Braves president: 'It took courage' to rebuild team
If all goes according to plan, the worst of the Atlanta Braves rebuild is behind them.
Sure, they could still deal some expensive players and get some prospects, but its likely the heavy lifting is done. They'll head into 2017 with a new ballpark and an idea that they can compete.
At MLB's quarterly owner meetings, Braves president John Schuerholz spoke about the rebuild and where the organization stands.
"It took courage to do something like this," Schuerholz said via MLB.com. "When you've won as much as we have and when you're expected to win, this has been a new experience."
Over the past year and a half, the Braves have dealt many franchise players -- Jason Heyward, Craig Kimbrel, Juston Upton, just to name a few. In return, they were able to replenish their farm system with a plethora of high-end prospects, including Dansby Swanson and Sean Newcomb.
"Our pipeline is about as full now with prospective Major League talent as it's ever been," Schuerholz said. "Now they have to matriculate and find their way to the Major Leagues and prove that our judgements were right. That's what it's always about. To get from where we were to where we are now, we feel very good."
The decision to undergo the massive rebuild was one brewing for a while, but it was an obvious choice for the organization.
"I didn't need much convincing, and neither did [Braves chairman] Terry [McGuirk]," Schuerholz said. "There was only one way to fix this, and that's the way we're doing it -- go all in. We went down to the bare steel. In order to do that, we have to offload some very talented players, expensive players, but very talented and beloved in the community. Those were the tough decisions that had to be made. We took our criticism, and we still do. If we were going to do it right, that was the only way to do it."
When asked about how long until he expects the Braves to be competitive, Schuerholz said, "some in our group would say mid-2016. Some would say early 2017. I'd be happy with either one of those."
Time will tell, obviously, if Schuerholz is right. One thing's for sure though: The team is much better off than they were at this time last year.
