Braves’ president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, who recently added a World Series victory to his resume, spoke with members of the media today about what the club has planned between now and their upcoming title defense in 2022. When it comes to the budget, Anthopoulos said that it will go up next season, though the exact figure is still being finalized. (Twitter link from David O’Brien of The Athletic.)
It’s hardly surprising that ownership is going to invest some more money into the club, given that they surely saw increased revenues from ticket sales and television viewership during their triumphant march to becoming World Series champions. They began the 2021 season with a payroll over $131MM, the highest opening day figure in franchise history, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. In July, they acquired Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall, Joc Pederson, Stephen Vogt and Richard Rodriguez, taking on about $15MM in salary and pushing their season-ending payroll to somewhere in the $145-150MM range. At the moment, their outlook for 2022 is just over $141MM, in the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource, already fairly close to 2022’s final outlay. Therefore, their offseason strategy will depend upon exactly how much of increase the front office has to work with.
Anthopoulos himself acknowledged that it will be hard to keep all of the outfielders. (Twitter link from Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.) Soler, Pederson and Rosario are all heading into free agency today, leaving the club with a 2022 outfield of Duvall, Cristian Pache and Guillermo Heredia. Ronald Acuna will retake a spot as soon as he’s healthy but isn’t expected to be ready by opening day. There’s certainly room to add to that group, on paper, as long as there’s money available to do it.
Of course, there’s another area that the club surely wants to dedicate some resources to, and that’s bringing Freddie Freeman back into the fold. When it comes to the slugging first baseman, Anthopoulos said, per Burns, “We’ve made it clear we want him to stay. He wants to stay.” The mutual interest in reuniting is understandable, given that Freeman has been with the organization since they selected him in the second round of the 2007 draft and since has become the face of the franchise, but he’s also 32 years old, meaning this is going to be his best shot to land a huge deal in free agency. As much as he may want to return, he’ll also want to take advantage of his first and potentially only trip to the free agent market and can’t be expected to offer huge hometown discounts.
Freeman has been one of the most consistently-excellent hitters over the past decade or so. Since his 2013 breakout, he’s never had a wRC+ lower than 132 and never produced less than 3.3 fWAR, even including the shortened 2020 campaign. In 2021, he hit 31 home runs and slashed .300/.393/.503, good enough for a wRC+ of 135 and 4.5 fWAR. It’s hard to fathom him doing that in any other uniform at this point, but the Atlanta brass will surely have to put some cash on the barrelhead to keep it that way.
Ray!?
Yeah they’re going to use it to resign Freeman.
As they should.
As far as overall payroll goes, can someone correct me if (and when) im wrong on the following?
I think I read somewhere that the way liberty has the team set up is that profits don’t flow to the parent corp, that when the braves make more money they invest it into the team – whether capital improvement, ancillary development nearby (battery), debt service, team infrastructure, and finally payroll.
As the debt service is slowly coming down, and revenues are up from their postseason run, that means payroll goes up unless they invest somewhere else on the team. (Liberty then makes money by virtue of controlling media rights)
So, increased payroll being available makes sense, right? And, likely ought to continue to increase?
Yes.
But will the increase be enough if they use it to keep freeman?
I severely doubt freeman will leave. He has roots here and a life. That counts for something. Plus he loves snit and the organization. He might take less money to stay long term.
It’s always perplexing to me how players can be expected to take hometown discounts, but teams aren’t expected to give hometown surplus offers to retain faces of the franchise.
I would be more offended if he takes a hometown discount. The man needs paid if management doesn’t want to then I hope he gets paid somewhere else. I have been a Braves fan my whole life but this whole getting discounts is ridiculous. At least when Turner owned it he would pay his players first then if he had money left he would see what he could get. Pay your own first then mix and match. They have a good strong core a the moment they will be just fine.
It better, we have some major players we need back… plus we “the fans” showed up all freaking season and are blowing it out of the water on all fronts spending money on this team. Reward our loyalties!! SIGN FREEMAN NOW! Find ways to keep Eddie and Soler! Lock up some of them young guys!
