Anthopoulos winning with surging Braves
TORONTO — Alex Anthopoulos sat in the visiting dugout at Rogers Centre and glanced up at the banners hanging in centre-field.
Three years removed from his role as general manager of the Blue Jays, the current Atlanta Braves GM still takes pride in winning baseball’s American League East title with Toronto in 2015 — his last season at the helm of the team.
“I remember Howie Starkman (a former Blue Jays public relations official) told me it’s harder to win a division than it is to win a World Series,” Anthopoulos said Tuesday afternoon, hours before his Braves opened a two-game series against Toronto. “That said, I’d take a World Series any day of the week.
“And don’t get me wrong, I would have been very happy with a wild card and getting into the playoffs, but winning the division felt like a greater accomplishment for the time that we had spent trying to grind.”
Anthopoulos was with the Blue Jays from ’03 to ’15, serving as GM from ’09. He joined the Los Angeles Dodgers as vice-president of baseball operations from ’16 to ’17, and was named GM of the Braves last November.
The Montreal native now leads a young Atlanta team that was in first place in the National League East with a 43-29 record heading into Wednesday night’s game. The Braves finished third in their division (72-90) in 2017 and last (68-93) in ’16.
Anthopoulos wouldn’t say he was surprised by the Braves’ turnaround.
“We didn’t know what to expect, we knew there was a lot of talent here,” Anthopoulos said. “All the GMs before me, these guys did an amazing job, scouting department, development department, those guys deserve all the credit to begin with.
“We knew there was a lot of talent. The plan was to just sit back and watch them play, maybe add some things, bring in some information . ... But if they had good seasons we wouldn’t be surprised and if we were competitive we wouldn’t be surprised. You just don’t know with a young team when they’ll emerge.”
One of the youngsters to emerge has been 20-year-old Calgary right-hander Mike Soroka, who started against the Blue Jays Tuesday night, becoming the youngest Canadian-born pitcher to start a Major League Baseball game north of the border.
The Jays managed four runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings, but Soroka left with a four-run lead in an 11-4 Atlanta win.
Soroka, listed as the Braves’ No. 3 prospect before the season, spent a month on the disabled list with a shoulder injury, from May 17 to June 13, and was making his second appearance since his return. His start before Toronto was a stellar one — he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in a win over the New York Mets.
Anthopoulos had a chance to select Soroka in his last draft as GM of the Blue Jays in 2015. But Atlanta snatched him up instead with the 28th overall pick, right before Toronto went on the clock.
“I can say from talking to people in Atlanta they were concerned about the Jays selecting
him,” Anthopoulos said. “I can’t tell you he would have been (Toronto’s) pick, but the Braves were concerned because they were the next pick and the Canadian component there.
“The amateur department in Atlanta did a great job with him.”
Soroka said the start in Toronto was important to him. “It was everything I’d imagined for sure, coming out and seeing a lot of Canadians, a lot of Canadian flags. I thought it was pretty special, too. I’m not sure about adrenalin. First time in the big leagues, every inning adrenalin’s there. I definitely felt the energy early. Felt that coming into the stadium. A lot of people I recognized. It feels more like home, so that’s pretty cool.”