Braves Front Office Named One of the Best in All of Major League Baseball

The Atlanta Braves are in capable hands with Alex Anthopoulos at the helm

Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos has guided the organization to new heights of sustainable success / Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves have one of the best front offices in baseball. 

Led by President of Baseball Operations Alex Anthopoulos, the 2015 Sporting News Executive of the Year, the Braves have seen an amazing run of success both on-the-field, winning six consecutive NL East titles and the 2021 World Series, but also off the field. The Braves have unprecedented roster stability, with all nine lineup regulars signed for multiple seasons. 

All of these factors combine to make the Braves one of the best front offices in baseball, and that’s not just us making that claim: The Athletic polled 40 baseball executives ($), asking them to rank the top five front offices in the sport, assigning point values to the rankings to come up with a final tally. 

The Braves and Alex Anthopoulos came in third out of thirty teams with 130 points, ahead of the Cleveland Guardians (101) and Baltimore Orioles (91). The only teams ahead of Atlanta were two of the most accomplished (and distinct) front offices in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays (2nd place, 258 points) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (1st place, 284 points). 

Here’s what the writers over at The Athletic said about Atlanta coming in 3rd place: 

He has built something of a juggernaut in Atlanta through a series of canny trades and swift contract extensions for cornerstones like Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Sean Murphy. After winning the World Series in 2021, Anthopoulos pivoted out of talks with first baseman Freddie Freeman and swung a trade for Olson. The maneuver stunned the industry but further demonstrated Anthopoulos’ decisiveness.

However, for as complimentary as the piece was, there were some questions about what recent personnel attrition could do for Atlanta moving forward, singling out now-former assistant GM Dana Brown, who left the organization to run the Houston Astros. 

Some executives raised questions about whether the team will continue to draft well now that former scouting director Dana Brown has left to run the Astros. The good news for the Braves: With all those long-term extensions, the roster won’t require much mending for a while.

And for the two teams ahead of the Braves, the Rays and Dodgers, it’s logical that they’d be at the top of the rankings. Andrew Friedman, who runs the show in Los Angeles after previously working in Tampa Bay, has had several other prominent GMs from this list as part of his staff. Alex Anthopoulos was an assistant in LA between leaving the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015 and taking the Braves job prior to the 2018 season. 

The Dodgers are the only organization mentioned as doing everything well, from drafting and developing prospects to being aggressive at both signing free agents and making midseason acquisitions. It’s a supercharged, much better resourced version of the blueprint that Friedman built with the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays, one that’s continuing under new general manager Erik Neander. 

The full article with breakdowns of the top ten teams is available for subscribers of The Athletic.