Braves GM John Coppolella discussed the Braves’ recent offseason and long-term plans in a Q+A with David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here are some of the highlights.
- The Braves’ trades of Melvin Upton Jr. (prior to the 2015 season) and Chris Johnson (during that same season) were done with this month’s opening of Sun Trust Park in mind. Upton and Johnson would have still been under contract at this point and would have affected the Braves’ 2017 payroll had they not been dealt. The Braves offloaded Upton’s entire contract in the Craig Kimbrel deal. The Braves took on salary in the deal that sent Johnson to Cleveland for Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn, although they saved money in 2017, since Johnson was the only player in the deal under contract for that season.
- Coppolella’s reasoning for the Braves’ acquisitions of Bartolo Colon, R.A. Dickey and Jaime Garcia this winter isn’t surprising — he says the Braves needed innings eaters, and notes that the Braves aren’t obligated to pay any of the three beyond this season.  “Ideally they will provide us 550-600 innings of quality and certainty,” Coppolella says. “There were so many times last year where our pitcher would be knocked out before the fourth inning and you absolutely decimate your bullpen and end up having to make three or four roster moves each day. We rushed some pitchers up here who weren’t ready and, candidly, some who were just not good.”
- The loss of another recent addition, Sean Rodriguez, stings, Coppolella says. “It wasn’t only our starting second baseman, but like you said a high-level backup at several positions. For us he was a lot like Ben Zobrist for the Chicago Cubs where he would play a lot and play a lot of different positions,” Coppolella argues. Rodriguez, of course, is likely to miss the entire 2017 season to shoulder surgery following an offseason car crash in Miami.
- Yet another offseason acquisition, Brandon Phillips, won’t block top prospect Ozzie Albies when Albies is ready. Albies figures to eventually join Dansby Swanson in the Braves’ middle infield. “Ozzie is a special kid with a really bright future, and when he is ready to help us in the Major Leagues, nobody is going to stand in his way,” says Coppolella. “It’s a great problem to have too many good players and too few spots. Young players with talent and versatility can merge with veteran players on a team looking to win. Ask the Cubs about Javier Baez.”
- Coppolella adds that the Braves were open to trading highly rated prospects this offseason, but never found a trade offer that made them want to do so.
Sun Trust Park is so boring looking. I know teams like Miami went overboard with the pizzazz, but geez…may as well just tore Turner Field down and piece it back together in the new spot.
Have you been to STP yet? No? Wait until you go before claiming it’s boring.
Turner Field was in a terrible location. Nothing to do. Very few if any places to stay near by.
This is built for baseball. Turner was built for the Olympics.
I think it’s boring and yes I’ve been
It’s much much much better than Turner, location aside. It has more definitive personality than Turner ever did, it maybe not as much as some of the legendary stadiums. That being said, new stadiums are typically underwhelming at first, but it has a lot of niceties and room to grow. They needed something of their own, and the more offensive park with the RF wall, fountain and low LF wall is interesting and could make for some fun games. It is a welcome site to Cobb Co.
This guy says it is boring…so it must be boring. If you go to football games or NBA games, or Hockey games, you probably would want to kill yourself because of how bland all arenas/stadiums are.
Weird how people have different opinions, huh? Must be a new concept for you. And I’ve seen enough of the stadium to see that its boring to look at.
Next time teams will come to you first before structuring their stadiums!
This guy again … Opinions, huh. And have you just driven by the ballpark on the interstate or seen a game there? Oh, wait, they haven’t even played a game there yet!
Turner Field was great but it was in a terrible location. Cobb County took advantage of that.
Oh, wait, they played a game there Friday
I personally like the simple look of Sun Trust. I don’t think baseball stadiums need bright colors and all that especially a team like the braves
You don’t like the chromakey green for the Marlins where you can do the weather report against their wall? Or the gawdy CF art installation that is Salvador Dali’s wet dream after finding out about the Mets HR apple. Stadiums have a way of looking like the makeup of their teams. Marlins is obviously similar to its owner, Lorna, opulent, empty and at times head scratching while also interesting. SunTrust is safe much like the franchise, its technologically advanced and created with a business approach to the game, but most of all it’s a place to call their own.
‘“It’s a great problem to have too many good players and too few spots.”‘
The ability to observe other teams and project them onto your own situation is a good visualization process. Dream big….
That said, the Braves have a long way to go before realizing that dream.
Comparing Albias to Baez? Not even close to the same player profile. LOL, Baez has a bat and defense that will play anywhere on the diamond. Albias is stuck with SS or centerfield. With the way second baseman are hitting these days he doesn’t really play there with no power.
This guy…Are u saying hes a 19 year old top 15 overall prospect for no reason? A guy that could potentially compete for gold gloves and batting titles isnt valuable? It looks to me like power is the trait getting overlooked in free agency these days
Albies is 20. And how many people do you think could potentially compete for gg and batting titles?
Power is certainly not getting overlooked. Power only no defense players are getting “overlooked” because teams have started to realize that those kinds of players aren’t really that valuable and restrict a teams flexibility.
