To this point of the spring, the biggest health questions in Braves camp have surrounded youngster Mike Soroka and his balky shoulder. There’s nothing new yet on Soroka, who’ll face something of a test when he throws today. But there are some other health issues of note, as well as an update on the state of the club’s finances. Let’s have a look:
- Key righty Mike Foltynewicz was scratched from his next scheduled start due to elbow soreness, skipper Brian Snitker told reporters including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (Twitter links). Initial indications are that this isn’t considered serious, with Snitker saying that Foltynewicz wouldn’t have missed a regular season outing. Still, the club has set up a medical review for the weekend to take a closer look. It’s obviously tough to say whether there’s any real cause for concern here. As Bowman notes, some minor elbow issues have bothered Foltynewicz in recent season. On the one hand, that suggests some history in the joint; on the other, it didn’t prevent him from turning in a breakout 2018 campaign.
- Meanwhile, fellow starters Luiz Gohara and Kevin Gausman are each dealing with some shoulder woes, Bowman further tweets. Both hurlers are throwing, which is certainly a good sign, though they’re each being handled with care. Whether they’ll be deemed ready to open the season in the MLB rotation will presumably be dictated by how their shoulders respond in the coming days, as they’ll need to begin building innings up to do so. In Gohara’s case, of course, he will also have to win a spot or take advantage of an opening.
- It’s still theoretically possible that the Braves will choose to add to their existing pitching mix. The rotation was a secondary topic of conversation for the club’s top decisionmakers in a recent interview in which they discussed the decision (to this point) not to dedicate further payroll space to the 2019 roster. While the Braves insist they have untapped spending capacity, there are those who think they should be more eager both to spend what has been allocated and open the pocketbook yet further. Today’s disclosures from owner Liberty Media add yet more fuel to the flames. As Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal was among those to note (via Twitter), the ballclub reported a year-over-year jump from $7MM to $94MM in operating income before interest and depreciation. As the above-linked interview suggested would be the case, the club has indeed driven down its debt load, though Fisher notes it’s primed to take on more in loans to further build out its property investments surrounding SunTrust Park. Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution covered some other numbers from the team’s revenue report.
sign Dallas
Maybe time for a reunion with Bartolo Colon? I still think he deserves to play somewhere as a depth option.
Na, he was actually pretty crappy for Atlanta. He left, and did so much better.
I think Dallas would be option #1, followed by Gio, and then maybe someone like Shields or buchholz.
I’d rather have Dallas, no Shields. But, I suppose he could eat innings.
There’s so much depth in SP for Atlanta, they could make a significant trade for a top arm.
What top arm is available for this significant trade? It is easy to say, but very hard to do.
I don’t know,
I don’t work in baseball.
Why would you add shields or Buch? They are #4/5 guys at best which is worse than what’s already in the rotation. I’m all for spending money on or trading for a true Ace (kuechel is not a true ace). But to spend money on bad, back end starters just to spend money? No way
When you bring in guys like Shields, Buchholz, and even Gio, you are taking innings and opportunity away from the young guys. The Braves need to find out what they have in these guys and who the keepers are, which is much harder to do without enough ML innings to go around.
No thanks. Colon has been terrible the last couple of years. Guy is done.
What the Braves need is a new stadium.
Nah they needed to sign a guy to a 300 million dollar contract that cripples them for ten years
The Braves needed to sign Bryce Harper? You need to take that breaking news over to Twitter! You’ll be the next Jon Heyman.
“Well we offered Dallas Kuechel a minor league deal. Can’t say we didn’t try.”
– Terry McGuirk
He’d be their #4 starter at gwinnett.
I said before the Braves gambled on everyone being healthy and thus they didn’t add much. We shall see……
This is what baseball has become: More talk about ledger sheets than rosters.
Yes, honesty……. ” revenue growth ” Next year the Braves will have all kinds of money for free agents…… or the next?
From the note it looks as though they are more interested in growing The Battery than The Braves. Ironic considering one was supposed to help the other, but considering Coppy never had a significant signing and AA still hasn’t…eventually this team will need to spend money intelligently as opposed to not at all.
Yeah that was the BS story during construction. That the Battery revenue was going to help the team in payroll. Now all they seem to care about is being a real estate company instead of a freaking baseball team.
I am with you in the frustration, but I will say that the free agent classes they have been quiet on weren’t worth the risk. Next year is a different story. I appreciate they went to their largest AAV ever with Donaldson, but it seems like it’s either/or in terms of years/AAV for free agents and at some point that needs to have more balance for us to get who we want. Reported injury concerns with our top SP prospect (Soroka), Opening Day starter (Folty), midrotation SP (Gausman) and rotation depth (Gohara – nicknamed Big Surprise). Teheran just might be the Opening Day starter…smh.
With pick #5 in the 2020 draft the Atlanta Liberty Media’s select:______
Looks like something Joe Simpson would say.
…on the radio…woot woot. (Thank you!)
