2021 Atlanta Braves

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Buzzbomb

Mello Yellow-Jacket
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Since the Braves are owned by the publicly-traded Liberty Media corporation, they are the only team in baseball required to disclose their finances, providing some insight into how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted business. Liberty Media revealed the particulars on Friday (Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details), with the Braves accounting for an operating loss of $49MM before depreciation and amortization in 2020. In terms of pure revenues, the club generated $178MM.

As one might expect, these numbers each represent a significant decline from the Braves’ financial picture just one year ago. In 2019, the Braves generated $476MM in revenues and had a $54MM profit (before depreciation and amortization). The Braves also added $115MM in debt thanks to construction costs in and around Truist Park and at their new Spring Training complex, bringing their total debt to $674MM at the end of 2020.

In an interview last October, commissioner Rob Manfred claimed that MLB’s 30 teams were facing a collective operating loss of roughly $2.8 to $3 billion in 2020. Since each club’s financial situation obviously has a lot of individual differences, it’s hard to necessarily extrapolate Atlanta’s losses considering they are just one piece of a 30-team pie. For example, Truist Park is the second-newest ballpark in the league, thus providing the Braves with a fresher revenue source than most other clubs.
 

CINCYMETJACKET

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Buzzbomb said:
Free-agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes held a showcase in Florida that 11 teams attended on Tuesday, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The Yankees, White Sox, Brewers, Blue Jays, Tigers (one of Cespedes’ ex-teams), Padres, Rays, Reds, Marlins, Cubs and Braves were all on hand to watch Cespedes, per Davidoff.
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What? The Mets Sandy Alderson didn't show up on a horse like he told the press he'd do?
 
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Mello Yellow-Jacket
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The review was positive, as one team official noted Cespedes didn’t look like a guy missing since 2016. Defensively he put on a show. Bat was lively. Ran well.

I‘m not a huge proponent, although the Braves interest is for one year and on the cheap. The volume of teams will increase the value, somewhat.
 

CINCYMETJACKET

Helluva Engineer
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1,216
Buzzbomb said:
The review was positive, as one team official noted Cespedes didn’t look like a guy missing since 2016. Defensively he put on a show. Bat was lively. Ran well.

I‘m not a huge proponent, although the Braves interest is for one year and on the cheap. The volume of teams will increase the value, somewhat.
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He was THE reason the Mets made the run they did in 2015. When he's healthy and productive, he's a one man wrecking crew. When he's not, he's breaking his ankle while trying to avoid a wild boar on his ranch while recovering from surgeries which required his Achilles tendons to be removed and re-attached after shaving bone, or other calcium buildup, from his heels (from what I understand of the surgeries)...
 
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Mello Yellow-Jacket
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  • Braves left-hander Max Fried will not make his previously scheduled start Friday because he may have been exposed to COVID-19, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitutiontweets. Fried has not tested positive, but manager Brian Snitker said (via David O’Brien of The Athletic) that he’ll “lay low” for a couple of days. At least for now, it doesn’t seem Fried will miss much time. As long as he recovers in short order, Fried could be the Opening Day starter for the Braves, having starred last season with a 2.25 ERA in 56 innings.
 

CINCYMETJACKET

Helluva Engineer
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1,216
Buzzbomb said:
  • Braves left-hander Max Fried will not make his previously scheduled start Friday because he may have been exposed to COVID-19, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitutiontweets. Fried has not tested positive, but manager Brian Snitker said (via David O’Brien of The Athletic) that he’ll “lay low” for a couple of days. At least for now, it doesn’t seem Fried will miss much time. As long as he recovers in short order, Fried could be the Opening Day starter for the Braves, having starred last season with a 2.25 ERA in 56 innings.
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Perhaps you want him to get COVID like Freeman did last year. A bad case of COVID and just came back to have an MVP year...
 
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Mello Yellow-Jacket
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Mike Soroka threw two innings in “simulated game conditions” this morning, reports David O’Brien of the Athletic. That marks a key milestone in the 23-year-old’s recovery from the ruptured Achilles that ended his 2020 season last August. It remains unclear precisely when Soroka will be ready to pitch this year, although O’Brien notes there has been “widespread speculation” of a late April or early May return. Soroka has a 2.86 ERA/4.33 SIERA over his first 214 big league innings.
 
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Mello Yellow-Jacket
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Ender Inciarte out with a thumb injury....veteran outfielder Nick Markakis is calling it a career after 15 seasons at the Major League level, he tells David O’Brien and Dan Connolly of The Athletic. The 37-year-old says he made up his mind shortly after the postseason ended and did not pursue any opportunities this winter. “My No. 1 decision and my main focus on this is obviously my kids and my family,” Markakis said, adding that he’s both fortunate and thankful to have been able to play the game as long as he has.

  • Ian Anderson: The Braves righty made a big impact in his first MLB season, with a 1.95 ERA over 32 1/3 innings. Anderson also has the least amount of big league service time (0.094 days) of any player on this list. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that Anderson will earn $575K while in the majors and $142,978 in the minor leagues.
 
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Mello Yellow-Jacket
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  • The Braves have reached a minor league agreement with right-handed reliever Chasen Bradford, Jeff Passan of ESPN tweets. Bradford has appeared in a total of three major league seasons between the Mets and Mariners, logging a 3.89 ERA with a below-average strikeout rate (17.2 percent) and a solid walk rate (7.0 percent) across 104 innings. Along with limiting walks, the 31-year-old has induced grounders at an impressive 50.3 percent clip, which has helped him keep opposing offenses off the board. But Bradford underwent Tommy John surgery during the 2019 campaign and hasn’t pitched in the bigs since June of that season.
 
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