He’s a contact hitter that has hit though being 3-5 years younger at every stop. He is still growing into his body and while I wouldn’t see him jacking 30 bombs, contact and XBH is the important hitting quality, power comes. I would take Albies ability to hit for AVG and base running skills over the free-swinging Baez any day. Though it’s not fair compare a proven ML player and a 20 year old when Coppy was only referencing a team’s ability to utilize players when there’s not specific position open for them just yet. Coppy has never let service time dictate call-ups and I believe that’s what he is saying if BP is playing well and Albies proves he’s ready.
Whenever I see chesteraarthur’s comments, I know I can just carry on.
That is when I pay the most attention. He is the smartest man in here.
the kid didn’t know the numerical value for each position on the field. Ie 1 for pitching, 2 for catcher… he’s a joke. Basic baseball knowledge that he didn’t know. .
I don’t think brood550 is saying that Albies doesn’t have any value or that he isn’t a good player. He’s just saying that he’s a completely different type of player than Baez, which I think is true. It’s also true that the defensive skills Baez has shown at multiple positions at the major league level and power potential make him a very unique and valuable player.
Albies’ status as a Top 20 prospect doesn’t guarantee that he’ll be a great major league player. Until he has success at AAA and MLB, it’s reasonable to have some questions how his swing and lack of power translate to the major leagues. It’s really tough to be a superstar in the major leagues when you have little power and your game relies so much on BABIP. Is he the next Ichiro? Juan Pierre? or a younger Emilio Bonafacio?
Bosworthfield I think it is noteworthy that you did mention Juan Pierre in your comments. I’ve seen several comments that do compare Albies to Pierre in many ways, except most predict much more power and better walk rate for Albies but with slightly less steals for Albies and worse strikeout totals for Albies as well. Combine that with the all around athleticism to play above average defense in the middle of the diamond by almost all accounts puts Albies as quite a valuable prospect. Pierre made it to the majors at age 22 while Albies should be in the majors long before his 21st birthday. Albies ability to play premium defensive positions well combined with a vastly superior arm and his propensity to draw walks could very well make him a far better player in his career than Pierre ever ended up being. Only time will tell for sure.
Albies is still developing however and you are correct in saying that we don’t know realize yet what he will end up being (so obviously some caution is in order for sure). He did significantly improve his powertool over the last year in almost every prospect report I’ve read while also making strides in many other tools such as hit tool, defense and arm. He could be special.
As far as Coppy’s Baez comment I personally didn’t interpret Coppy as meaning that Albies was the exact type of player as Baez (they are obviously different in many ways) but I took it to mean that Atlanta could certainly make use of a young athletic player who could likely fit into many positions on the diamond much in the same manner as the Cubs found ways to utilize Baez. Just my opinion.
he wasn’t comparing players, he was comparing their situations.
The only comparison was that they are both versatile, young, and talented. Didn’t mention their respective games at all. Idk why everyone decided to blow this out of proportion
His last sentence is what i was responding to
I’m just responding to Brood. What a moron. Albies has a much much much higher ceiling than Baez. And he doesn’t profile as a CF at all. Not sure where you got that from.
yea, brood completely missed the point not to mention is logic is flat awful. Here’s the deal, if you can play SS, you can play almost any position on the diamond. If you can play CF, you most likely can handle playing any position in the outfield. That’s where the comparison is. He can play anywhere if needed, much like Baez. That’s very valuable especially if you’re a good hitter. Maybe Ozzie doesn’t profile an every day 1B or 3B. but that’s not what Coppy is saying. He’s saying he can play anywhere and play well, much like Baez. lol
I love SunTrust Park. I think it’s amazing and it has so much more to offer than The Ted ever did.
Also, prior to the game I made it a point about the right-field power alley being only 375 feet as opposed to the 390 mark at The Ted. I said the guy that would benefit the most from that would be Freddie Freeman and that’s exactly what happened on that ball he hit out last night. That would have been an easy out at The Ted.
Speaking of homeruns, the ball really appeared to jump last night. I think we’re looking at a stadium that will yield a lot of long balls, much like old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
I also wanted to mention that I’m glad that Coppy was honest enough to admit that some of the guys we threw out there last year had no business being out there. One of the traits I admire about Coppy was how honest he has been about this whole process. He was very honest about how he regrets the Hector Olivera trade.
One more thing from last night, John Hart let the cat out of the bag that two years ago when the Braves decided to go into this rebuild that one of the guys they traded to acquire was Gary Sanchez from the Yankees. That would have been so amazing to have.
The dimensions are quite similar to the launching pad in Great American Ballpark in CIN though the RF wall is taller.
SunTrust is a very nice park. I’m afraid it may turn into another launching pad. We’ll have to see. I don’t see the Braves winning more than 75 to 77 games and that will be a successful season if it happens. The biggest problem this year for the Braves will be behind the plate. Catcher Tyler Flowers does not throw the ball very well anymore and teams are going to run like crazy on RA Dickey and Bartolo Colon.
No doubt. We were told they were going to address this in the offseason and they really didn’t. We have some defensive minded catchers is the lower minors, but it will be some time before they are ready for the show, if ever. I don’t see us making a run for it in the near future without some serious help
Flowers showed again yesterday that he also doesn’t block balls in the dirt very well either. He quite frankly doesn’t do anything well defensively and his offense is only meh at best. Braves are in desperate need of a quality catcher. We’ve got options but they’re all in the lower minors. We’ve got no one close to MLB ready.
Offense is meh, he is hitting .380.