Sadly: Atlanta Braves close to loosing two key players After 2024………….
After this season, the Atlanta Braves may lose some key players.
After 2024, the Atlanta Braves roster may see some notable changes.
The organization has a number of pending free agents, although pitching turnover is anticipated to be higher than position player turnover because several arms do not have club options that may allow the team to keep them under contract for an extra season.
Naturally, there is also the issue of demand. Two Braves, both pitchers, were listed in Bleacher Report’s top 25 most sought-after free agents for the 2018 offseason.
Charlie Morton, the starting pitcher, made the list at number 20, and he will be 41 shortly after the season concludes. Writer Joel Reuter discussed Morton’s impending free agency campaign as follows:
For the past three seasons, Morton has started at least thirty games for the Braves. He has been a seasoned workhorse, recording a 3.77 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, and 604 strikeouts in 521 innings. He is, after Jesse Chavez and Justin Verlander, the third-oldest player to play in an MLB game this season.
I believe that any discussion about Morton’s impending free agency must take into account his expressed desire to play close to his Florida-based family. If Morton decides to postpone his retirement for one more season, there aren’t as many teams that have a realistic possibility of signing him. The Braves and the two Florida teams—including the Tampa Bay Rays, his previous team—are the only ones that make sense.
However, Morton isn’t anticipated to be this roster’s best free agent. That would be starting pitcher Max Fried, who is ranked sixth overall and second among pitchers by Bleacher Report. Reuter’s thoughts on Fried’s impending free agency are as follows:
Fried placed second in the 2022 NL Cy Young voting after going 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, and 170 strikeouts in 185.1 innings. Despite missing time due to injury in the previous season, he was just as productive in 77.2 innings while healthy. The left-hander has had a rough start to the season, but when he is clicking, he is a reliable starter who might work his way into a nine-figure salary in 2024.
Fried’s price will only rise in games like the one he played against Miami Friday night, when he pitched a perfect game in under 100 pitches while giving up just three hits and no walks. Because of Corbin Burnes’ domination in the past—Burnes won the 2021 National League Cy Young award, has four top-eight Cy Young finishes, and a top-15 MVP result under his belt—he is positioned behind him in the hierarchy.
Marcell Ozuna, the designated hitter, was curiously left off the list, even after accounting for the twenty-two more “honorable mentions” that were included outside of the top 25. Ozuna, who is already leading MLB in home runs (nine) and RBIs (twenty-seven), is batting.326/.402/.674 and has been among the league’s greatest hitters for the past year.
In the event that the 33-year-old Ozuna’s 2025 club option is exercised, Atlanta would pay him $16 million for an additional season of play. However, the Bleacher Report list does not end there because a number of honorable mentions have club options for the 2025 campaign.
And yet, J.D. Martinez, Joc Pederson, and Justin Turner all make the honorable mention list above Ozuna, meaning that he isn’t the best designated hitter choice, according to Bleacher Report.
But Ozuna has been the team’s best hitter for the past year and the first few months of 2024.
