Braves Offseason

[kramnoj]

2009 Braves Commitments:

Hudson SP $13M
Jones 3B $10M (this is an option, but fairly sure its a lock)
Soriano RP $6.1M
Gonzales RP arby $3-4M?
Kotchman 1B arby $2M?
Infante U arby $2M?
Diaz OF arby $1.5M?
McCann C $3.5M
Francoeur RF arby $1-2M?
Johnson 2B arby $2-3M?
James SP arby $2-3M?
Moylan RP pre-arby $.5M
Escobar SS pre-arby $.5M
Bennet RP pre-arby $.5M
Carlyle RP pre-arby $.5M
Acosta RP pre-arby $.5M
Anderson OF pre-arby $.5M
Blanco OF pre-arby $.5M
Campillo SP pre-arby $.5M
Jones OF pre-arby $.5M
Jurrjens SP pre-arby $.5M
Brado UI pre-arby $.5M
Reyes SP pre-arby $.5M
Sammons C pre-arby $.5M

I count about $53M (that could be quite a bit off, depending on arby) for the 24 players listed above. The Braves payroll to open this year was over $102M. I don't know what their plans are for their budget this year is going to be, but it certainly looks like they could be players in the FA market. As I see it, their biggest needs are OF and SP. They look to have 3 good SP and then question marks. Their projected outfield just looks awful. This team was a 90 Loss team this year, but their pythag was 79-83. If they improve enough with FA acquistions, they could be playoff contenders next year.

Edit: I just saw that Hudson may be out for 2009. That obviously hurts. It would be difficult to sign enough FA to move this team to the 90ish Win mark that may be needed to be a playoff contender next year.