It's an exciting time to be a fan of the Atlanta Braves! While the team didn't send retiring franchise cornerstone Chipper Jones off into the sunset with a Championship banner after losing in the joke of a "one game playoff", they did adjust (improve) their roster during the winter. The most obvious and most talked about additions to the roster were the signing of B.J. Upton and then trading for his younger brother Justin from the Arizona Diamondbacks. While BJ is not a franchise player (though his contract is the largest in franchise history) he is what the team needed at the time. A right handed OF who could hit in between the left handed hitters that made up the middle of the order. But what the signing also did, was give the team an even better reason to go after Justin. Now I'm not saying that GM Frank Wren wouldn't have made the trade for Justin without signing BJ first, but I am saying that it probably made it impossible for him to resist pursuing it.
What could be the biggest addition not necessarily for this season but for the future is the emergence of Evan Gattis. With a story similar to Josh Hamilton's (drug abuse, rehab, out of baseball, etc..) he has gone from 25 year old no name camp invitee, to (at least while All-Star Brian McCann is on the DL) starting catcher and middle of the order bat. In my opinion, his emergence if it can be sustained might allow the Braves to part ways with McCann when he is set to become a free agent this winter. As a McCann jersey owner, I don't really want this to happen but with everything being about money and it being somewhat scarce in ATL I can see the Braves letting McCann go and using the money to keep it's young stars like hitters Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman, Andrelton Simmons, Justin Upton, and closer Craig Kimbrel. All of them are going to be due for raises if things go well, and keeping Gattis on the cheap could go a long way in making that possible.
Finally, and probably the most important thing for me personally is that the trade for Justin Upton was in my opinion a swing for the fences. Sure, it has/had the possibility to backfire in their faces, one or more of the prospects they gave up could turn out to be All-Stars for the D-Backs (Otto sure hopes so) and Upton could fail to produce at the level he has the potential to. But at the same time (and so far this season) it could be the move that puts the Braves in contention for years to come. Upton has started the season on a tear and has carried them to a 7-1 start. Wren could have stayed put and possibly made the playoffs as a wild card here and there with the team he had but this move goes for the gusto and says that "simply making the playoffs isn't enough." As a fan here in WNY who suffers through year after year of the Bills and Sabres accepting mediocrity and just going with the flow it was very refreshing.
I know that it is early and that the baseball season is 162 games long with a lots of twists and turns, but as of right now I am officially excited to be a Braves' fan.
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