Major League Baseball

Atlanta Braves' World Series followed by less-than-ideal winter

Published Feb. 12, 2022 7:39 p.m. ET

After winning a World Series, an extremely enjoyable offseason tends to follow the players on the winning team.

The Atlanta Braves, though, haven't really been able to enjoy the spoils of their championship last fall, a six-game triumph over the Houston Astros. It was the franchise's first championship since 1995 and only its second in Atlanta, with the others coming when the team resided in Milwaukee (1957) and Boston (1914, 1892).

Sure, they had their parade last November. But if they had known then what they know now, perhaps the Braves would have made that bus slow down and savor the trip a little more.

The team also recently announced that the World Series trophy will be taking a tour through the South this month. Of course, there won't be any players on that tour, as they've been locked out by MLB as part of their ongoing labor dispute, an issue that will impact Spring Training — which is scheduled to begin in the coming week — and potentially the start of the regular season as well.

And there is another nagging issue hanging over the franchise, and certainly bothering their fans, this offseason — the status of their best hitter, Freddie Freeman.

The 32-year-old first baseman, a beloved franchise icon who is a five-time All-Star and the 2020 NL MVP, is a free agent. And his contract status became an issue even before the post-championship champagne even had a chance to go flat.

The Braves weren't able to lock him into a new deal last season, nor this offseason before the lockout was announced.

And Freeman is not the only key Atlanta player who could end up leaving. Eddie Rosario, Jorge Soler and Joc Pederson — all of them heroes of the postseason — are also free agents who will either need to be re-signed or replaced.

To be fair, the Braves are not the only team dealing with uncertainty as the labor dispute drags on.

The AL champion Astros are dealing with nagging issues of their own, including the free agency of shortstop Carlos Correa, a 26-year-old who was a key figure in the franchise's rise from a laughingstock to a perennial title contender.

But it's the Braves who were supposed to get to enjoy this offseason, to rejoice in the spoils of the championship they worked so hard to attain. Instead, they're wondering when the season will start, and then wondering who will be in the clubhouse once it does.

Unfortunately for them, a most unusual offseason has intervened in the celebration, and with big-spending teams like the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers out there, who knows what could happen?