Braves Still Have Up To Ten Roster Spots Available for Opening Day
After Friday night's non-tender binge, there's more spots open to competition than we initially expected
The Atlanta Braves were aggressive on Friday night with non-tendering players they either didn’t expect to contribute in 2025 (Roy Kerr, Huascar Ynoa) or didn’t think were worth the expected price in arbitration (Ramón Laureano at $6.1M, Griffin Canning at $5.1M).
And all of that movement means that there’s more position battles coming than maybe we initially expected, just from glancing at the depth chart for the upcoming season. We have the 40-man roster at just 35 and looking at the depth chart leads to more available playing time than you might expect:
Outfield: RF Ronald Acuña Jr., CF Michael Harris II, OF Jarred Kelenic
Infield: 3B Austin Riley, SS Orlando Arcia, 2B Ozzie Albies, 1B Matt Olson
Catcher: Sean Murphy
Designated Hitter: Marcell Ozuna
Starting Pitching: Chris Sale (LHP), Reynaldo López, Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider
Bullpen: Raisel Iglesias, Joe Jiménez, Pierce Johnson, Aaron Bummer (LHP), Dylan Lee (LHP), Grant Holmes
(italics denotes a player expected to begin the season on the injured list)
Sure, there are plenty of other options on the 40-man roster for some of these spots, but no locks - Daysbel Hernández is expected to take one of the open bullpen spots, but a guy with a career 12.7% walk rate in the minors and options remaining isn’t a lock, I’d argue. Eli White’s a great defensive outfielder, but he’s also a career .191 MLB hitter in 448 career PAs (although he did hit .282 with Atlanta in 42 plate appearances last season) so he’s also not someone I’d write on the depth chart in pen right now.
Let’s look at the likely free agency needs, sorted by our guess as to how aggressive Atlanta will be in addressing it in some way, shape, or fashion:
Starting Rotation
This one’s pretty obvious: You lost 59 starts and 339.2 innings from last season’s staff with the (expected) free agency departures of Max Fried and Charlie Morton, who combined for 37.5% of the rotation’s innings last season.
Additionally, you’ve now allowed MLB experience in Griffin Canning to walk out the door in free agency by non-tendering him on Friday night.1
With Spencer Strider not being expected to be ready to rejoin the rotation on Opening Day, the Braves are expected to add something here. The team’s used between ten and thirteen traditional starters in each of the last four seasons, and if you squint you can see…well, less than that right now for 2025:
Chris Sale
Reynaldo López
Spencer Schwellenbach
Spencer Strider
Grant Holmes
AJ Smith-Shawver
Bryce Elder
Ian Anderson
Hurston Waldrep - based on folks I’ve talked to, Waldrep’s now considered more likely to be a reliever than a starter, but they’d probably still try him in the rotation one more time before making that switch.
Additionally, there are some high-level prospects that could debut in 2025 - Drue Hackenberg is at the top of my list, but you could also see Ian Meija or Lucas Braun, possibly. Maybe Luis De Avila, but he fits into that Allan Winans/Darius Vines/Dylan Dodd cohort as guys they don’t trust at the MLB level to start.2
But if you’re counting, that’s a total of nine starters with MLB experience and some of them (AJSS, Anderson) are major question marks based on either not having very much MLB run in their careers (Smith-Shawver) or returning from a major injury (Anderson).
It feels like two additions are warranted here, with at least one being someone you’re comfortable throwing in a postseason start.
Left field
The only two outfielders guaranteed to be both on the Opening Day roster and healthy (as of now, at least - let’s not jinx this) are Michael Harris II and Jarred Kelenic.
Adding one player here, someone that can start full-time until Acuña is back and then platoon with Kelenic, feels like it’s in the cards. Several new names are now in the free agent pool after Friday’s non-tenders, including Austin Hays, Dylan Carlson, and Ramón Laureano (who could always re-sign for less than the projected $6.1M he’d have received in arbitration).
I’d expect one player to join the ranks between now and Opening Day. Time will tell if it’ll be early in free agency, meaning AA wanted that guy all along, or sometime in spring training, meaning AA thought there was value to be had and/or wasn’t impressed with the optionable depth like Eli White and Carlos D. Rodriguez. Adam Duvall was signed in the final weeks of the Grapefruit League schedule after Jarred Kelenic had a rough go of it in spring training.
Bullpen
Many folks are going to disagree with me that the bullpen should be so low on this ranking, but relievers are more variable from season to season and come free more frequently during the season - for almost every team, the bulk of their DFA’s will come from the relief corps.3
But with A.J. Minter a free agent and Joe Jiménez slated to miss most (or all) of the 2025 season, a high-leverage reliever would be a nice add this offseason. Bonus points if it’s someone who could slot into the open closer spot after Raisel Iglesias becomes a free agent next offseason.
But to reiterate this in budgeting terms, this is a ‘want’ and not a ‘need’. There are players in the organization that can work in relief but aren’t necessarily roster locks right now, from Daysbel Hernandez and Domingo Gonzalez to Rolddy Munoz and maybe even Hurston Waldrep. All four of those players are optionable, as well, which is something that the Braves pen has been lacking in recent seasons with their veterans signed to multi-term deals.
There are veterans in Gwinnett, as well - John Brebbia was signed during the season and is still with the organization, while Ken Giles spent all of last year with the org and despite being a free agent, might choose to come back if the team indicates they’re ready for him to return to the bigs. Don’t overlook Enoli Paredes here, who was signed as a free agent earlier this month.
If the Braves are looking to limit spending this offseason (which would be counter to their early offseason comments but not surprising if they wanted to reset their luxury tax obligations) then adding a free-agent reliever feels like the first thing that would be on the chopping block.
We’ll dive into each of these needs in a series of offseason articles (and podcasts), looking at options both in free agency and via trade and hopefully at several different price points.
Yes, I know he has a career 4.78 ERA in 94 career starts. Didn’t say it was good experience, just experience.
De Avila’s also not on the 40-man roster right now and is Rule 5 eligible this December, so he might not even be here next season
By my count, Atlanta DFA’d nine guys during the season and of course, just under half of them were relievers - Jimmy Herget, Zach Logue, Parker Dunshee, and Darius Vines (who had been moved from starting to relief after some blowups and would end up going down to AA Mississippi for a while). The Braves also moved on from three outfielders (Eddie Rosario, Forrest Wall, and J.P. Martinez) and two infielders (Joey Wendle and Zack Short).
Making my point, though, the Cubs, to pick a random team, DFA’d nine players last season and six were relievers. (They also claimed Herget after we DFA’d him, which I consider to be an unforced error by the Braves)
Last year it seemed like AA cleared out the 40 man for a specific direction and then things changed and he had to adjust (this is a complete projection on my part). Could this be happening again? Where AA has a strong idea where he wants to go but then he might have to adjust again? Between Hackenburg or Braun who would you think has the best chance to get called up to Atlanta to stay? Also what would you give the odds of Morton coming back next year. I know a bunch of people are down on Morton, but I feel if he takes 8 or so it will be a done deal. It seems like getting the starting pitching(2) and maybe a left fielder or SS seem like absolutes. So we should probably look forward to 3 big reliever contracts incoming? Thanks again for your work. More people should be reading it.