The Atlanta Braves have a very important free agency period ahead. They have a few holes to fill on their roster and some of the rumors have been connecting Atlanta to the big fish on the market.
But FanSided's Jacob Mountz has different ideas for the Braves. In an attempt to save money, Mountz advised the Braves to avoid signing free-agent infielder Willy Adames and free-agent pitcher Max Fried.
Spotrac projects Fried to sign a six-year, $136 million contract and Adames to sign a six-year, $152 million deal. It would cost the Braves roughly $300 million to sign these two superstars for the next six seasons.
"Adames' defense has drawn some concern that a possible position change will be needed further down the road. If that is the case, he is blocked by Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies," Mountz wrote.
If the Braves are in the running for Adames, they should stop at nothing to acquire him. While having a positive defender at shortstop is important, adding a bat to improve over the struggling Orlando Arcia would be huge. It would add another middle-of-the-lineup bat that can post a .800-plus OPS each year.
But Mountz also recommends avoiding Fried, which is the more confusing of the two, citing Atlanta's deep rotation as to why.
"If the Braves were desperate for pitching, pursuing Fried would make more sense. But the Braves will go into next season with a star-studded rotation featuring Spencer Strider, Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Ian Anderson, and Spencer Schwellenbach," Mountz wrote. "With this in mind, the Braves should be more interested in getting a less expensive insurance arm that has star potential like Walker Buehler."
Last season, the Braves struggled with starting pitching depth more than anything. Fried has been the team's most consistent pitcher over the last five seasons. Letting him walk in favor of Buehler, Schwellenbach, Lopez or Anderson would be quite a questionable move.
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