Atlanta Braves President/GM Alex Anthopoulos talks about Max Fried, Ronald Acuña Jr., Spencer Strider and Jarred Kelenic

It's time to delve a little deeper into the postseason press conference that Atlanta Braves President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Alex Anthopoulos and manager Brian Snitker had with the media shortly after their exit. As you can imagine, they have discussed many topics affecting the future of the club and this will not even be the last part of this discussion as we will have another post for you soon. Now it's time to get back to what two of the Braves' bosses had to say after this unusual season.

On what the future holds for the Braves and Max Fried

Based on the comments AA had about Fried, it is clear that he admired him as a player and as a person. This has a lot to do with the fact that both Anthopoulos and Fried are connected in some way. “He’s been here since I’ve been here,” AA said. “I've had a front row seat for Max's entire major league career (…) We'll certainly have conversations (…) I really think highly of him and admire him.” I have a lot of time for him. From a GM perspective, he was a partner. Everything we needed from him as an organization (…) even in the last game against the Mets where Reynaldo Lopez came in and made the pitch, Max was always ready to go. (Considering it was his) free agent year, short break, it would have been easy for him to be worried. Instead, it was “everything you need.”

However, it was completely clear that this was the case not It's abundantly clear that Fried will return to the Braves. We are still at the very beginning of the postseason and while it is obvious that both the team and the player want to continue the relationship, there is absolutely no guarantee that this will happen. “Obviously he’s slated to be a free agent. We would love to have him back, but 30 teams would love to have Max Fried. We’ll see where this goes.”

When asked about Fried's emotional reaction to the end of the season, Anthopoulos replied, “He's sincere, so it makes sense to me (that he would be emotional about potentially leaving).” He's always been sincere about everything here. These guys who are going to be great players are really in demand. We'll see where it goes.” Again, if you're looking for something concrete in terms of a possible new signing, you won't find it here. “I can't think of anything beyond that, except if we had had an announcement (regarding an extension), we would have had it for you,” Anthopoulos explained as he concluded his thoughts on the situation.

When/if Ronald Acuña Jr. and/or Spencer Strider might be ready for early 2025

“I think both could be opening day, could be mid-April, could be early May, could be mid-May, could be early June. That would probably be on the long end and that's not to raise any alarm bells, but you just don't know.” This is what AA had to say about when Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider might return, as both will attempt to return from season-ending surgeries in 2024 , which had a big impact on the Braves.

“Maybe early May is the right time. Maybe giving them a little more time in early June is the right thing to do. We are so far away. If you ask me that question in February, March or spring training, we'll know a lot more. Maybe Acuna is doing great. Maybe Strider will be throwing a lot of bullpens by then. This is going to be a fluid thing for us and I think every month that we have now will tell us more.” Again, it's still very early in the off-season, so as AA said, as the season progresses, we will Know a lot more in the off-season. I know we all want both of these guys to come back and hit the ground running, but if we learned anything from Acuña's first outing with a torn ACL, it's that this will be a long road to recovery even once they get going play.

The superstars' recovery will also impact how this team approaches its offseason efforts. “That will potentially shape our offseason as well. Plus, it can be unavoidable for men to get injured in the spring. It’s just a reality,” AA explained while continuing to talk about the injury situation. “However, you can’t expect injuries to occur at the end of the season. You lose people, but ultimately you expect them to come back at some point. The rarer part is the injuries at the end of the season. Having injuries, needing depth and going on the IL is part of the game (of every season) no matter what. But you always expect to get the guys back, and that was the outlier this season.”

Whether they will add pitching in 2025

At the start of the press conference, Alex Anthopoulos was very proud of his pitching staff and defense for coming together to take the lead in ERA. However, it's clear he's not looking to rest on his laurels when it comes to potentially improving that part of the squad. “You always want to be deep in the rotation no matter what. “You don’t just use five people,” AA said, as we all got a reminder of that reality with everything that happened here in 2024. “Grant Holmes did a good job as a replacement. At least he would stretch out in spring training because it's always easier to cut them. Even if we signed a free agent or traded for someone and you have five players that have a spot, you still stretch them out because you never know if something could happen (in terms of injury).”

I think I've talked about how I'm pretty confident that Atlanta will make some noise thanks to their good pitching staff. So it was encouraging to know that the front office was on the same page with that mindset – even if it didn't come to fruition. “Heading into the postseason, our strong rotation and bullpen made me feel as good as anyone because I felt so good on the mound. I thought we were able to (make a deep run…)”

Alex Anthopoulos brought back memories of 2021 to explain why he was so optimistic about Atlanta's chances had they advanced through the Wild Card round. “The 11 wins we needed to win the World Series, we gave up 18 runs and less than two runs per game. As great as the offense was, we pitched. I felt so good about our potential (here in 2024) in every series because we were so deep, so you can never have too much (pitching).”

As far as improving the rotation goes, AA was definitely willing to keep the door open when it came to bolstering an already potentially strong rotation heading into 2025. “We like these four names (Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwanzenbach, Reynaldo). Lopez and Chris Sale), we like our inner depth and if something comes up, we will definitely do it. The name Max came up and we would like five starters. I just can’t guarantee we’ll make it.”

On the situation in the outfield (and especially Jarred Kelenic’s situation).

Jarred Kelenic was given a lot of time at the start of the season, but his playing time was eventually reduced when the likes of Ramón Laureano came onto the scene. Alex Anthopoiulos was honest about his assessment of the situation. “Look, (Kelenic) had a good start, but Ramon had such a good start that he took the job (…) Ramon was a guy who got $5 million from the Guardians in the offseason, but a difficult one had start. This was a really talented player who had success.”

AA brought up Snitker's role as the man who makes the lineups on a daily basis, making it clear that the manager did what he had to do to put the best possible team on the field each day. “Snit will be the first to tell you he manages to win, and that goes for the bullpen, the rotation, the lineup and the playing time. He knows his job is to win and get us to the postseason. He has the lineup card and took us there. These are difficult decisions.”

Bringing it back to Kelenic, AA added: “I think Jarred showed us some good things, but he was inconsistent.” It's not just him – Adam Duvall had a great year with the Red Sox, but he didn't get here in momentum. Jarred is a young player, a lefty and we've seen great defense from him. He will come to camp and compete and we will see where the winner goes. The only thing we needed is a backup midfielder to fit into the squad because he can play all three.”

“He can really throw, he's been a good defender for us, he's got some power and he's determined to get better. We're lucky to have him. We're going to need someone like that as a left-hander, but (Kelenic losing his spot) is more a credit to Ramon for playing so well that he took over that job from both Adam and Jarred.”

When it came to potentially hinting that Ramón Laureano could return to the Braves, AA seemed inclined to make it happen. A lot can change between now and spring training, but right now this certainly seemed to be a case of a GM wanting to keep a particular player. Yes, (Ramón) is eligible and just like the guys with options, having a great year or playing very well puts you in a good position. That's what has to be decided with all of these guys: What does the fit look like, what does the roster look like? We did what we could on time.”

While AA appeared to be in favor of bringing Laureano back, he gave no guarantee that anyone would retain their respective spots in the future. “We need depth,” the GM explained. “If you don’t finish as a starter and clearly end up playing at a high level, there will be competition.”