Mike Anthony
Braves Chief Needs To Remain?
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With the sting of a devastating loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series still fresh in the minds of Atlanta Braves fans, it can be easy to get emotional.
Not only is the season now finished, but it ended – in typical Atlanta sports fashion – with seemingly unnecessary extra helpings of heartbreak dished out by the sports gods.
For the 2020 Braves, that came in the fashion of blowing a 3-1 series lead and letting two separate Game 7 leads slip away.
In the immediate aftermath of the game, social media and message boards were flooded with calls for the Braves to fire manager Brian Snitker.
Whether it was complaints about bullpen usage, lineup management or simply frustration over what could have been with just one win over those final three games, there was no shortage of people crying out for a change.
But is that really the best route for the Braves to take? Not if they know what’s good for them.
For all the disappointment of how the 2020 season ended, there wasn’t much Snitker could have done.
In the end, it was simply a matter of two very talented teams taking a series to the bitter end, with room for only one in the World Series.
To look at things from a larger perspective, it’s hard to say that Snitker has been anything but a great asset to the organization as it has undergone a huge turnaround.
Snitker took over in 2016 after a 95-loss season and a last place finish.
Since then, he’s overseen the club as it has won back-to-back-to-back National League East crowns. Aside from the glory days of the 1990s, this is the only Braves team to make the postseason in three consecutive seasons.
Of course, that success is largely due to the overwhelming success in drafting, developing talent and bringing in free agents to plug needed spots.
Those calling for Snitker’s job at the moment will say that – since he’s not in the front office – he had little to do with that progress.
But before taking the helm of the major league club, Snitker served as the Braves’ Triple-A manager.
While much of the team’s current corps of young stars were in the minor leagues, Snitker played a large role in showing them the ropes of professional baseball.
For players like Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson and plenty of other players who will be counted on to keep up the success for years to come, Snitker has been a major factor in their rise to prominence as MLB stars.
There are times where a managerial shakeup might be necessary in order to get a team over the hump, but this isn’t that moment for the Braves.
As much as the last three postseasons have hurt when they didn’t end in a World Series, Atlanta is still in the unique position of having a veteran team with playoff experience and a handful of key players, who are still in the beginning of their prime.
On top of that, it seems clear that those talented players give Snitker plenty of credit for what has been achieved over the last three years.
The Braves may not have reached the top of the mountain yet, but they show no signs of slowing down, so it’s only fair to keep the same man steering the ship
Panthers Prowl
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
To say that Georgia State’s tenure in the Football Bowl Subdivision has been a roller coaster ride might be a bit of an understatement.
The Panthers enter 2020 on the heels of a 7-6 record last season and the program’s third bowl appearance, however the team has been prone to big dips in performance, going 3-9 and 2-10 to follow up their previous seasons in which they reached a bowl.
A big reason for the inconsistency has been Georgia State’s struggles to build depth at quarterback.
The Panthers have had their share of impact passers, but have routinely needed a year or two to break in a new star after losing one.
That task once again presents itself this fall as two-year starter and dynamic threat Dan Ellington has moved on.
Ellington was one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the Sun Belt Conference in 2019 before tearing an ACL two-thirds of the way through the season.
Showing plenty of toughness – and the aforementioned lack of QB depth – Ellington played out the season, but was rendered into a one-dimensional threat and the offense suffered greatly.
Mikele Colasurdo seemed to be a fitting replacement, but has opted out of the season after suffering from COVID-19. That leaves redshirt freshman Cornelius Brown as the most seasoned option available for the Panthers.
Many other pieces remain in place for a Panther offense that was potent before Ellington’s injury.
The running game has been on the upswing for the past two seasons and Georgia State returns four offensive linemen who may be a bit undersized, but who proved their effectiveness last fall.
If the Panthers are to avoid another post-bowl falloff, fixing the defense is a huge priority.
Georgia State ranked just 112th in the country against the run last season and was amongst the worst in the nation at getting to opposing quarterbacks when they dropped back to pass.
The Panthers’ seven wins in 2019 easily could have been more if not for the fact that their defense couldn’t stop any bleeding despite getting plenty of help on the scoreboard from its offense.
All four starters in the defensive secondary return, but it remains to be seen whether that will be a positive. Georgia State allowed 8.5 yards per pass attempt last season and allowed 27 yards through the air.
