re: MLB Off-Season Thread: Story to Red Sox, Solar to Marlins

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The fact the Braves could match what the Dodgers offered shows it was about the Braves, not Freeman.

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THE BRAVES HAD made an opening offer to Freeman back in the spring of 2021, but it was an under-value deal that was customary of how the franchise conducted its baseball business following the 2020 pandemic season. The Braves, like other teams, had cut payroll, shedding productive players like Adam Duvall, Darren O'Day and Mark Melancon. So it was no surprise that the spring proposal fell far short of what Freeman's representatives, Casey Close and Vic Menocal of the Excel Agency, sought on the player's behalf.

But Atlanta's revenue trajectory changed quickly. The Braves were among the first teams to open their stands to fans, and Atlanta finished second among major league teams in attendance in 2021. Ownership gave the Braves' baseball operations the go-ahead to make deals in July, and Anthopoulos traded for Joc Pederson, Duvall, Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario and others.



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Around the same time, at last summer's trade deadline, the Braves finally moved in their negotiations with Freeman, offering him $125 million over five years, according to sources. The response from Freeman's camp remained consistent with what had been communicated before -- he would only agree to a deal that included a sixth year. In the weeks that followed, the Braves bumped their offer to $135 million over five years.

According to two league sources, the team was using Paul Goldschmidt's five-year, $130 million deal with the Cardinals as a comparable contract. At the time of Goldschmidt's contract with St. Louis in 2019, he was 31 years old, a little younger than Freeman, who turned 32 last September.



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In speaking with reporters all season, Freeman publicly deflected conversations about his negotiations, saying he was focused on his family and what the Braves were trying to accomplish on the field -- which was a remarkable turnaround. In Freeman's last 55 games of the regular season, he batted .323, and the Braves went 37-18. When Atlanta made short work of all of their postseason opponents, eventually beating the Astros in six games in the World Series, it felt like a storybook ending -- and the perfect moment for Atlanta's favorite son to agree to continue his stay.

All that time, the Braves' five-year offer remained on the table, including through a pre-lockout November in which there was little communication between the team and Freeman's camp. Close maintained that Freeman needed a sixth year in any offer from the Braves, and he began talking to other clubs. Without a deal on Dec. 2, after the owners locked out the players, Anthopoulos and Close did not negotiate for the 99 days of the labor shutdown.

When the business of baseball resumed, the Braves reconnected with Freeman's representatives. Anthopoulos nudged Atlanta's offer upward, to $140 million over five years.

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Anthopoulos rejected both of Excel's proposals. The two sides agreed on only this: All offers and proposals were off the table. Both sides needed to prepare for an Atlanta squad without Freddie Freeman.

QUICKLY, ANTHOPOLOUS BEGAN making those plans -- and he knew that if Freeman was not going to be the Braves' first baseman, he needed a star: a high-end player for the sake of the team's run production and defense. The Braves have won the NL East each of the last four years, with Freeman at first base, but their competition was only getting tougher: Mets owner Steve Cohen has spent aggressively this offseason, adding ace Max Scherzer, center fielder Starling Marte and others; the Phillies have loaded up on bullpen help, and locked up Kyle Schwarber.

So very late on Sunday, March 13 -- a day after Anthopolous ended talks with Freeman's camp -- Anthopoulos reached out to Billy Beane, who heads baseball operations for the Athletics, and asked for Beane's price for Olson. For Oakland, this was an opportunity to deal with a desperate trade partner. As one executive said, "Billy knew Alex couldn't roll out Joey BagofDoughnuts out there at first base to replace Freddie Freeman."

But if they got a star, the Braves could shape the conversation around Freeman's departure. The message to the team would be that even without Freeman, the team was serious about winning.

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