Alex Anthopoulos 2026 Opening Day interview with Chuck and Chernoff

0:00the braves radio network channel on the podcast park is brought to you by truest bank. When you start with care, you get a different kind of bank. All right, it's opening day. Braves getting ready to start it tonight with the royals. So it's time for a final off season. Before the beginning gets rolling here, check in with the man to put the team together. He's Braves executive vice president general manager Alex and Thopolis, who joins us on the loud security systems. News maker line Alex, how are you? Doing well guys excited for the game. We are too. All right, we're going to try to get through as much and this comes from a place of love. So if you start running the clock out on us, we're going to we're going to grab you so we can never do that. I never do that. Come on. You know, I've been here way too long. I got to change up my my style here. Okay, so let's start right here. We won't be around the bush. Do you have any regrets about not adding more veteran starting pitching? Just tough for me to qualify it that way. I mean, when we go into the winner and as we're going through the winner, everyone's healthy. Everyone's doing well right now. It would have been grand homes getting bumped out, right? The way things looked and the way things were lined up because you know,

1:03and as we found out, you know, really, we only found out just before camp broke with Schwalmbach news because he had been throwing bullpen's and doing really, really well. I mean, prior to last summer, he couldn't even get to the bullpen stage. He wasn't even close. So I think it's just one of those things we would have had to have been prepared to bump grand homes out, which we were. There are a few things we definitely pursued. That would have bumped him out and ultimately he would have been back in with these guys going down. Well, look, we've always been guys that keep opportunities. It's always been an organization, I mean, that gives young guys opportunities. And we are pretty deep when it comes to our some of our young arms and our prospects at the same time. So all that remains to be seen. We'll see how it goes during the year. But the things we did pursue, those are the guys we wanted to get. As I sit here today with what the cost would have been in terms of prospects, trades, things like that. I felt like we made the right move. Does Ronaldo Lopez his physical condition, his ability to pitch this year?

2:04Does that worry you or are you confident about it? No, I know it was obviously a huge story. Even for me, that last start against the twins. I mean, I went and talked to them because it made no sense to me that his velocity all of a sudden dropped. And he's type of guy that goes pretty easy during the spring. He doesn't really step on it. He saves his bullets. We noticed that in 2024. And that last start, he was velocity was way down. I understand it was a story. So I had a conversation with him and just asked is there anything going on and even Walt said I think after the game or the next day, he'd asked them multiple times during the game. Did every strength test there was? He's strong as an ox. Feels great. And he was convinced there's a mechanical change in an issue. And it was still surprising to me that you could see that pick a drop in one game. When he was convinced and we found it pretty fast, our coaching staff did. So we actually talked to him just before he threw his last bullpen off. Hey, do you need one more spring training start just to get this ironed out?

3:06Because it's not going to work at 85, 86 or whatever he wasn't in the last inning. And we basically said, let's have him go through his bullpen, see how it goes. But we had options for a game too. We can move things around. But he went out through his bullpen in the middle of it, turned to the coaches and said, that's my slider. Slider was 85, velocity was back. And we actually looked back to his 2024 spring training. His velocities were the exact same as his March 20th, 2024 spring training. So he was confident. He had no doubt our coaches felt the same way. From a health standpoint, our medical staff says he's doing great, zero issues at all. So I understand it was a story, it was a story for me. When that outing happens on against the twins, I'm just grateful we were able to find that fix. And I was surprised we were able to get to it so fast. But I have a lot of confidence in him going them on. Alex Anthopolis, which I can sharn off on the loud security systems, newsmaker, line. Let me circle back. So when we talked about you said the injuries that popped up right before spring with a wall drip with Schwelly, did you have the funds?