In a season that is certain to be remembered for its uniqueness, Georgia State has been one of the hardest hit Sun Belt teams in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Panthers lost a Sept. 5 home date vs. Murray State and a Sept. 12 visit to Alabama and weren’t able to schedule any makeup games, leaving them with just 10 matchups this fall.
Overall, the Panthers seem poised to remain as a solid team and avoid too much of a drop-off this time around.
Finding a suitable replacement for Ellington should keep them competitive in most games, but making a run at the Sun Belt East division might be a bit of a stretch as Appalachian State enters 2020 as the prohibitive favorite, with Georgia Southern and Troy also widely predicted to finish ahead of Georgia State.
Gator Chomp
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Last year saw the Jason Strickland era begin with a bang at Ware County.
Arriving in Waycross after successful stints at Lamar County, Fitzgerald and Pierce County, Strickland wasted no time in making his mark.
The Gators took a few lumps early on in the non-region schedule, only to storm through Region 2-AAAAA undefeated and make it to the second round of the state playoffs before bowing out to eventual state champion Buford.
Heading into Year Two under Strickland, Ware has faced the same trials and tribulations as every other team in GHSA, as they have been limited in their preparations for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think we’re getting through everything just fine,” Strickland said. “I’m lucky to have a staff that is experienced and has been together for a while. As for the kids, I think they’re fine. Honestly, I think kids respond to this kind of shake-up and adversity better than most adults.
“They have taken the attitude of focusing on what needs to be done each day and just working forward from there. That’s big for them and big for our community. A lot of people in this area need something to make them smile. And for a lot of these towns, football can do that. So long as we can be safe and play, that’s something we’re looking to do for ourselves and for the community.”
It’s good that the Gators have been hard at work because there will be no shortage of challenges on this season’s schedule.
Ware County joins longtime rival Wayne County in a shift to Region 1-AAAAA with the GHSA’s latest region alignments.
The teams spent the last few seasons playing region rivals in and around coastal Georgia, but the competition now shifts west and north as they join a stacked region that includes Coffee, Veterans and Warner Robins.
“I don’t think it’s a stretch to say this will be the toughest region in 5-A,” Strickland said. “It might be one of the toughest in the state at any level. But we’ll embrace that challenge. There will be a lot of tense Friday nights, but a lot of fun Friday nights.”
Heading into a tough schedule, the Gators will lean heavily on proven leaders on both sides of the ball.
Rising senior linebacker Michael Mincey has Strickland’s trust to make calls and anchor the defense.
On the attacking front, quarterback Thomas Castellanos will be a junior this fall, but has been at the helm of the Gator attack since he was a freshman.
“Michael has some big-time offers and he’s a leader on and off the field for us,” Strickland said. “Thomas can get things done with both his arm and his legs. He’s got another year in the system and he’s really starting to settle in and run the offense.”
In addition to their tough region slate, the Gators will travel to Florida to take on Bartram Trail and will also face Cook and Thomson in non-region action.
The New Buzz
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Wayne County is no stranger to great football. The Yellow Jackets rank 26th all-time in the state of Georgia with 561 wins.
Better yet, Wayne County is currently enjoying its most successful run to date.
Three of the school’s 15 region championships have come during a run that has seen the Jackets reach the playoffs in a school-record eight consecutive seasons.
The 2019 campaign saw a small step back with an 8-3 record following back-to-back region titles in 2017-18, but the Jackets notched a first-round win in the state tournament before dropping a close contest to state quarterfinalist Clarke Central.
This year’s team figures to be stacked as the Jackets return eight starters on offense and seven on defense.
Highly touted offensive guard Weston Franklin also returns to Jesup after spending a season at the IMG Academy.
“With everything going on (related to COVID-19 and practice restrictions), I still think we’re ahead of the game,” WCHS coach Ken Cribb said. “We have a lot of veteran guys who are ready to get the season going.”
One of the most impressive aspects of the Jackets’ recent success has been their ability to endure change. All prep teams must deal with graduating seniors, but many perennially successful programs have continuity at head coach. As for Wayne County, it has found its current success under three different head coaches.
“I give a lot of credit to everyone in the program,” said Cribb, who is entering his fourth season with a 28-6 record at Wayne. “We’ve got a great group of coaches and our kids are ready to work hard every day.”
Cribb and his team continue to have high hopes for another solid season, but the road will be much rougher due to region realignment.
Wayne County won its two most recent region titles while regularly dispatching struggling rivals such as Statesboro, South Effingham and New Hampstead.