Lol, I kinda liked ole’ stick-in-the-mud Joe. But the Frenchy/Caray combo will be fun to watch.
I wouldn’t mind Simpson if he weren’t paired with Caray – them together is like having 2 Shemps and no Curly.
As a business owner and Braves fan, it looks to me like the Braves are doing it the right way. The Braves debt went down around $130 million in the last quarter of last year. Eventually you have to actually deal with the debt you owe. Can’t just keep spending.
The product on the field is young and talented. They’re cheap and provide financial flexibility for when you know what you need to improve on during the season. If Nick Markakis is struggling halfway through, go get his replacement, if he’s producing like the first half of last year, roll with it.
Plus, one proven young pitcher is worth what 3-4 unproven top prospects are. Let these young guys pitch. Prove their worth, and then trade them when you have more pitchers than spots open. Even if a couple struggle, they’ll still have some value for a team willing to take a shot on them breaking out. The main thing is having a good enough player development system where you know your pitchers. You have to be able to see who your ace is and develop him and trade the #3 type pitchers who the Braves seemingly have a ton of.
To keep spending, don’t you first have to spend?
With the way Touki is pitching right now, Dallas better be on a flight to Orlando…
Yeah, rough start.
@spudchukar
Just wanted to say that I get a kick out of your screen name LOL
Yeah, it’s funny that a few of those are former Braves (David Peterson, Gordon Beckham) that tagged him. And that’s a lineup without Might/Castellanos.
Dallas is not a top arm. He is not worth what he is asking for.
there is no reason to be concerned as a Braves fan. They have about two rotations worth of MLB-ready or near-MLB-ready starters available.
They have one rotation worth of reported arm trouble…so they will need that second rotation where the most experienced member is Teheran. Pray for rain.
They’re going to sniff around and see if they can get lucky on another Jaret Wright or Russ Ortiz…
I wonder what Mike Hampton is up to these days. Maybe he’s available.
COL is in the mood to shell out cash so I’m sure he’s been throwing around the ball. Cue John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High.
The problem is they have no less than 5 minor league pitchers who are ready to debut at the ML level now. Unless they work some deals they need to make room for these pitchers. They really don’t need Gausman and Teheran blocking Wright, Toussaint, Soroka, Gohara, and Fried now while also needing to eventually work in the next wave of Wilson, Anderson, Allard, Muller, Wentz and Weigel. Riley, Pache, Jackson and Waters are looking like they are almost ready for the bigs as well.
Muller, Wilson, Wentz are already looking good in limited time. Anxious to see Weigel in game action.
Good time to be a Braves fan!
Revenue growth and could but won’t spend money!! Unbelievable!! Please sell the Braves Liberty Media!! You don’t care about the Braves. If so go sign Harper or Kimbrel.
Isn’t there a happy medium? You want ATL to dish out what would be the richest deal in North American sports history beating the previous franchise free agent high set by BJ Upton (75.25MM) that crippled the team and the reason we lost Kimbrel, whom ironically you want to sign back?
Sure, it is not my money but if it doesn’t work out 3-4 years in, I don’t want to see another 4-8 years of rebuilding and listen to the inevitable media spin on when they will compete again.
I honestly know next-to-nothing about the BJ Upton contract and how it affected the Braves, but did a single 5 year $75 million contract really “cripple” the team? Seems hard to believe, in this decade.
Really? Didn’t know that was a question. If nothing else they had to pair Kimbrel and his team-friendly deal with him for salary relief and the only thing of any value we got back in that was the draft pick that led to Austin Riley. When you combined Upton’s deal with Uggla/Chris Johnson’s extensions and the impending free agency of Heyward/Justin Upton — BJ Upton’s deal help solidify the rebuild — so I can thank him in allowing the inevitable to happen.
What’s the reason(s) why the Atlanta Braves have lost 11 of their last 12 postseason series?
Lack of long-term direction has been the recent playoff struggles.
@ sbpaco. That was Bobby Cox.
Wouldn’t mind signing kimbrell and Dallas. Wish we would open up our pockets just a little. These guys would be difference makers for us.
This team is gearing up to have the bottom 10 rotation in the game.
No, they aren’t. I swear, Braves fans are such drama queens.
Trade Julio Teheran, a prospect, and Adam Duvall to SF for Madison Bumgarner. Then sign Kimbrel to a four year, 80M deal.
Why would San Fran do this trade?
Dude can you ship whatever youre smoking over to NYC because I really need that good good. While we’re at it, SF should throw in an extra $5 million just for the hell of it right?
Two certainties this season, the Braves will draw very well and the owners will make a hefty profit. Everything else is pure speculation.
and a 3rd certainty is the braves will finish 4th in the division. while the fans make excuses that we are rebuilding.
(sorry, it only let me like your comment 1x no matter how many times i clicked it lol)
I can’t wait until Teheran is announced as the opening day starter and Harper hits an absolute tank shot off him in the first inning. :,-(
Or maybe he rolls over on one for a double play!!