Saturday, January 23, 2021

Newsletter Excerpt, January 23, 2021 -- "Financial Flexibility and the Braves"

 

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

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"The one team that does truly make use of financial flexibility, however, is the Braves. With a homegrown core signed to contracts that underpay them for their performance, the Braves have eschewed long-term deals for free agents in lieu of picking up good players for a single season. In 2017, it was R.A. Dickey for one year and $8 million. In 2019, they signed Josh Donaldson to a one-year deal for $23 million, then at midseason grabbed Dallas Keuchel for the rest of the season and $13 million. Last year, it was Marcell Ozuna for one year and $18 million, and he might have been the league MVP had his teammate, Freddie Freeman not been."