By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Alex Anthopoulos (Montreal, Que.) did a great job pivoting from Freddie Freeman’s departure as a free agent to the Dodgers heading into 2022.

Atlanta Braves fans think it would’ve been better to re-sign Freeman, but budgets are budgets. Anthopoulos was like Quick Draw McGraw or the fastest gun in the south: dealing for Oakland’s Matt Olson before another team could -- Olson was the only suitable replacement at first -- and most importantly locked up Olson to an eight-year $168 million extension within 24 hours. Like all the extensions Anthopoulos has handed out, it’s potentially club friendly to extremely club friendly. Yes, the Braves won the division, but the extensions are why gets an “AA” for this year’s work.

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He allowed SS Dansby Swanson to leave as a free agent, signing a seven-year, $177 million deal with the Cubs and gave the job to Vaughn Grissom, who made 39 starts at second base replacing injured Ozzie Alvies. Grissom had five homers and 18 RBIs with five steals and a .792 OPS in 41 games. Locking up impressive CF Michael Harris, 21, to an eight-year deal with two club options that would push total value to $102 million -- maybe $100M or more on the table if you are accounting along at home -- and signed 3B Austin Riley to a 10-year, $212M extension, which could also save the team another $100M or more long term. Anthopoulos did take some risk signing rookie pitcher Spencer Strider to an long extension.

All of these deals put the team in great position for the next six-to-10 years, on top of the Ronald Acuña and Ozzie Albies extensions he handed out a couple years ago. Of course, they also push the Braves up against the luxury tax because they use annual average salary to figure that out. These deals are inexpensive now, the annual average value is much higher now and for the next few years for Strider and Harris than it would’ve been if they went through salary arbitration. Anthopoulos made bold moves, resisted the outside pressure to pay more and for longer than he was comfortable doing to re-sign Freeman (and probably put the Braves in better position five years from now with the younger Olson) and continued placing a premium on bringing in only guys who’ll fit into the Braves’ tight-knit clubhouse. He does a great job vetting guys to make sure that they have the right personalities. And the Braves players notice and appreciate that, and that he consults with them about those matters, rather than making moves without checking with anyone and bringing in someone who would have been a bad fit.

Braves are committed contractually to at least to everywhere until 2028 except for the shortstop and left field positions.

Name Contract Yrs Free agent season

C Sean Murphy $73M 6 Yrs 2030

1B Matt Olson $168M 8 Yrs 2031

2B Ozzie Albies $35,000 7 Yrs 2028

3B Austin Reilly $212M 10 Yrs 2034

SS Vaughn Grissom $720,000

LF Eddie Rosario $18M 2 Yrs 2025

CF Michael Harris $72M 8 Yrs 2033

RF Ronald Acuna $100M 8 Yrs 2029

DH Marcell Osuna $65M 4 Yrs 2026

In voting before the postseason, the Braves president of ball operations was second in selections by his peers for the crown of executive of the year. Chris Antonetti of the Guardians, was the top man. The highly-respected Baseball America voted the ex-Blue Jays boss executive of the year. The Braves spent four days alone in first place in 2022 and, on June 1, were 10 1/2 games behind the Mets. That deficit is tied for the third largest a team has overcame. The 1951 Giants caught the Dodgers after being 13 back, the 1995 Mariners roared back to catch the Angels and the 1979 Reds came back from 10 1/2 games to edge the Astros.