Atlanta Braves: Focused on Adding Pitching this Off-season
By Kit Anderson
The Atlanta Braves have solidified their front office moving John Hart from a leadership role and putting a general manager in place who has a history of bringing in exciting talent. The biggest focus for the new general manager will be pitching.
The Atlanta Braves rotation at this moment if full of nothing but question marks for a Braves team that built their brand in past seasons on pitching. While they have many exciting young arms they don’t have one arm that they can count on to eat innings and be a part of the rotation.
Julio Teheran is likely the only arm on the Braves roster that fans can count on being in the 2018 rotation. Teheran is coming off of his worst season and has been involved in trade rumors as a possible change of scenery candidate.
With that in mind and the youth the Braves have their biggest priority this season will be adding pitching to support a young and talented offense that will look to carry the Braves back to postseason play.
The Braves new general manager has a history of making splashy trades including a deal that brought David Price to the Toronto Blue Jays. It is likely that he will look to pull off a similar trade while looking to add at least one innings eater from the free agent market.
Looking at the Braves options it seems likely they will add a top of the rotation arm from the trade or free agent market as well as at least one veteran or reliable innings eater to slot after Julio Teheran to give the Braves at least three reliable options. No question the Braves biggest focus this off-season will be pitching and if they can add at least two reliable arms the Braves have a roster capable of heading to the postseason.