In the past, teams have attempted to trade for the likes of Ronald Acuña Jr, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, and a slew of other Braves stars. Had Anthopoulos been impatient, the Braves might not be in the position they are today.
More recently, however, Alex Anthopoulos was on 680 The Fan discussing a potential trade that didn’t come to fruition at this year’s trade deadline. AA said the player could have helped them in their quest for a second World Series in three years, but his reason for passing on the deal was that a current player wasn’t fond of the potential trade candidate based on their experience together in the past
The entire conversation is fascinating, but this shouldn’t come as news to people who follow the Braves closely.
I say it several times every season, but an underrated advantage the Braves have had every year over 95% of their opponents is the guys on the team genuinely love each other and enjoy playing together. It may sound simple, but it’s not commonplace in every clubhouse and is vital to success over such a long season where players are spending nearly eight months out of the year with each other.
It’s yet another aspect of being a general manager that Alex Anthopoulos seems to have mastered. He takes everything into consideration and is not going to make a splash for a player without doing his homework. Now, I’m just dying to know who this mystery player is, and what he might have done in the past to prevent the Braves from pulling the trigger on a trade for him.