1/15/19 9:00am

A-List Q&A with GM Alex Anthopoulos 1/15/19

By. Andrew Rodberg

On Tuesday morning the Braves offered a Q&A to A-List members to attend with GM Alex Anthopoulos and quite a few questions were brought up.

Some of the questions asked really put pressure on Alex but he was able to choose his words wisely and didn’t leak any secret information. As for the A-List members, many were able to leave with a sense of where the Braves may go leading up to Spring Training as it pertains to trades and free agent signings.

When asked about what the team’s offseason vision is Alex responded with an opening statement:

Opening Statement Alex: “We still would like to have a starter, we don’t have to because we do think some of the young arms we have could be really good. We look at, Could this player exceed a Soroka, Fried, Toussaint? With that said we still want to have depth. We would like to keep the kids and explore free agent signings because we have control of them for 4-6 years.”  

A-List Member: “How did we go about signing Tyler Flowers? How did the Brian McCann signing come about? 

Alex: “We talked to both Suzuki and Flowers last summer and they both expressed interest in being here. We wanted to give one year short term deals and Suzuki wanted to test the free agency and was able to get a 2 year deal. McCann was on our list and showed strong interest in being here and was willing to make it work from a financial standpoint.”

A-List Member: “Out of the Braves top 30 prospects, 20 are pitchers and 15 are starters thats enough for A-AAA. Would you at some point need to trade some arms to make room for position players?” 

Alex: “Everything you said is true but I like it. Thats how I want it. I will explain: 1.) They are all not going to be starters, some are going to get hurt, some are going to end up in the bullpen. Free agent pitchers are getting 10-20 million dollar one year deals. 2.) It’s easier to trade for position players, a lot of players get blocked and are moved because a team doesn’t have anywhere to play them. When you pitch, you can’t get blocked. We can put you in the bullpen, we can put you in the rotation, someone is going to get hurt.”

A-List Member: “Any chance Nick Markakis finds his way back here?”

Alex: “Yes. We have been talking to his agent on and off all winter. We are not close to anything, we are just staying in contact.”

A-List Member: “Who on twitter can us fans can trust if anyone?”

Alex: “Yeah I mean the guys who cover the team day in and day out are pretty locked in, I don’t give out scoops. If I call so and so and give info, it’s not really fair to every other media outlet because that doesn’t take any talent, that just is building a relationship.”

A-List Member: “With all the young arms, how do you handle a player like Julio Teheran?”

Alex: “We felt Julio could be better from 2017 to 2018. He allowed the fewest amount of hits, We focused on him getting away from slugging and contact. We knew he was going to take the ball every 5 days. Over a course of 6 months, knowing he could go deep and give you innings was something we definitely needed.”

A-List Member: “Do we have any trades in the works?”

Alex: “There’s one trade concept right now that 70% of the deal we would agree to, the 30% is probably where we are going back and forth. I don’t know if we are going to get it done, but the main piece of the deal I think we ultimately would be ok, it’s the add on.”

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