Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Fab Four of July acquisitions lead Braves to World Series
HOUSTON » Atlanta had just stumbled again, losing its seventh straight attempt to reach .500.
“This isn’t going to define our season, this series,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said that night at New York’s Citi Field.
Little did he know. Two days later, general manager Alex Anthopoulos obtained outfielders Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall and Jorge Soler along with reliever Richard Rodríguez in four swaps in the hours before the July 30 trade deadline, adding to the acquisition of outfielder Joc Pederson two weeks earlier.
Rosario, Duvall and Pederson combined to drive in 17 of Atlanta’s 28 runs in its six-game NL Championship Series win over the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Rosario was selected MVP as the Braves advanced to a World Series matchup against the Houston Astros starting Tuesday night.
Pederson especially has been a pearl of an addition. Even before the Braves tried to earn the team’s first World Series championship rings
since the Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Chipper Jones club of 1995, he became known for perhaps the most-seen strand of pearls since Jackie O’s.
“I just saw the pearls and I was, like, you know what? That looks cool,” Pederson said. “I’ve done the black
chain and the gold chain and all those different ones and — I think a lot of other players have. But I don’t know,
kind of caught my eye. I was, like, you know, those look good.”
Anthopoulos, a 44-yearold
Canadian hired as general manager in November 2017 and promoted to president of baseball operations last year, had to remake his outfield in midseason.
Opening day center fielder Cristian Pache injured his right hamstring on May 13 and didn’t have another big league at-bat until October. Left fielder Marcell Ozuna broke his left middle and ring fingers with a headfirst slide on May 25, then was arrested four days later on charges of aggravated assault and hasn’t returned. Star right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. tore his right anterior cruciate ligament on July 10, an injury sidelining him until next year.
Many GMs make midseason additions. Seldom do so many jell.
With the deal for Pederson, Anthopoulos sent the
clubhouse a message “that
we believe in you,” recalled star first baseman Freddie Freeman, the reigning NL MVP.
Anthopoulos had gone to his boss, chairman Terry McGuirk, for permission to
spend and lifted payroll from $136 million on opening day to $149 million on Aug. 31, still 14th among the 30 teams. The four outfield acquisitions added $7,743,280, factoring in $500,000 that
Atlanta is receiving from Cleveland this year as part of the Rosario trade.
“Terry McGuirk came to me at the All-Star break and said you got whatever you need to go make this club
better. Whatever you need. And we went full-speed ahead,” Anthopoulous said.
Atlanta lost at Milwaukee hours after the trade deadline, dropping to 51-54. The
Braves were third in the NL East, five games back of the New York Mets, one game behind Philadelphia and two games in front of Washington.
“The one thing that’s fortunate for us is we’re playing in the NL East in 2021,” Anthopolous said after the trades. “We’re all in it.”
Atlanta won five of its next six games to move above .500 for the first time all season on Aug. 8. A ninegame winning streak lifted the Braves into first place on Aug. 15.
“It’s two different teams, really, from the first half to the second half, if you really look at it,” the reigning NL
MVP said. “So we just had little weapons waiting in the wings all over the place and then we unleashed them and here we are sitting in the World Series.”