4:10That wasn't before. I got a correct year there. Wall drip happened in spring, throwing a live BP. So that was like, we're already there. He's already starting to face hitters. Okay. Shrombok was just before spring. Okay. All that being said, at that point, did you have the funds to add, whether it was a bastard, a geolido, any of the free agents? And did the TV deal at all being in limbo? Did that hold up some funds for you? Yeah. So what I would tell you is I don't want to talk about anyone who's still a free agent, just because there's all the really strict rules around that. And Chris Bass, we stayed in touch with the agent. You know, we were aware of where it was going, where it was headed, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, we had the ability to make deals and to sign players and make trades. We obviously opted against it. Mauricio Dubon, he's played plenty. But he may have to play a lot more shortstop, at least for a little bit to start at the season. Tell me what your vision for Mauricio is. Yeah, look, when we acquired him, there was the world that he would have been our starting shortstop.

5:13And if we didn't, if we weren't going to bring Ken back and so on, we're prepared, I think I said it at the time. So high energy guy, high baseball IQ, contact bat. Also can play a really good outfield, to play center field, play obviously corners. Can hit left handers better than right handers. But overall, he's a gritty, I have a chip on a shoulder type of player. But we really like him. And he had a really good spring. And he's going to get an opportunity, just like you said. And obviously it's at the start of the year. But when you're looking at things right now in terms of rehabs and things like that, you know, Kim right now, I think we have scheduled to start a rehab third week of April. Maximum rehab assignment for a position player is 20 days. So if he starts, you know, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, let's say around there, barring no changes, getting back early May, you hope. And then Sean Murphy, I think scheduled to start one on April, the 8th. And then you're looking at another 20 days from from there. So these guys are going to be back soon, but look all that said. Mauricio Dubon is still going to move around the diamond.

6:14Walt Weiss has talked about giving guys days off. You know, he's going to be able to play. He could be, you know, we have ELI White. Obviously, that can play all three outfield spots. But, you know, a guy like Dubon can do the same thing. And we know guys are going to miss time. And I think the depth of this roster is so important. As you see, I'm starting tonight. Not, you know, if it wasn't opening day, I don't think it's a story. But if Drake starts behind the plate, now we have a day game on Sunday, after two night games in a row, you know, we want Dom Smith, batten line up against the righty. So it's really an opportunity for Walt to get Baldwin in there. Try to get him in there all 13 games. And really, he can cherry pick the left handed starters. That makes the most sense. Because then we get the fire, Dom Smith against the right hander. Alexander Thopolis with us did actually me do it this way. What was your initial reaction to the pro far news? And is it your plan to reallocate those funds at some point this year? Yeah, it was an off day, you know, I guess unexpected would be an understatement.

7:14You know, but I'm just very matter of fact on this stuff. I'm very next man up. Like you said, we have those funds from a payroll standpoint. You know, things present themselves. We're going to be able to be aggressive. Now we always have the ability to have the conversation regardless. But those are dollars we obviously had earmarked and allocated. If you look at the way it works, a $15 million salary at the trade deadline is equivalent of $45 million dollars of total salaries. Because you only paint a third, right? But if there's something there in April, May, June, we're obviously going to look to do that. So it opens things up just from a playing time standpoint. I mean, it would have been a good problem to have. But you know, when everyone was back, how are we going to fit Mike Yostremsky? But we figured with it Ronald needing time in years past. Mike Harris needing timing in years past that we would get yes. I'm at bat and it would be a good problem to have. But you know, we were hit from a depth standpoint rather than the gates. But I do think with Yaz and Eli,

8:17we're in pretty good shape there from a defensive standpoint for sure. And I do think, you know, that tandem I know Walt's hasn't said it's definitely going to be up. It's going to be a straight platoon to start. But I do think his lean right now is to give Eli as many opportunities as he can against the left hander. Alex, do you think you're open to having pro far back next year? Can you trust him? You know, that's a great question. And I guess I'd say this is best way I can answer is I'm not ready to answer it. Right now, you know, just there's no upside for me to make any inflammatory comments. I mean, look, it goes without saying we can't go back. We can't undo what happened. I'm going to give you a GM speak and cliches that I am. I'm really locked in on 2026. Once we get to the off season and planning for 27, there's obviously so many things ahead of us. CBA, all that kind of stuff. We'll cross that bridge. But for right now, he's gone for the season. Obviously his salary is not on our books. And we're going to act accordingly. Last thing from me, Michael Harris.

