The Atlanta Braves have made a decision.
In the aftermath of a collapse at the end of the 2014 campaign, the Braves made several changes organizationally, including the installation of a new general manager in John Hart. His new braintrust collectively decided, in a hurry, that the current roster was unfit for a legitimate run at the 2015 World Series, and that choice signaled a significant shift toward the future.
From there, the organization made several moves with an eye toward the 2016 and 2017 seasons, and in the meantime, Atlanta virtually owned the fact that would be punting the 2015 campaign. Regardless, the 2015 campaign will still take place, and the Braves scrambled a bit in the latter stages of the player movement season to add some rebuilding projects and platoon assets to form what they hope will be a respectable club.
The results of that scrapheap dive are still to be determined, but in this space, we will take a look at what the 2015 season should bring for the Braves as a whole. Before we do that, however, let’s take a glance at what happened in 2014.
2014 Capsule
Record: 79-83; T-2nd in NL East (New York Mets)
WAR leader (Position Players): Jason Heyward – 5.1
WAR leader (Pitchers): Julio Teheran – 3.2
Key moment: The Braves put together an 8-game losing streak from July 29 through August 6. They began that stretch at 10 games above the .500 mark, but the team would never fully recover.
Next: Key Additions/Subtractions