I feel (and i could be totally wrong since i don’t follow the Braves too closely) that AA definitely wants to spend money and keep this success going, but Liberty Media might restrict what he wants to spend. They arent local owners
The way I think it is set up is liberty has 0 say so of how much the payroll is. It’s all dependent on how much the organization makes as a whole. So if the team was to have $190 million profit then that could be what the payroll could theoretical be
Revenue was north of $250 mil through sept. That doesn’t include postseason which is still pouring in revenue that I’d assume would be well north of $100 mil. No clue what profits will ultimately be, but that’s real money for 1 year. No reason the Braves can replicate that income by bringing back a strong team. We brought in that revenue and the team struggle up until August. Braves fans show up…
You would think their stock would be doing better given all the extra revenue from the post-season.
Love this team. I think Freddie stays, Would love to have Soler DH, joc goes and Rosario goes. I think Duvall gets an arbitration number and we wait for Acuna.
Rosario will get a big payday and probably Soler as well. Hopefully Ozuna monies helps us.
Lol
The Braves response to Manfred stealing the all star game from Atlanta was the Braves quickly ended attendance restrictions at games (joining the Texas Rangers). Between the extra regular season ticket sales and the loot from the playoffs it only makes sense the Braves would be in a position to spend more. I’m looking forward to 2022 and I think Freeman will be on the team.
Imagine how much more money they would have to spend if Manfred didn’t move the All-star game to appease a bunch of losers who don’t even like baseball.
Does All Star revenue go to the host team? I would assume it would be split
From what I can find, the only real financial benefit to the hosting team is what they make at the gate. Which – hey – I’m sure is a tidy sum. But they don’t get a couple million bucks or whatever from the league as some kind of finders fee.
The main financial impact of hosting an All Star game is to the local businesses: hotels, restaurants & bars, shopping, transportation, etc. The Braves ownership lost very little in comparison to the city’s residents.
Which…yeah.
“The Braves ownership lost very little in comparison to the city’s residents”
was the 2nd half of that sentence supposed to be …to the city’s residents who lost essentially nothing,” The city’s hotels, restaurants, bars, shopping centers, and modes of transportation: those keep operating even when there’s no All-Star game. Those employed at these place: they still went to work even though there was no All-Star game.
Oh unless the loss you’re referring to is the $400 million of public funds used to build the Braves current stadium. Then, yeah totally.
So just because they were still going to work they made as much money? & there were zero extra jobs created by it? None? No extra shifts? Overtime? More & bigger tips? Etc etc?
No sarcasm: For real. Is that your assertion?
“So just because they were still going to work they made as much money?”
Uh, yeah.
Is there some 5-Day Wage Bump for Service Sector workers when a professional sports league has a special event in their city or something? A “Hey The Store Has Been Slightly Busier The Last Few Days” bonus?”
” & there were zero extra jobs created by it?”
Yes, Zero, Wait, I guess it screwed someone out of a job as Atlanta’s Official 2021 MLB All-Star Game Historian. Oh, Atlanta’s local scalper/bootleg merch population lost out on a couple days.
“No extra shifts?
Maybe an extra hand in the afternoons if there’s a LIDZ.
“Overtime?”
For who and why? The All-Star Game/festivities don’t run any later than a Braves game would,
“More & bigger tips?”
Not for the vast majority of workers who job doesn’t involve tipping. For servers/bartenders, where would those tips be coming from? The people attending the All-Star Game…are at the All-Star Game. And no alky after 11:45/on Sundays.
Etc etc?
Also probably not.
African American voters are losers?
I think it means the liberal population that doesn’t care about baseball
Dont know about the east coast, but there are just as many “liberal” fans here on the west coast as there are “conservative”. Its such a stupid argument.
I find it…. unsettling… that when i vote in my state they don’t ask for ID or anything. There needs to be voting reform, but restricting the number of drop boxes in urban areas in Georgia is kind of spiteful. Portions of Georgia’s voting bill went too far which is why Manfred moved the All Star game. But in his brilliance, he cost the local economy of Atlanta (many minority businesses) revenue. Manfred is a dope
All those black-owned business that lost out of a huge revenue boost aren’t too thrilled Manfred made an optics move that had absolutely no effect on the actual politics in the area. This decision did more harm to black people than the bill it opposed.
As a non American I have no opinion on the matter but as life long baseball fan I hate how the situation was handled.
It’s virtue signalling at its finest. No one here can honestly sit back and say that moving the all star game did anything positive at all. If you’re going to take a stand on a social issue then take a real stand and demand real change, if not just keep quiet and keep running your business.
