Braves have one goal before this winter, and it's more important than making the playoffs

The Atlanta Braves have one of the better rosters in all of baseball. That's really an undeniable fact. Even after losing Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr., seeing down years from most of their lineup and injuries all over the place, they're still almost a solidified playoff team.

But there has just been a glaring hole this year with their pitching staff. It's a hole that could be a bit of a concern as the season pushes into the offseason.

When this season concludes for Atlanta, they're sending two of their starting pitchers, Max Fried and Charlie Morton, into free agency. Bryce Elder has been horrendous and Strider is still going to be recovering from elbow surgery when opening day of next season comes around.

Atlanta's top priority between right now and opening day of 2025 needs to be solidifying their starting rotation going forward.

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Atlanta needs to solidify their pitching staff this offseason

Atlanta is likely going to let Morton walk in free agency. He's already 40 and they have a plethora of young prospects that should be able to take his place. They can afford to lose Morton. But they can't afford to lose Max Fried, their other impending free agent starter.

Fried has been a top two pitcher on this Braves team for years now. He's due for a big pay day and the Braves will have to dig deep into their pockets to secure him for the next few years. But with their superstars on team friendly deals already, they should have the money to pay Fried what he deserves.

Atlanta has this strategy of buying out a player's arbitration years in order to sign them to a long term contract. They have done this with Michael Harris, Acuña and Strider already. Next on their list needs to be rookie pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach due to the way he's throwing this season.

Schwellenbach will be a staple of this Braves rotation for years to come and Atlanta realizes that. He shouldn't experience a sophomore slump like Elder is seeing this year because Schwellenbach is just a more refined arm with better stuff.

If Atlanta can lock these two arms down, they could have one of the best pitching staffs in the league for the next five years. When they eventually lose Chris Sale and Reynaldo Lopez, they have top talents like AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep sitting in their pipeline.

Alex Anthopoulos has the potential to put together one of the most talented and sustainable pitching rotations in baseball for the next five or ten years.