Now a resident in Region 1-AAAAA, the Jackets will run a non-stop gauntlet of perennial powers Coffee, Veterans, Ware County and Warner Robins.
All five teams made it to at least the second round of last year’s playoffs, with Warner Robins finishing as state runners-up for a third consecutive season.
Opponents such as Pierce County, Benedictine and Richmond Hill dot the Jackets’ non-region schedule, meaning that there will be very few breathers along the way.
Speak Of The Blue Devils
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It has been a decade since the Statesboro Blue Devils have been considered a state power on the football field, but the program’s ongoing trudge back from some dark times aims to take another step forward this fall.
Now four years removed from the only 0-10 season in school history, Statesboro head coach Jeff Kaiser – who was announced as head coach ahead of the 2017 season – has his team steadily improving.
The Devils have qualified for the state playoffs in each of the last two seasons and got back to the .500 mark last fall for the first time since 2014.
As has been the case for teams all around the country, this summer’s training has been significantly hindered by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
School was called off more than a month before the scheduled spring practices for Statesboro and simply getting students – football players or otherwise – through the academic year will be tough.
Kaiser and his staff continued to communicate to the team through texts, emails and phone calls, with players left to their own devices to continue to study playbooks and stay in shape.
When June rolled around, word came from both the GHSA and Bulloch County that there would be a slow roll-out of parameters for practices that will gradually include more football-related activities with more players allowed at each practice.
All of the virus-related restraints on team activities are just one facet of what will be a challenging 2020 for the Devils.
While they have made the state playoffs two years running, Statesboro played those seasons in a five-team Class-AAAAA region. With Ware County and Wayne County dominating the region, the Devils’ postseason prospect essentially boiled down to a two-game season with games against New Hampstead and South Effingham, with any of the teams able to clinch a playoff berth with as little as one region win.
That will change this fall as Statesboro bumps up to Class-AAAAAA and will join a region with more teams that features plenty of old rivals.
South Effingham joins Statesboro in the move up and they will group in with Brunswick, Glynn Academy, Effingham County, Richmond Hill and Bradwell Institute.
The Devils have been region rivals with all of these teams at some point in their past, most notably with Brunswick, which traded region championships with SHS for three consecutive seasons at the turn of the last decade.
The Devils lose relatively little in total personnel from last year’s squad, but still have some big holes to fill.
Always a run-first team, Statesboro will have to fill the shoes of running backs Jaylin Roberson and Davardrian Lipsey.
Also departed is Corey McCullough, who anchored the linebacker corps and also served as a stellar blocker and short-yardage back on offense.
If Statesboro is to continue its track record of improvement, it will stem from both lines.
The Devils were forced to play with inexperienced and – at times – undersized linemen over the last few seasons. But a more veteran crew this season that has taken to Kaiser’s emphasis on growing in the weight room should now provide the Devils with a formidable presence up front whether attacking an opposing quarterback or paving a clean path for their own runners.
Statesboro is slated to kick off the season against former region rival Wayne County in the Erk Russell Classic at Georgia Southern’s Paulson Stadium.
The Devils will also take on Swainsboro, Houston County and Jenkins before spending all of October and November in their region slate.
The Future IS Now
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic remain in place in relation to NCAA sports, college football teams are managing to remain as active as ever.
Players are working out on their own at their respective houses and online video meetings are allowing the various meetings for teams, players and position groups that normally fill the schedule preceding fall camp.
However, there is one aspect of the summer months that has had to change drastically. From the end of spring practice up through the long days of June and July, most college football coaches are racking up the mileage as they attend camps and start to make contacts with recruits they hope to sign at the end of the season.
Several members of the Georgia Southern coaching staff joined a Zoom meeting on where much of the discussion with media members was centered on how the team is continuing to recruit despite no visits allowed and few opportunities for athletes to showcase their skills.
“I’ve tried to embrace this as an opportunity,” Georgia Southern associate head coach and running backs coach Chris Foster said. “I think I’m a little more tech savvy than some others and things were leaning towards more technology even before (the virus). The teams who are going to succeed are the ones who are going to adapt.”
Coaches may not be able to see prospective recruits go up against live competitions, but the advancement of cheap video technology and the explosion of social media over the last decade allow many hopeful high-schoolers to provide colleges with expansive highlight reels.
That sort of accessibility allows coaches to evaluate film in their meetings and make informed decisions on who to pursue and what to focus on in their game.