9:20I know like the physical part, the technique raises hands, do whatever, wait on the ball, you know, whatever, there's, there's, there's the video part of it. What about between his ears? Because this is a kid that at 21, kaboom, rookie of the year, and then since then, it's been a real struggle. How is he mentally, psychologically? Because this could not have been easy for him to pass couple seasons. Yeah, and again, I'm not trying to correct you guys, but you know what? I have to take you there to dinner when you have to correct me. So I get to do it too. So he said, it's 21, came up, won the award, and then it's been all downhill. Back to back years, I've been over 800 OPS. So year two was pretty good as well. So we had two fantastic years, and then, you know, from an offensive standpoint, really struggled in year three in the first half. But when he came back in the second half, he came back in that giant series. It's the Grand Slam against Robby Ray with awesome, those last, I guess, two months or so. Into the post season, even though it was a really short playoffs against San Diego, but he was our best hitter. He definitely performed the best in that series.

10:22And then last year, him and Albi's just really out of heart our time. And like you said, he raised his hands, but he's still, he's still a streaky hitter. He knows that. I will say this about him. From a mental standpoint, he's as mentally strong and tough as anyone you're going to be around. He's even killed. You won't know if he's gone four for four. You won't know if he's gone. Oh, for four. I think Walt likes having him towards the bottom of the lineup, just the speed element. I think Mike, when he first came up, he liked being down there as well. We just look at the upside, right? He's got paladol fields. He can have 30 homers. He can still have 30 bases. He's in a leap. Go glove, Calvary hasn't won it yet. Center field. There's so the expectations are so high because he's capable of so much. I think the one thing that's really going to unlock the offense is, can he be more selective? You know, I told him this. I said, 16 walks last year. I said, Mike, you have to do better than that. And he knows it as well. Now, I don't think he's going to be a guy who's going to walk 100 times here. That's not who he is. But I do think being a little more selective and knowing that when he comes to the plate,

11:24the guy on the other side probably viewing him as being in an 0-2 count, because he is going to be aggressive overall. We've seen what he can be and he can be an 800 OPS bat. Even if he isn't and it's somewhere in the mid-700s with a leap, go glove defense. It's hard to find guys with playing that position from a defensive standpoint that can do what he does. And if he's towards the bottom of our lineup, somewhere in that seven and nine range, that means we have a really strong team. Alex Anthoplus, Braves GM, which I can turn off on the fan. I know it's a medical thing. So it's always guessing and the minute could move. But do you have an expectation that we're going to see Schwelly, Waldrip, AJ Smith-Sharver at some point this year? Yeah, so I would say this. I would say Smith-Sharver, I think his surgery was beginning of June. So you're looking at 13 months range, used to be 12. But you know, people are just taking a little more time. So I do think, obviously, give or take. I think the all-star break is a nice kind of area to see where he's at. We're going to know, obviously, a lot by that time. Is he on a rehab assignment?

12:25Is he getting ready to start one? Waldrip has been four weeks in Nofro. So he's got another two weeks of rest. And then he's going to get going again. And, you know, barring and he setbacks, things like that. Many came out and had first-line batting practice, 94.99. Wald turned to one of the coaches and said, this guy doesn't want to go back to Gwyneth. And we saw how well he threw for us a year ago. So expecting back, Schwelly is a little bit of an unknown there. We just have to wait. He's still in the recovery phase and so on. And it's just going to come down to once he gets cranked up and starts throwing again. Does he have any issues? Does he have any pain? So, but we are going to get him going ASAP. You know, the minute the doctor clears him to start throwing, we're going to get him going. So, you know, it's one of those things that it's just, it's a, it's a, it's really time at this point. But just because, and I say that with Schwelly, just because he got through the off season, he was doing great. 120 feet is kind of the big barometer, passes that with flying cars. Throwing bullpen is doing great. His last bullpen pitches 17 to 20 feels something.

