Five questions the Braves must address this offseason

They presumably will be one of the better teams in baseball next season.

First, the offseason. Once again, it will come with a lot of intrigue as Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos tries to push the organization closer to its second World Series in his tenure.

Here are five questions the Braves must answer this offseason:

Was it bad luck, poor performance or a mix of both?

Anthopoulos is in an unenviable position here.

On one hand, this Braves season was so improbable, so unlucky, so strange with all of the injuries, one after another. On the other hand, the offense underperformed before the vast majority of those injuries, and the team found itself stuck in a malaise at different points of the year.

So what, if anything, needs to change?

It’s easy for fans to call for change. It’s more difficult to pinpoint where that change should come. Anthopoulos evaluates each season, but he had only a small sample of games in which he had a team that was almost fully healthy.

To this point in his tenure, Anthopoulos has done a fantastic job of choosing when he should not overreact to something and when he can actually improve something on the club. Objective eyes will tell you he’s hit far more than he’s missed.

You can trust he’ll thoroughly evaluate the situation.

Will Max Fried return?

Spencer Strider. Chris Sale. Reynaldo López. Spencer Schwellenbach.

And who?

The Braves are in a great spot here. Strider will be coming off elbow surgery rehab. Sale, who didn’t pitch after Sept. 19 because of back spasms, hopefully will be healthy. López exceeded all expectations. Schwellenbach looks like a budding star.

Will Fried be the fifth man in this group? If so, it would be a dominant starting rotation.

But Fried, who soon will become a free agent, might not be in the team’s plans. His situation does cause you to wonder: If the Braves were to re-sign Fried, wouldn’t they have done it already? The two sides have talked previously about an extension, but obviously those discussions never materialized.

There’s a lot to consider here.

Fried is a terrific pitcher. He helped the Braves become one of baseball’s better clubs. He’s a meaningful part of their core.

But this season, he dealt with a small bout of left forearm neuritis. In 2023, he only made 14 starts because of a forearm strain.

Fried is adept at inducing weak contact, but he doesn’t strike out a ton of guys. And as we saw this season – including when the Braves were eliminated – that can sometimes lead to funky outings because the ball is being put in play. He had an up-and-down contract year.

The point here is not to nitpick Fried. He’s a wonderful pitcher and teammate. He would be an asset to any team. He’s competitive. He cares about winning. He’s everything an organization would want.

But the bar is high when discussing guys who’ll be paid as Fried likely will. Thus, we must be realistic when evaluating what the Braves might do.

In an ideal world, the Braves would pay Fried. They’re better with him. No one is arguing that. But Anthopoulos’ job is to sustain a winner. He must think long-term.

Will the Braves give Fried the deal he wants?

We’ll see.

Will the Braves’ offensive identity look any different?

We know this about the Braves: They value power. They constructed their team as such. It was not an accident.

Their thinking was sound here. At full strength, they are one of baseball’s top offenses – if not its best.

This season perhaps exposed some of the weaknesses. The Braves ranked 20th in batting average with runners in scoring position.

Yes, they had injuries, but they were struggling before all of those.

Were guys putting too much pressure on themselves? Perhaps. But at times, it also seemed like hitters were trying to do far too much when they needed only to move a guy over or put the ball in play.

Are the Braves too reliant on home runs? Do they need more bat-to-ball skills in the lineup? Why couldn’t they simplify their approach in key spots?

A disclaimer: This writer, and most fans, aren’t as smart as the people working with these hitters or the hitters themselves. It’s easy for us to try and throw darts at a board to analyze this.

But the best teams often are great situational-hitting clubs. The Braves were not that this season.

It’ll be interesting to see whether hitting coach Kevin Seitzer returns – though you cannot place all of the blame at his feet. And it’ll be intriguing to see whether there’s a small tweak in what the Braves emphasize to hitters.

What would changes look like to the lineup?

This is the difficult question.

Everyone wants change, but six of the Braves’ eight position-player starters are guys they signed to long-term extensions. And last offseason, Anthopoulos said the Braves wouldn’t trade any of them, barring injuries, underperformance or an off-field issue.

The Braves could address shortstop. Orlando Arcia’s glove is terrific, but his bat was far from it. You could argue, though, that if he’s batting ninth and others are producing, then his glove is good enough to keep him in the lineup.

Then the Braves have the outfield shuffle. What will they do with Jorge Soler? As someone who doesn’t play adequate outfield defense, he doesn’t fit – if we’re to believe the Braves pick up Marcell Ozuna’s team option (more soon). Ramón Laureano might deserve another opportunity with this team.

And what will the Braves do with Jarred Kelenic? Are they going to give him another shot to be the everyday left fielder? After all, he had one at-bat after Sept. 17 – and none in the postseason. The Braves could platoon Kelenic with Laureano, but they had been doing that until Laureano earned everyday playing time.

As for the lineup overall, it’s reasonable to assume it’ll look similar. And that might not be a bad thing: The Braves were one of the sport’s more prolific offenses in 2023. When they’ve been full strength, they’ve been a top offense.

Will these three guys be back?

Ozuna: The Braves have a $16 million team option, and picking it up seems like a no-brainer. Ozuna was one of the National League’s top performers. He finished with 39 home runs and 104 RBIs. He’s also beloved in the clubhouse. He turns 34 in November, but has been terrific since May 2023.

Charlie Morton: After Wednesday’s game, he said he wasn’t ready to announce anything. But there have been reasons to believe Morton is considering retirement more than he has in the past. At age 40, he finished with a 4.19 ERA. He can still pitch, but does he want to keep spending so much time away from his wife and kids?

A.J. Minter: He’s often talked about how much it means to him to be a Brave. He’s been a key part of the bullpen. If his rehab after left hip surgery goes well, then it’s reasonable to assume the Braves would be interested in bringing him back. Minter has said he hopes to stay. The Braves’ bullpen, a strength in 2024, can continue its momentum by getting Minter back.