There is also a silver lining for the coaches as meeting with a dozen recruits over the course of a few days is now as easy as setting up a streaming meeting instead of putting hundreds of miles on a vehicle and waking up in a different hotel every day.
Still, there are new issues as meetings have had to work around school and work schedules for athletes and their parents.
“Depending on when you can schedule a meeting, there have been some 14 and 15 hour days,” GS defensive coordinator Scot Sloan said. “We’re still doing all of our homework. We’re meeting with these kids and the high school coaches have been great about keeping us in touch and getting us in contact with teachers, counselors and anyone else who we might want to talk to about a guy.”
The recruiting game has certainly been turned on its’ head. If anything, it could become a net benefit for smaller schools like Georgia Southern.
No matter how good Georgia Southern coaches are at evaluating prep players or selling them on the Eagles, they don’t have the ability of larger schools with much larger budgets to employ dozens of people to scour every corner of the country.
And most schools certainly don’t have the luxury of putting a coach on a private jet straight into a player’s backyard on a moment’s notice in order to gain an edge in the recruiting battle.
The playing field has leveled in that regard, meaning that originality and innovation off of the base model of Twitter highlights and Zoom meetings is now something that can make a school stand out to a prized recruit.
It’s a whole new ballgame in the high-stakes world of football recruiting. Now it remains to be seen how the new methods of selling teams and schools will pan out.
Hole In One
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The sports world is still a far cry from being normal, but at least one item on my personal checklist returned on Sunday afternoon.
As has happened on countless spring and summer weekends, I accomplished half of the household chores my wife had asked of me, only to be lured to the television – and a nap – by golf.
In a charity event held at the esteemed Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson defeated Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in a skins match that raised over $5 million.
With every sport trying to figure out what strange new features will enable them to return to play as soon as possible, golf certainly seems like it can deliver the same sort of product while adhering to safety guidelines.
The lack of a crowd didn’t change my personal viewing experience. If anything, it allowed viewers to take in a spectacular Seminole Club course that had never appeared on television before.
The players wore shorts and carried their own bags, but – if anything – that made the action even more relatable to the high-handicappers watching at home who don’t play with caddies and who would never show up to a course wearing slacks on a muggy Florida afternoon.
Following Sunday’s event, it dawned on me that this could be a huge turning point for the sport and for how players choose to promote themselves.
To be sure, the marquee events on the PGA Tour and the four majors aren’t going anywhere. Ratings will be stellar if and when the tour is able to play its amended major schedule this fall, and attendance at those events figures to remain high as soon as crowds are permitted back on the links.
But as for many other dates on the golf calendar, who’s to say?
While current times are certainly an exception and not a rule, it’s not hard to fathom a future where huge names are reeled in for a payday in exclusive one-off events. Years of ratings prove that viewers follow the game’s biggest stars and plenty of non-pandemic TV specials have raked in tons of money.
If the money is there to be had, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to envision a golf club looking to make a name for itself ponying up the purse to put on a show.
If the television and online streaming eyeballs will be focused on the event, it seems like a no-brainer that top brands might organize an event featuring all the stars under their umbrella putting on a five-hour infomercial for the latest line of products.
Golf has been primetime viewing – at least during the biggest events – ever since Tiger Woods burst onto the scene. But prior to the late 90s, there was little hype for lesser events and nobody outside of the top 10-20 players in the world were getting rich off of the game.
And the truth is, anyone not consistently making cuts and finishing on the first few pages of the leaderboard every week still isn’t exactly a legend at their local bank.
It should come as no surprise that the lowest-level tour events – or those played concurrent to majors or big overseas tournaments – feature no-name players with sparse crowds and not much on the way of possible winnings.
The world’s top players already make more money in endorsements than they do through tournament checks.
If special events can guarantee big paydays – while also offering the lack of excessive media obligations, pro-ams, long days due to slow play from a 150-man field, etc. – there’s little that will stop the world’s top players from ditching smaller tournaments in favor of receiving top billing at a special event.
The Premier Golf League is currently trying to compete with the PGA. It aims to be a more global affair, playing only half as many tournaments while still offering huge purses.
However, many of the game’s biggest names have already declined potential offers to join.
But with more singular, unaffiliated events, it would be easy for big draws to pocket more money without the hassle of worldwide travel or learning the rules and format of an entirely new tour.
The PGA isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but if Sunday’s Seminole showdown proves anything, it’s that there could be more opportunities soon for the world’s top players might call in sick to lesser events in order to sneak out for a round of golf.
