There was plenty to talk about after the season ended and AA certainly did his fair share of talking at this presser.
Today was the end-of-season press conference involving Atlanta Braves President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Alex Anthopoulos and Brian Snitker. We’ll be bringing you some of the most relevant portions of the press conference here, so stay with us as we continue to share what went down. We’ve already covered the coaching staff remaining intact and the options that appear very likely to be picked up, so here’s some more info that came from the press conference.
General thoughts on how the season ended
“We didn’t clinch soon enough, to be honest with you,” said Alex Anthopoulos during Friday’s press conference. It was pretty clear that the roundabout way that the Braves went about clinching the division threw a wrench in their plans. “Our goal was obviously to get to the Postseason by winning the division […] If you clinch a few days early, you still feel good with Fried, Lopez, Schwellenbach — especially if you’re talking about a shorter series like the DS. We had to play down to the wire.”
Anthopoulos was very bullish and proud of how the pitching staff performed — especially considering that they were missing Spencer Strider for all but nine innings here in 2024. “I believe what we did this year worked, since we led Major League Baseball in ERA. If you tell me that we can do that again next year, then I’ll bank it today […] We were so determined last Winter to address the rotation and I think we were successful.”
This next quote will likely serve as very little solace for fans who were hoping that the Braves could use their rotation to potentially carry them deep into this Postseason. Chris Sale very likely would’ve been ready to go during the NLDS and Alex Anthopoulos essentially confirmed it during this presser. “I’m looking out of my office and [Sale]’s throwing right now. I talked to him a few days ago and he was like “I feel really good.” Even then, I was like “You’re on the [NLDS] roster. Roster’s would’ve had to have been due on Saturday and we would’ve slotted him in whenever — no later than game three of the NLDS.”
“The day of or the day before Game 2 of the Wild Card, I told him “You’re on.” He was feeling great and he wasn’t far removed. If we could’ve got through the Wild Card round, we would’ve had Schwellenbach, Fried, Lopez and Chris but you gotta get by. San Diego played great. They’ve had a great season and they have as good of a chance as anybody to win the World Series. We just got beat. It’s obviously not what anybody wants to hear but that’s just the reality of it.”
For what it’s worth, I certainly believe that the Braves would’ve had the pitching advantage against the Dodgers and I feel like they definitely could’ve given them fits based on that alone. With that being said, this did end up being another one of those end-of-season disasters for Atlanta’s pitching staff where injuries and fatigue just caught up with them at the worst possible moment
On whether or not they’ll move on from Orlando Arcia at shortstop:
2023 was a career year for many Braves players and Orlando Arcia certainly performed far over his head in that season. This year, the 30-year-old shortstop fell back down to Earth and AA was pretty honest with his assessment of how things went for him. “Orlando did not have as good of a year as the year before, obviously. The way we were set up initially was he wasn’t counted on to be a key cog. Snit’s had him in the bottom of the order and was just there to play good defense.
“There were a lot of moments (and this is a reflection of the job I did as GM) where we had him batting fifth. We didn’t have anybody else since guys were injured. If we’re set up the way we should be set up, he was more towards the bottom of the order. Still, I don’t think any one player can make or break you. Two, three, or four? Sure. I think Orlando didn’t have the offensive season clearly that he had a year ago but I still think he did some great things from a defensive standpoint. “
While Anthopoulos did end up praising Orlando for his efforts on defense, he stopped short of guaranteeing that Arcia would be guaranteed to return as the starting shortstop for 2025 and appeared to publicly leave his options open when it came to committing to any sort of plan going forward. “Barring any changes, the guys that we have are the guys that we have in place and that’s Orlando and all the other players. Once we get to the Winter, you never know what happens.
On whether or not the offense needs some serious tweaks or changes:
Again, AA was definitely indicating that he may have expected a bit of a dropoff from what they did last season. However, instead of placing the blame solely on underperfomance, Anthopoulos chose to blame the most obvious culprit for the dropoff: The injury bug. After using the word “historic” to describe what the lineup did in 2023, AA went on to add that “I hate making excuses because I know that our job at the end of the day is to get to the Postseason and win the World Series. There’s no doubt about it: When you take out the guy that won the MVP before who’s this dynamic, game-changing player, and even Austin [Riley] at the end. Even Ozzie [Albies] having to hit right-handed exclusively at the end and guys having down years. We’re capable of more, I think that goes without saying. At the same time, you’re not doing your job if you’re not looking at ways to get better.
Anthopoulos was asked earlier about Orlando Arcia in particular but he still didn’t blame him (or anybody else in particular) for the collective dropoff at the plate and as he put it, “You’re never going to hear me calling out individual players.” He went on to state that “You’re putting together the best roster you can with what’s available in any given Winter. Whether that’s trade or free agency and the same thing goes for the trade deadline.”
As far as the offseason goes, he did state that it’s a bit too early to really start to get a solid idea of what they’re planning on doing and that we probably won’t start to figure things out until a few days after the World Series. We have no idea what the trade market looks like yet and we know who’s scheduled to be a free agent. It’s a long Winter, so once we develop a plan, who knows where we’ll end up. We know our competition is fierce and you look to get better in all aspects. The only time you’re sitting here and doing these and feel great is if you win the World Series. That’s the only time where there’s no complaints.”
We’ll have more quotes later on, as there was a ton of information that both Alex Anthopoulos and Brian Snitker shared over the course of the presser, so we aren’t going to confine it to just one or two posts. Stay tuned!