ATLANTA -- The Braves had numerous reasons to make the financially motivated bad contract swap that sent Matt Kemp to the Dodgers, and their likely plan to go with an eight-man bullpen and a short bench influenced the decision to non-tender Matt Adams, whose left-handed power potential now rests on the Nationals' bench.
With those offseason departures, Atlanta is staring at a power shortage. The Braves ranked 28th in the Majors last year with 165 home runs. Thirty-five percent of that total was provided by players who are no longer with the organization, namely the aforementioned duo and Brandon Phillips, whose 11 homers made him one of the seven Atlanta players with a double-digit total.