What businesses are you referring to that would be receiving this revenue spike? The stadium is in the outskirts in Cumberland, and is surrounded by a giant multi-use shopping center (The Battery). Do you have demographic info on the ethnic makeup of the owners/franchisees of those businesses? Do you have any specific information at all as far as black-owned business adversely affected by moving the game, or is it just one of those things to say and assume no follow-up questions?
Lol
@OntariGro – Please stop. The All-Star “game” is actually three days of events, with a home run derby, the futures game, a celebrity softball game, etc., etc., etc. Truist Park sat empty those three days. There was no gate. There were no concessions. There were no visitors who flew in to see the events, so those hotel rooms, restaurant visits, and shopping trips never happened. There were no All Star Game crowds in the Battery. There was no “regular Braves game” to make up for that potential income. OF COURSE there was a financial impact when the festivities moved to Denver. To pretend otherwise is absurd.
Tbh, I didn’t even know you could vote without an ID. It wasn’t until I went voting in the last presidential election (first presidential election I was old enough to vote in) that I found out you don’t need like a drivers licence.
Why would you need a driver’s license to vote? You don’t have to be able to drive to vote.
Drives licences as in a valid form of ID, not limited to just a license. You need one to buy a weapon, buy alcohol, open a bank account, open a credit card account, get a job, get a passport, essentially any offical legal document needs some form of ID. Just figured you needed one to vote too until I went and they didn’t require it.
Duvall? He declined his option so he is a free agent
Ehh not really he doesn’t have enough service time to becoming a free agent and so he reverts to being arbitration eligible again. Which means he’ll get more then what his option was offering.
The Braves can still offer him arbitration. He’s not a free agent yet.
Not enough service time for free agent.
Depends on the $$, but unless you’re convinced Pache is ready to be your everyday CF, Rosario is more valuable than Soler. (Also assuming Duvall re-signs.) Rosario can hold down LF until RAJ returns and then can be your 4th OF/DH.
rosario is not a 4th OFer , he is a starter
Pache is not close to being ready. That bat is a easy out every ab. This isn’t AAA pitching
I’m honestly not convinced Pache ever develops a ML caliber bat. You don’t give up on him, but you can’t count on him, either.
Our best bet long term is Michael Harris, but he is at least one year away..
Can’t hit a lick in the MLB and add Carmargo to that.
Duvall is staying. He’s a arbitration case. We have him at least one more year.
if we lose soler I can live with that, but we need to sign freeman and rosario. not concerned with joc either
Agreed
I’d like to have Pederson back. He brought a postseason swagger (for lack of a better term) to the team.
I look for Soler to get a decently high offer, and I look for it to be out of the Braves price range. So he is probably gone, but Atlanta will have the ’21 World Series forever thanks in part to him.
I agree on the postseason part, but we need him for 162 first and idk that I’d want him that long, especially considering he wants to be a starter
Let Joc sign with a lesser team to promise him a starting spot to boost his stat so we can trade for him in a salary dump in July and save the roster spot for the first couple of months – rinse, repeat.
& it should!
Playoff baseball is wildly lucrative.
Postseason profits are what made me realize that there is a much different paradigm with the Yankees than what I grew up with. The first time the Yanks didn’t pay a luxury tax was in 2018. Every single season prior to that they did.
The timing was very telling. Yanks had just come off a run that ended in an ALCS game 7. They even had a home WC game to further fatten the coffers. Yet unlike recent AL teams in KC & Cleveland that went on runs & increased payroll, the Yanks *cut* theirs as opposed to funding roster additions.
Because the Yankees also own their own network, their profit margin is even higher. I tried to figure out how much a playoff series is worth to a franchise. All estimates exceeded $10 mil & some were as high as $20MM(!).
Atlanta is looking at a pile of the sweetest skim of them all: Playoff Bucks! Good for them to put a cut of it back into next year’s roster. Not every team does that…
So, where do the Freeman talks start? 5/125? Is that too low?
I would assume that’s about 2 years and 75 mil short of the starting point.
131 mill was the highest in franchise history ?… what the f… really? damn that’s surprising.
Damn right BravesFan, spent a pretty penny for the Brewers and Astros series. Sign Freddie. FM 1988,Really Bro? If 88 is the year you born that would make you 33 yrs old. Someone 30 plus would troll just for the response? Expect it from the 20+yr olds cause they are “social swole” but 30 plus man. Check your 401k, IRA, and portfolio. Grown folk talk!
