Atlanta Braves

Some members of the franchise's core are signed into the 2030s, setting Atlanta on a reasonably affordable path toward sustained contention in the National ...

But on Wednesday, before some exceptional starting pitching [powered a Braves recovery](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/sports/baseball/braves-phillies-nlds-game-2.html), Riley said that he had sensed during his minor league days that the franchise was cultivating a strong group of crucial players. To have that for four, five, six years down the road, I think it just builds to what we’re doing right now,” he said. “When us infielders play every day, you build that relationship with the guy next to you,” he added. “Alex is a really, really brilliant guy who does his work well,” John Schuerholz, who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame after a 17-year stint as Atlanta’s general manager, said of Anthopoulos in an interview by the dugout before Game 1. “My goal is always to outperform any expectations,” said Strider, whose deal will add up to $92 million if Atlanta exercises a club option for 2029. But Atlanta has spent this year, and even this week, fortifying its roster in ways that could make it less dependent on midseason personnel heroics and a sustained hazard to the rest of the big leagues. The Atlanta lineup is expected to look much the same then, and, barring injuries, for a while to come. In August, around when Atlanta signed the rookie outfield phenom Michael Harris II for eight years, the team reached a deal with third baseman Austin Riley, who had even more extra-base hits than Olson, that could keep him in its clubhouse until 2033. And, at only $7 million a year, Ozzie Albies, a switch-hitting infielder and two-time winner of the Silver Slugger Award, has club options that could keep him in Atlanta through 2027. Although the Albies deal, announced in 2019, was widely regarded as a steal for Atlanta, some players regard early contracts as financial security measures that let them quickly earn well above the $700,000 major-league minimum and guard their potential fortunes against injury. Freddie Freeman, the team’s former cornerstone, is now a Dodger. “I feel like there’s such a bigger vision for this place in mind,” said Dansby Swanson, the All-Star shortstop whose looming free agency is perhaps Atlanta’s biggest known headache.