Power Off
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With just over four months remaining until the scheduled start of the college football season, there is still no answer to when teams will come out of their suspended status in order to prepare.
There have been myriad discussions about what this means for the 2020 campaign. Everything has been discussed, from when to resume team activities, to how long of a period is needed from first practice to first game, to how abbreviated schedule would work, to whether or not any fans will be permitted to watch the game in person.
In short, there are still many balls in the air.
Regardless of when the games start or how they will look, there is one variable that is sure to be the main factor in the final decision – money.
That’s not some new or surprising reveal as far as motives go, but there is no doubt that money – to be made or to be made up – will determine how college football is next played.
And that factor could be the final straw in an FBS landscape that is already seriously divided between the ‘Power 5’ conferences and the ‘Group of 5.’
Power 5 teams tend to have tighter conference groupings and host more home games, which all cut down on travel expenses. They also have huge network television contracts that they will be incentivized to honor by playing games, even if an altered or limited schedule lessens the payout.
On the other hand, there is the G5. Football teams in the other half of the FBS have larger geographic footprints and travel schedules that are often exacerbated by random long trips to “payout” games at P5 opponents that will never be returned.
And while these schools and conferences also receive money in the form of media rights agreements, it’s safe to say that a check from ESPN+ isn’t keeping the lights on conference-wide in quite the same way as deals with national networks and huge corporations that sponsor P5 marquee matchups and conference championship games.
For years, it has been rumored that the highest level of college football could fracture as it has before. There is a lot of fan support and corporate money that would love to see more heavyweight regular season matchups and a prolonged national championship playoff without giving a second thought to those things coming at the expense of the G5 conferences that have much less money and national appeal.
There are currently arguments that say attended football games simply won’t happen this fall due to ongoing pandemic concerns. If that happens, the biggest and wealthiest schools could probably find a workaround.
It wouldn’t be fun or pretty, but there will be SEC and ACC and national championship playoffs played if games are allowed to continue. If G5 schools follow this schedule, the financial blow will be inconceivable.
Wherever P5 universities with budgets for over-the-top amenities, constant facility upgrades and a private-jet-based recruiting strategy have to skimp through some lean times, G5 schools will already be tapped out as soon as football programs lose any sort of revenue.
One G5 school (Cincinnati) has already cut loose its men’s soccer team. Others are putting coaching staffs on furlough. It’s not just possible, but probable, that these measures will only get more drastic and more prevalent if sports remain shut down.
As advertising and fundraising trends go, it’s pretty safe to assume that when games and attendance resume, it will be the P5 schools who benefit first, even though G5 schools will need the return to normalcy more.
There is also the growing pressure for student athletes to be paid in some form – a totally new cost that would demand an overhaul of every athletic department’s finances.
Unless things change course in a hurry, the already abundant theories of what will happen to Division I sports needs to have another theory thrown onto the pile.
When all of this is done, there could be a complete split. Some big-name and high-dollar schools could easily survive and split off to form some new quasi-professional level of competition.
Less fortunate institutions will be left scrambling just to keep their athletic departments intact or petition the NCAA for rule changes as any significant decrease in football revenue will put in jeopardy the ability for many schools to fund the requisite 16 varsity sports in the coming years.
There are no easy answers for the upcoming economic impact that is coming. There isn’t an FBS school out there that doesn’t need every cent generated by its football program to set budgets for the rest of its teams.
And there isn’t a school out there that isn’t going to see a decrease in that revenue, regardless of what games do or don’t get played.
It will be weeks before any schedules are set and months – or years – before the true impact on the collegiate sporting world is known, but one certainty is that we’re about to be in a whole new ballgame.
The Right Thing
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The NCAA has long been a punching bag for fans and member institutions alike and, for the most part, deservedly so.
The Indianapolis-based institution has all-encompassing power over its members, but it is often accused of being too strict in hamstringing the rights of student athletes, while also catching flack for doing too little in the face of major violations at marquee institutions.
That said, the NCAA received nearly universal applause for its quick action in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The organization cancelled all spring sports championships – including the immensely profitable March Madness men’s basketball tournament – on March 12, weeks before many local and state governments took similarly drastic shutdown measures in the name of public health.
Cancelations were preventative in nature and aimed at decreasing the impact of the virus, but the NCAA also acted quickly in announcing that seniors participating in spring sports will be afforded an additional year of eligibility should they choose to return to school and compete again next year.