DUH !!
Freeman – 6 years at 150-160 million with 2 options for a total 8 years 210-215 million with the universal DH coming.
or a 5 year 225 with the 2-3 options after the last year worth 100 mil each
7 yrs…$195 mil
Most, if not all, of the added payroll will be going to re-signings (Freeman, Rosario, Duvall, etc) and arbitration raises for many of the young core. Kinda sucks, but gotta take care of your own before splurging for FA. It would be sweet to shock the world and grab a big name bat in addition to re-upping Freeman, but I’ll settle for keeping #5 in a Braves uniform for the foreseeable future.
Yup, Agree with those numbers. I remember when Chipper was re upping like 04/05 I think. Dude took less money so the team could sign other guys. Not saying Freddie should do the same but I think all parties understand the dynamics. Work with the team so they have flexibility. Terry Mcguirk, Pay the dude.
id be shocked if Freeman didnt. he’s got a good thing going there in ATL. it may not be a real low AAV deal, but I could see him turning down more elsewhere
Sign Freddie and Scherzer. Eat your heart out LAD!!!
Scherzer isn’t leaving the west coast. But ya’ll in the east can still dream.
I don’t want a 38-year-old ugly ass pitcher anyway. We’ve got Charlie Morton for that spot. Freddie will get about 6/$150, which is about what he’s been making. Riley will get a BIG bump as a Super 2.
Hahahahahahaha! We’ve got Charlie Morton for that spot…good stuff unless serious.
I personally think, if anything, we resign Freddie for 3 years at 90 million. He gets a big raise, Braves don’t get into a super long term deal with an aging player, then we go yearly after that.
If Copy were still the GM he would probably buy like 15 million dollars worth of Chelsea Freeman’s clothing line as a signing bonus. Lol
AA will get the job done. Possibly the best GM in MLB
1. Freeman
2. Fried
3. Riley
4. Let Pederson, Rosario, Soler walk.
5. Figure out long term solution for Ozuna.
I expect Freeman to get a huge deal that will keep him in Atlanta for the rest of his career. I say 8 years $240 million.
It would be lunacy to sign a 32 year old to an 8 year deal. Unless we front load it and the last couple of years are dirt cheap, anyway.
This is great news, but let’s see what they will do with the extra money.
Resign Freeman
Acquire at least one inexpensive bullpen arm
Get two outfielders! Let Duvall walk. Resign Soler. Try to resign Rosario. Not sure about Pederson. He will be a good bench bat but the Braves will not pay him to be a bench bat.
Still believe the best-case scenario is to acquire Reynolds or Marte (Arz) and bring back Soler (DH) and Rosario. Acuna will round out the OF when he gets back.
Rotation is set. Soroka is like a big free-agent signing. Wouldn’t surprise me if the Braves go after Greinke to round out the rotation.
Duvall doesn’t have enough service time to be a free agent this year. He’s still arbitration eligible for one more year. Unless the Braves non-tender him (not happening), Duvall is back with the Braves next year.
Braves have to resolve Ozuna situation first before thinking about bringing Soler and/or Rosario back, imo.
Hopefully the Braves can first resign Freeman, and then I’d like to see them take a swing at resigning at least Rosario, if not Soler (DH) too, while also accepting Duvall’s arbitration salary. It might be more realistic that they end up with Soler, Joc, and Duvall as Rosario might have priced himself out of Atlanta’s budget.
That, plus filling out some bench spots with a utility guy other than Arcia or Camargo, and the rest of the bench should be fine. Next, they’ll need to add some SP depth as I’m not so sure they’ll be able to count on Soroka coming back. They’ll start the year with Morton, Fried, Anderson, and then a few younger arms in Ynoa, Wright, Muller, Davidson, and Strider. I’d really like to see Wright and Muller both get shots to start the year in the rotation, but that’s a big risk with then wanting to compete for a WS and even their division title. Maybe they add a veteran to lockdown the 4th spot, and then have the other 5 guys battle it out with Wright getting the first shot.
Then, they’ll just need to add maybe two RH bullpen arms, and the Braves should be primed to make another run at things again!!
Just use the losers of the rotation battles as RH relievers. Strider may be a better reliever anyway.