By Manuel Acevedo
Dec 11, 2023, 08:04 AM EST
The Atlanta Braves They were the best team throughout the 2023 regular season of the Major League Baseball (MLB)but when they reached the postseason they could not transfer that good moment and were eliminated in the first round against the Philadelphia Phillies.
With this failure, and now with the arrival of the Japanese Shohei Ohtani to Los Angeles Dodgersthe management feels pressure to strengthen the team to be able to fight face to face with the Californians.
Atlanta has the current award winner Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the National League, Ronald Acuña Jr.and that is something that is very important for this institution.
They also have baseball players like Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, among others. At first glance you can see that the problem is not in the offense.
Because this 2023 campaign they were the team with the best batting average in the league with .276 AVG, 307 home runs, 1,543 hits, 916 RBIs.501 SLG and .845 OPS.
In the pitching part, the Braves They have arms like Max Fried, Spencer Strider and Charlie Morton. Although they have three elite starters in their ranks, there are still two important positions in the rotation and that is where they may be thinking about strengthening themselves for next year.
The team that makes life in the city of Atlanta was the 15th team in the entire Major Leagues with an effectiveness of 4.14, precisely where the great weakness of this organization is located.
In free agency there are still pitchers like Blake Snell2023 CY Young Award Winner; Jordan Montgomery World Series winner; Clayton Kershaw, Michael Lorenzen, Carlos Carrasco and the japanese Yoshinobu Yamamotothe great attraction of the market.
What other weakness do the Braves have?
Another point that Atlanta should reinforce the bullpenthey lost many of the matches in the regular round because several of their arms could not get out at important moments.
On the market there are a large number of interest launchers such as: Josh Hader, Hector Neris, David Robertson, Liam Hendriks, Aroldis Chapman, Wandy Peralta, among others.
Surely the management will bet heavily on free agency for pitchers, but we must take into account the Braves top six prospects and maybe they can bet on one of them for opening day.
We will have to wait for the days to continue to pass to see what other movements occur in the market, but surely the management is going to move to strengthen the team.
Many fans are already predicting that the National League Championship Series will be between Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves.
Keep reading:
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