What do we know, and what we don’t, about the upcoming season as the Braves get ready to head to North Port.
January 2025 was the longest month ever.
But we made it.
February is here and that means pitcher and catchers will be reporting in less that two weeks with full squad workouts starting for the Atlanta Braves a few days after that.
If you’ve missed it, here are the dates to know:
Pitcher and Catchers: February 12
Full squad: February 18
So yeah, less than two weeks from now the 2025 season will begin and the six-week process of preparing for Opening Day will officially begin.
If you’ve been hiding under a rock – and good for you if you have, that doesn’t seem like such a bad idea these days – here are a few of the notable changes from the end of the 2024 season to today for your Atlanta Braves.
Gone are the hitting coaches Kevin Seitzer and Bobby Magallanes as well as catching coach Sal Fasano. They have been replaced by Tim Hyers, Carlos Mendez and Hugh Quattlebaum.
Also gone are long-time Braves pitchers Max Fried, Charlie Morton, A.J. Minter and Jesse Chavez. Luke Jackson wasn’t resigned, nor was Tyler Matzek, although both are still on the market.
Outfielder Jorge Soler and catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who both had major impact on the organization, are no longer with the Braves. Infielder Gio Urshela, who was helpful down the stretch will be in Sacramento with the A’s. Infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield and outfielder Roman Laureano are both still unsigned, but unlikely to return.
Replacing a half-dozen impactful players – and several solid depth pieces – has been a slow-drawn process for Atlanta. They traded for infielder Nick Allen, who came over from the Athletics, but isn’t a lock to make the 26-man roster. They also grabbed pitcher Davis Daniel from the Los Angeles Angels, but he is not guaranteed to break camp with the Braves big league team, either.
The organization also picked up two players in the Rule 5 draft – something of a rarity in recent years – with infielder Christian Cairo and pitcher Anderson Pilar needing to stay on the 26-man roster (or IL) for all of the 2025 campaign or they must be offered back to their prior clubs.
Until last week, the biggest free agent signing the team had made was probably Bryan De La Cruz, an outfielder who is still young but has struggled for most of his time in the majors, might only stick in Atlanta until Ronald Acuńa, Jr. returns from the 2024 knee surgery that caused him to miss most of last season. The team also brought in former All-Star infielder/outfield Garrett Cooper and long-time back-up catcher Curt Casali on minor league deals, and it is not outside the realm of possibility that either or both could start the season in Atlanta, but each is most likely to don Striper apparel this season.
Atlanta’s biggest offseason pick-up, so far, for the Braves was the team’s signing of free agent All-Star Jurickson Profar to man left field in 2025. The former top prospect in all of baseball more than a decade ago finally put everything together last year after making significant swing changes and the Braves are buying high on a player they believe can perform at a level near his 2024 Silver Slugger season for the next three years.
As of yet, the team hasn’t addressed the loss of two starting pitchers and one of the best set-up men of the last decade – not to mention that reliever Joe Jimenez will be lost for most, if not all, of the season due to offseason surgery. Although they have brought in a number of pitchers with various amounts of MLB experience on minor league deals with invitations to Spring Training – headlined by left-handed reliever, and former Brave, Chasen Streve – none of the signings are likely to be on the Opening Day roster barring a standout Spring Training and/or injury meaning the bullpen is dicey.
The starting rotation is equally thin on established depth with the team seemingly counting on either the return of Ian Anderson after multiple seasons off the big league roster or Grant Holmes to be able to put together a full season as a starter after a successful half-season as a swingman last year. Bryce Elder, who was an All-Star in 2023 but struggled last year, may also be in line for another look, at least until Spencer Strider returns from sometime in the regular season’s first two months.
Yeah, if you’ve been under a rock, you may be a little freakout by all of that.
It isn’t all bad news – assuming the return to health – the Braves are still projected to have one of the best everyday line-ups in the National League with Acuńa, Jr., Matt Olson, Marcell Ozuna, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, Sean Murphy and Michael Harris II now being supplemented by Profar.
The team’s rotation will welcome back Strider, who led baseball in strikeouts and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young Award in 2023. Anchored by 2024 NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale, the rotation will also include Reynaldo Lopez, who will try to follow-up his break-out season, Spencer Schwellenbach – also looking to replicate his stand out 2024 campaign – and some version of Elder, Holmes, Anderson, Daniel or possibly top prospect AJ Smith-Shawver.
Bottom line, the Braves are still a strong club, but the offseason additions by the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks mean that making the playoffs in the NL this season will be no small task.
Although Atlanta hasn’t made a major move in February during Alex Anthopoulos tenure with the Braves – outside of bringing back Ozuna in 2021 – that doesn’t mean some of the depth issues may not be addresses before April.
At least, finally, there will be baseball again as Spring Training nears. And much of it can actually be seen this year.
If you head back under your rock to wait out the next two weeks, remember to set an alarm and mark your calendar so you’ll be ready for 2025 Spring Training as soon as it starts.
Until then, you might want to shut down your devices because you don’t want to see everything else that’s been going on in the world during the last four weeks.