Braves News: All is quiet on the lockout front, Baseball America’s Top 100 list and more

A quiet winter for Major League Baseball continued Wednesday and while prospect list season is a welcome distraction, it is the status of the sport that should be front and center. There wasn’t an update on the lockout Wednesday and there hasn’t been one since the two sides met last week with reported minimal progress. Last week’s meeting was the first in 40+ days in which the core economic issues were discussed. Quite simple, the sense urgency isn’t there yet to get a deal done.

As The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote Wednesday, it is inexcusable for the sport to lose games in a labor dispute. There is simply too much at stake for both sides. Unfortunately, neither side appears to share that sentiment.

We have done a good job of sugar coating the situation over the last 12 months but the fact is that neither the league or the union has shown that they are capable of making a deal. You need look no further than the pandemic shortened 2020 season as an example where the commissioner implemented a 60-game regular season. There are just too many differences and too many hard feelings.

Unfortunately, this situation needs a sense of urgency that only the loss of games can provide. I am not sure spring training games count either. Everyday this goes on though is more damage for the sport. If only either side truly cared about that.

Braves news

The Braves landed three players in Baseball America’s Top 100 prospect list for 2022. Outfielder Michael Harris cracked the Top 50 while Shea Langeliers and Cristian Pache also made the cut.

FanGraphs’ Dan Szymborski released ZiPS projections for the Braves for the upcoming season and they are pretty favorable even with a notable question mark at first base.

Our prospect list roll out continued Wednesday with No’s 13-18 which is highlighted by 2020 and 2021 No. 1 picks Jared Shuster and Ryan Cusick.

Braves Podcasts

Our friends at Just Baseball caught up with Braves lefty prospect Tucker Davidson to discuss the 2021 season, his mental preparation and his main focus for the 2022 season.

MLB News

Carlos Correa announced late Tuesday night that he has switched agencies and hired Scott Boras of the Boras Corporation. Correa is one of the few big name free agents that didn’t cash in before the lockout. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported Wednesday that Correa was looking for a deal in the $330-350 million range before the lockout.

The Kansas City Royals hired long time scout Roy Clark as a senior advisor for baseball operations. Clark is best known for his time as a scout in the Atlanta organization.

The Cleveland Guardians named Joe Torres as their assistant pitching coach Wednesday.

The San Diego Padres named former outfielder Shane Robinson as their new bench coach for their Double-A team in San Antonio.

The Colorado Rockies announced the addition of former infielder Jordan Pacheco as their new hitting coach at Triple-A Albuquerque.