Atlanta Braves 2018 season in review: The good, the bad, and what’s next

The Atlanta Braves got back to winning baseball in 2018. Here is a look at the good and the bad of 2018, and what we might expect from 2019.

Atlanta Braves fans had to enter the calendar year of 2018 with a bit of a bad taste in their mouths. It had been since 2013 when the city of Atlanta last hosted a winning baseball team. The 2017 version of the club produced a 72-90 record which resulted in another postseason watching other teams be where they want to be.

While the on-field product was making it hard to be a fan, what happened down the stretch of 2017 likely made every Brave’s fan embarrassed. The Braves were caught and penalized by the MLB for international signing violations. That caused the team to have to forfeit 13 international prospects, three years of restrictions on the international market, and the loss of their third-round draft pick in this past year’s draft.

The violations also resulted in the resignation of president of baseball operations John Hart and the hire of Alex Anthopoulos as the Braves general manager. As the Braves seemed to be headed in the wrong direction and losing a ton of talent it allowed other teams around the league to capitalize on the Braves punishments.

Thankfully, those sanctions didn’t define what would happen with the major league club in 2018. After what was a successful 2018 as we will get to in a moment, Anthopoulos now has his first full offseason running the Braves to try and capitalize on the clubs first winning season in a while.

While a good group of the Braves roster will remain intact for 2018, there are several 2018 Braves who have hit the free agent market:

• C Rene Rivera
• C Kurt Suzuki (signed with Washington)
• 1B Lucas Duda
• INF Ryan Flaherty
• OF Nick Markakis (re-signed with Atlanta)
• SP Brandon McCarthy (retired)
• SP Anibal Sanchez (signed with Washington)
• RP Brad Brach (signed with Cubs)
• RP Peter Moylan

The Braves are still looking for places to upgrade their roster as they seem to be stuck in what has been an arms race in the NL East. They have made some significant moves with the re-signing of Markakis and a few other moves. As we will see through the rest of this post, there are a few other places the Braves may need to solidify to give them that final push from playoff participant to unquestioned World Series contender.

The Bad

In all honesty, there wasn’t a lot of bad that happened to the Braves when we look at the big picture. They did finish with that 90-72 record and were participants in the playoffs. What goes down as a negative is that their showing in the playoffs wasn’t as competitive as one would have liked.

The Braves were defeated by the Dodgers in four games 3-1. In the first two games, the Braves lineup of great hitters wasn’t able to put even a single run on the board. Behind 2-0 in the series, the Braves would win the third game but then lose that fourth matchup with the Dodgers.

In many ways, it had felt like the Braves had really put things together in a special way and they may be able to make a run through the playoffs. In the end, that just wasn’t there for the Braves in 2018.

The Bullpen

It is hard to say that the bullpen was truly “Bad,” but it was missing that gear that it seems championship teams have. Arodys Vizcaino put together a solid season as the Braves closer turning in a 2.11 ERA and collecting 16 saves.

Brad Brach was acquired at the trade deadline and also pitched well for the Braves with a 1.52 ERA over 23.2 innings. Really looking up and down the bullpen it is hard to find a terrible ERA or a pitcher without some ability to produce swings and misses.

The missing piece appears to be that sort of shutdown relief pitcher that can really just come in a put a lineup away. That is a big reason why former Brave Craig Kimbrel will continue to be linked to the team until he signs somewhere this offseason.

Honorable Mention: We could also mention Dansby Swanson here in this bad section. He did not produce with his bat in a way the Braves expect from him as he slashed .238/.304/.395.

The Future

Out of any team in the MLB the Braves have one of the brightest futures ahead of them. We already mentioned Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies who right now form a duo of young players that could be with the team for some time.

Even though Johan Camargo will be bumped from the starting lineup in favor for offseason addition Josh Donaldson, he should be a quality bench bat for the Braves. In 2018 his slash line of .272/.349/.457 may not wow, but he was still able to produce a .806 OPS.

More young talent coming!

You would think the Braves would be running out of great young players, right? But they aren’t. In MLB.com’s latest release of their Top 100 Prospects in baseball the Braves put 8 players on the list.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

There are five total pitchers on the list, four of which already have gotten a taste of the majors. Those four are Mike Soroka, Kyle Wright, Touki Toussaint, and Bryse Wilson. That leaves each as a possibility to have an impact on the 2019 Braves or to even become an attractive piece if the team decided to try and swing a trade.

Those four prospects only add to what will be a rotation that has a trio of young and effective starters in Mike Foltynewicz, Julio Teheran, and Sean Newcomb. The hardest part right now is that there isn’t enough room in the rotation for the all the starters. That also gives flexibility and depth at a position that you can seemingly never have enough depth at.

Another valuable prospect for the Braves is third baseman Austin Riley. Last season the 21-year-old spent most of his season at Triple-A and hit .282/.346/.446 with a .882 OPS and 12 home runs in 75 games there. Riley is known as a bat-first prospect and could also be very valuable for the Braves in a trade scenario or as the heir apparent to Josh Donaldson.

The Atlanta Braves should be a fun team to watch in 2019 and have the potential for sustained success if they continue to play their cards right. It may be too early to claim this bunch is the next coming of those 90s clubs, but it seems all the pieces are in place to potentially develop into a similar stretch of baseball in Atlanta.