Schultz: Braves Alex Anthopoulos, a former Expos fan, has prevented similar exodus
ATLANTA — On the day of another perceived financial conquest, and on the eve of his team’s postseason, Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos stepped into the way-back machine for some needed reflection and self-analysis. He grew up in Canada as a baseball fan. There’s pain at that intersection — emotional scar tissue that actually might explain why Anthopoulos has been so driven to re-sign many of Atlanta’s young, core players to long-term deals.
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“Look, obviously we believe in these guys, and we’re trying to keep as many of them as we can,” Anthopoulos said Monday, standing in a stadium corridor outside the team’s clubhouse. “But as you know, I grew up in Montreal, a Montreal Expos fan. A lot of the good young players left. They couldn’t afford them. That was tough as a fan to take. And we’re not doing this just for the sake of doing this. But maybe subconsciously, I don’t think the Atlanta Braves should lose these players. There’s a real component for the fan base knowing guys are going to be here.”
The only thing more difficult than building great teams is maintaining that level of success. Anthopoulos is doing what he can to ensure that.
Not everybody can be kept. Not everybody should be. Not every guess can be right. Anthopoulos wanted to keep Josh Donaldson and couldn’t. (That turned out to be a good thing.) He wanted to keep Marcell Ozuna and did. (That turned out to be a bad thing.) The negotiations with MVP Freddie Freeman blew up, and Anthopoulos sealed Freeman’s departure by trading for Matt Olson. (Freeman signed with the Dodgers, almost won the batting title and plays for the World Series favorite, but the Braves won 101 games.)
But Anthopoulos has given fans a reason to feel secure about the Braves’ future. They are the anti-Expos. The signing of Spencer Strider to a six-year, $75 million contract makes the rookie starting pitcher the sixth player, age 28 or younger, who has been locked into a long-term deal. The contracts void years of arbitration, free agency, financial uncertainty and most of all, fan and organizational angst.
Now comes the hardest part for a general manager: Anthopoulos has to take his hands off the steering wheel. GMs make moves; players play.
“I don’t enjoy watching the games — or not watching the games,” he said.
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He’s serious about not watching. During the potential clinching Game 6 of the NLCS last season against the Dodgers, the biggest moment for the franchise in more than two decades, Anthopoulos was so nervous he couldn’t watch. He paced the halls of the Braves’ offices and eventually wound up in manager Brian Snitker’s office, closed the door and arranged Snitker’s media guides to pass the time.
Braves GM Alex Anthpoulos was so nervous he couldn't watch and hibernated in Brian Snitker's office organizing media guides during ninth inning
But this team couldn't lose.
Column:@TheAthletic @TheAthleticMLBhttps://t.co/ykpk3NGgJF
— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzATL) October 24, 2021
Can this team win another World Series?
“Oh, yeah,” Anthopoulos said. “But you know things have to break right. Guys have to perform. All these teams can win the World Series. But sometimes there’s bloopers and errors and things.”
“Bloopers, Errors and Things.” That could be the title song for the 26 years between championships.
Long-term deals don’t ensure success, for the player or the team. But they do ensure controlling what a team can control.
Montreal fans watched greats like Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Gary Carter and others leave. Anthopoulos has negated a similar exodus here. He has signed six players to contracts ranging in length from six to 10 years (plus team options). The relative tenured crew includes Ozzie Albies (signed through 2025) Ronald Acuña Jr. (2026), Strider (2028), Michael Harris II (2030), Olson (2030) and Austin Riley through 2032. All of the deals are considered financially friendly, assuming the players remain healthy and productive. Impending free agent Dansby Swanson and starting pitcher Max Fried, who has two arbitration years left, are on the clock, but it’s a more difficult equation when a veteran is nearing free agency. (See: Freeman.)
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The Strider deal is extremely backloaded, with $1 million in salary in 2023 and 2024 and $5 million in 2025. It shoots up to $20 million in 2026. But the contract represents a departure for Anthopoulos, who generally avoids giving long-term contracts to pitchers because of injury concerns.
“This is a first,” he said.
So why Strider? Why now?
“I’ve been in baseball 23 years, and I’ve never seen this before,” he said, a reference to Strider’s 202 strikeouts and 2.67 ERA in 131 2/3 innings. “He’s either the exceptional talent we think he is, or it’s an outlier. But I’ve never seen it. I’ve never seen his package of ability, makeup, stuff. I’ve never seen it. I’ve seen plenty of good, young arms, but I’ve never seen this. And you can look at all the accolades that he’s gotten like the strikeout record. If he had started the entire year, he’d be in the Cy Young conversation. In my mind, he’s been that good.”
If you were counting, there were five variations of, “I’ve never seen it.”

GO DEEPER
Braves ink rookie Strider to $75 million contract
If Strider is recovered from his oblique strain, he can be a major factor in the postseason, even if it’s initially out of the bullpen. Either way, the Braves should feel good about their chances to repeat. They started 23-27, then seemingly remembered they had a title to defend. They won 14 straight, eventually erased a 10 1/2-game deficit, overtook the Mets in the NL East and went 78-34, the best record in the majors since June 1 (the Dodgers were 78-35). There are some uncertainties. Will Fried be strong after a late-season stomach bug? (He says he’s fine). Charlie Morton is coming off a regular season with mixed results. What about Strider’s health and Acuña’s health, and can Harris replicate his tremendous rookie year in the glare of the postseason?
But with uncertainty, there are comfort and confidence, grounded in recent history.
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“We had a core group in that 14-year run that was here together,” Snitker said.
The last four postseasons haven’t told him what to expect. He has been blindsided before.
“That Game 5 against St. Louis a few years ago,” he said.
Yeah. The Cardinals had a 10-run first inning in an NLDS deciding game at home that buried the Braves.
“When we went into that one we talked about everything but what happened in that game,” he continued. “It was like 20 minutes into it, we were done. So, yeah, like I said, you never know what’s going to happen when you play a playoff game.”
This is an emotionally stable team. It has bounced back from bad losses, bad starts, injuries, Ozuna’s second arrest and the ground-shifting offseason trade for Olson that sealed Freeman’s exit. Keeping franchise cores together is important when it comes to postseason success.
This year marks only five straight division titles for the Braves, not 14. But the six long-term deals project a sense of stability.
“This place has obviously been blessed with a lot of great young players,” Swanson said. “They’ve done such a great job of being able to keep this group of guys around one another. I feel like there’s a bigger vision in mind. And they’ve obviously done a good job of being able to piece together players from different backgrounds, from different ages that all have basically come together and bought into what we have created here.”
What has been created is a chance. That’s all fans want.
(Photo of Spencer Strider: Michael Zagaris / Oakland Athletics / Getty Images)
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