During interviews at the end of the season John Hart and John Coppolella said they would be aggressive in the free agent market but were not going to be players for the big name free agents. How can they do both?
Free agents are a payroll issue
Everyone wants the best players on their teams but for middle market teams like the Atlanta Braves sustaining huge payrolls is a fantasy. The Braves payroll’s averaged just over $95M since 2002 with four years exceeding $100M. Hart and company have said we can expect a payroll between 100M and 120M again next year and it’s reasonable to expect that to be the case.