a certain outfielder hitting the market who would become the third guy on the Braves roster that could compete for an MVP award (just saying).
Suzuki is a different story, and he will be a guy the Braves definitely should consider re-signing. Suzuki doesn’t have the plate appearances to qualify with the league leaders behind the plate overall, but among catchers with over 350 plate appearances he ranks T-9th overall in fWAR with Buster Posey. His wRC+ of 109 ranks 5th among all backstops with at least 350 plate appearances.
Switching over to the pitching staff there are only two names coming off of the payroll this offseason and both have been solid contributors to the team this year. Anibal Sanchez and Brad Brach will become free agents after the postseason and surely both will be looking for one last big pay day. Sanchez has pitched like a new man in 2018 and has become the Braves second most reliable starter over his 130 innings. His 2.2 fWAR this season is his highest total since 2014 when he posted 3.2 fWAR for the Tigers and at the age of 34 nobody would blame Sanchez for taking a big contract if offered one. The question the Braves will have to answer is if they want to be that team or if they decide to offer him another one year deal (with options?) to make sure his success in 2018 is not a fluke.
Brad Brach has come over from Baltimore at the trade deadline and been nothing but stellar for Atlanta posting a 1.23 ERA and 2.70 FIP in 22 innings so far. Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves must have seen something in Brach that they liked, so it wouldn’t be surprising for them to tender him a two to three year contract. At 32 he is somewhat of a risk with a long-term contract, but his track record of pitching in the AL East with success over the past four years is comforting.
In short, the Braves are going to have to sign a free agent or two this winter, but they’re in much better position than any team out there to go big and not be afraid to miss out on a player with a good team already in place. However, what player in their right mind would not want to join the youngest team in baseball coming off a division title and playoff run in a new stadium while getting to play next to Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuña Jr? This winter should be a fun one (unlike 2017). Stay tuned.