BRAVES NEWS
Rome Braves Named Baseball America MiLB Team of the Year
After winning the Class-A championship in 2016, the Rome Braves received yet another award on Wednesday when Baseball America named them the MiLB Team of the Year. This is lofty praise coming from a national publication that expends a great deal of time and effort is making such a selection, and the Rome squad could not be more deserving. This team featured a wave of young talent that has not been seen in the Braves system in quite some time, with several high draft picks and international signees suiting up with Rome this season. This core should be fun to watch as they progress toward Atlanta in the coming years.
The Case for the Braves having a Top 3 Farm System
Our very own gvedak wrote up a piece on the current state of the Braves farm system and why it deserves to be ranked among the top-3 in all of baseball. The Braves have added a lot of high-end talent since the outset of their rebuild, and continued to do so over the past year, whether it be through trades, the draft, or international signees. The system has grown considerably, and soon the Braves could have a ridiculous portion of the top-100 prospects:
As long as players progress like we hope, we could conceivably witness the Braves with 8 to 10 top 100 prospects to go along with their absolutely massive amounts of depth and escalate the Braves to the top or at the very least top 3 farm systems in all of baseball. Add to that, a top draft pick for next year - we have a lot to be excited about.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend giving this article a read. It encapsulates just how deep and talented the Braves system has become and highlights the ways in which the front office has continued that stockpiling effort in 2016.
Braves have non-tender decisions looming as deadline nears
With time running out on the non-tender deadline, the Braves have until Friday to make decisions on arbitration-eligible players. Mark Bowman of MLB.com speculates that three players stand out as potential non-tender candidates at this time:
There remains a possibility that (Chris) Withrow and (Paco) Rodriguez could become valuable assets in Atlanta's bullpen. But for now, these two relievers join catcher Anthony Recker as the three members of the Braves' organization who are most eagerly looking toward Friday's non-tender deadline, when all Major League clubs must decide whether to tender a contract to their arbitration-eligible players.
Tuffy Gosewich (and his 80-grade name) agreed to a one-year deal on Wednesday to avoid arbitration, making him and Tyler Flowers the only catchers in the organization currently under contract with major league experience.
MLB NEWS
The news of baseball’s finalization of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement comes just days ahead of the 2017 Winter Meetings, and allows baseball to continue without a work stoppage for the 23rd consecutive season. The details of the new CBA are still being released, but the gist of it is that baseball will not implement an international draft, not add a 26th roster spot, and will raise the luxury tax threshold. One other notable aspect of the agreement is the lack of a change to MLB’s September roster rules, which were supposedly up for discussion in this round of labor talks. It will be interesting to see what other details come out regarding the new CBA, but for now let’s all just breathe a sigh of relief that: 1. We have uninterrupted baseball coming in just four months, and 2. We don’t have to hear about the CBA again for another five years.
Pirates actively shopping Andrew McCutchen, per reports
Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen is reportedly being shopped aggressively by the club, and sources indicate that a trade could be completed as early as next week, during baseball’s Winter Meetings. McCutchen is coming off his worst year as a professional in 2016, when he hit just .256 with a .776 OPS, but his two years of remaining club control at just $28.5 million total is still a bargain for the track record that the 30-year old brings.