That was undoubtedly the right call to make, but there is still a long way to go in achieving that goal.
The NCAA has cleared up the question of eligibility, but the national organization has no say in how each school finds the money to afford scholarships.
The NCAA has said that it will figure out an adjustment to the scholarship limits for spring sports, but it is up to each school to figure out a way to accommodate seniors wishing to return and play while also honoring scholarships that have already been awarded to incoming freshmen.
It will likely be months before the next year of collegiate athletics can set a firm schedule, but there’s no doubt that every school will face its own set of complications moving forward.
Things will eventually get back to normal, and that will be a great day. But normal is a relative term. For fans, it will be enough to have the opportunity to go see a game and cheer on their team.
For schools, there is the much more complicated matter of putting on those events, while financing an athletic department that could be at risk for shortened 2020-21 seasons and heavily decreased ticket sales due to ongoing public health fears and economic circumstances.
It’s still far too early to know how any schools will be able to deal with this unprecedented set of circumstances. There is no easy answer, but there is one thing that is perfectly clear and that might lead to a new way of doing sports, business and athletics at the collegiate level.
Players want to play and have earned the right through their work on both the athletic and academic side.
Academic institutions routinely rely on the millions upon millions of dollars raised on the backs of those athletes and their accomplishments in order to advance the school’s brand and build bigger and better opportunities for the athletes of tomorrow.
This pandemic has caused an impasse. Athletes most definitely deserve the right to return to get their part of the agreement they signed up for.
Athletic departments will likely have to take a hit in the wallet to make that happen.
Next spring will be all about making things right on a contractual level. Everything after could lead to bigger movements about what athletes bring to their respective schools and what more should be asked of those schools to make sure that both sides are getting as much as they give.
Time Waits For No One
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There is still plenty of speculation about how much of the 2020 Major League Baseball season – if any – will be played.
But one sure thing is that when play resumes the Atlanta Braves will still be one of the better teams in baseball, with every reason to believe that a World Series title is within their grasp.
However, the agreement reached by MLB and its players’ association regarding pay and service time could put a dent in the length of the Braves’ current run of great play.
Over the last decade, many baseball teams have adopted a roller-coaster philosophy to competing. They will ride out success for a while, but are now more apt to trade off aging and expensive talent.
The rebuilding process can be painful for fans and is done for financial benefit of the club – the thought being that there’s no reason to pay top dollar for declining veteran talent that won’t make the playoffs when a roster full of marginal veterans and young players can lose just the same at a much smaller price.
That’s where the current pandemic and suspension of play is hurting the Braves. If play resumes this season, all will be fine. Atlanta will contend for a third consecutive NL East title, although a shortened season figures to be a disadvantage for more talented teams better suited to handle the grind of a full schedule.
If a shorter 2020 hampers the Braves’ competitiveness or the worst case scenario happens and there is no baseball until next spring, that’s when the numbers will start working against them.
The biggest item in the agreement is that, in the event of a total cancellation of the current season, all players will receive an identical credit of their MLB service time accrued in 2019.
That would mean the Braves’ big offseason adds of Cole Hamels and Marcel Ozuna would again be free agents as both are signed to one-year deals.
Mark Melancon would also be a free agent as the contract he signed before being traded to Atlanta expires this year.
There is also the issue of age as Freddie Freeman will turn 31 this season and has just one year remaining on his deal.
Losing players is one issue, but adding on payroll seems to be an even bigger concern for Braves ownership group Liberty Media, which had often been criticized for being tight with money prior two the last two seasons of winning baseball.
The wave of youth that has been instrumental in the Braves’ rise is about to get a considerable pay raise. Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Sean Newcomb, A.J. Minter and Chad Sobotka will all be arbitration-eligible next season, guaranteeing a pay raise for all and increasing in accordance with their performance over their first three seasons.
Star outfielder Ronald Acuna will be the biggest hit on the payroll. Acuna is slated to make just $1 million in 2020, but the contract extension he signed last year bumps that to $15 million in 2021 and levels out at $17 million per year after that.
Ozzie Albies will also be breaking the bank as he will make an additional $2 million in 2021.
The Braves’ roster, as currently constructed, will remain relatively young, even if no baseball is played this season. But the contract structure of the team shows that 2020 is definitely the year Atlanta thinks it can make a World Series push.
If the Braves don’t see any action this year and want to be in a similar spot for 2021, they’ll have to make tough decisions on free agents while the payroll begins to soar.