13:27You know, so I just think because of, because of the past, what, what's happened. It's a little bit more cautious, a little bit more weight and sea. I think, I think obviously with, with, with, uh, Smith-Sharver, it's a standard Tommy John right now. And with Waldrop right now is just, uh, remove the loose bodies and, and get back going again. Alex, you talked about you guys not being shy to move young pictures along. Would you have an expectation with Richie, did a year who's up now, but maybe more in a starting role, and even Owen Murphy could all be a part of what happens this summer? No doubt about it. Uh, and look, I think it's, it's so easy when things work out. You don't say a thing, right? Harris comes up from AA, uh, Vaughn Grisson comes up from AA, and the success that Vaughn had ultimately leads to getting us. Chris Stale, obviously Harris. We 100 wins, you know, he's, ends up doing great. Schwellenbach two starts in, in AA. Um, comes up, we don't make the playoffs without him, right? We had to play that crazy double header with the Mets, but he was incredible.

14:27Um, you know, and we could have said, even the Soroco, when we called him up, you always wish you had more time for these guys. But when you're a team in a organization that's got a chance to win, and you're, you're contending, you're taking the guys that have, you know, what you feel of the most opportunity to win. And I thought to stride her about this in, in 21, we called him up the last three days of the series against the Mets, the season, just to see if he can help out in the bullpen. Plants just going door hits the home run off of them. The slider still wasn't there. The fastball was still great. But, you know what, he went that off season. Nobody needed a work to work on. Came back and spring training with the slider. Flint is another great example. And everyone, he was young. He came up. We thought like he was the best opportunity in the guy with the most upside. Like we've done in the past, obviously did not do well. But if you talk to him, he'll tell you is the best thing that happened to him because that allowed him to know what he needed to do come the off season. Now he comes in the camp. He's starting to sort of change up over a split. He's tightened up the slider and asked him. I said, what do you think would have happened if you hadn't got called up last year?

15:28He said, probably would have just kept doing the same things in the minor leagues because I was having success. And you're not going to make changes when you're having success. So, I don't believe in guys being ruined. I've heard it. I've heard that philosophy before. Guys get taken out of the bull five draft. Max Fried was getting his brains beaten in double A when he got called up. You know, guys come out of A ball. We called up Roberto Asuna and Toronto out of A ball and he had a great start to his career. So, I just think if you're meant to be and you're mentally tough and so and you're going to go through slumps and things like that, I think you actually get something from it and you learn from it. You learn from failing. And if you can't handle it in my opinion, I don't know that you're ultimately going to be what we thought you were going to be. So, we're not afraid if you're performing and we think you'd give us a chance to win, we're certainly going to go ahead and do it. Quick word on Strider. He's feeling really good. So, I can tell you that, you know, so, just but he was going to pitch the next day. He's, you know, he said, I wasn't going to say anything. I can pitch tomorrow. But, you know, he had the oblique in 2022

16:28and he goes, I didn't because it's not bad but I am feeling something and I just want to let you guys know and we feel more glad you told us. So, we said, why don't we get an MRI just to make sure we get the MRI. It's a great one. But normally when you have oblique, you feel it when you sneeze. You feel it when you cough. So, Sean Murphy was around and he goes, man, it took me four weeks just for that to feel, just to get the sneezing and coughing and not feeling it just for that to go away. And he doesn't have any of that. So, we don't have a specific timeline. I know people said that it might be a few weeks and so on. He was built up. I think he had a 72 pitch or 73 pitch outing. His last one, the further removed. You're from that, the further you have to go backwards a little bit. But, he's going to play catch this to 60 feet when he keeps his arm going. Once it's completely gone, it doesn't feel a thing. He'll get right back up and going. So, I'm optimistic it's going to be on the short time frame just because we caught it early. It's just tough to give you a date because we have to make sure he doesn't feel a thing.

17:30But, the fact that he was already in a rotation and built up, I don't think it's going to be too long once he's completely cleared. All right, Alex, last thing. And this is not like a loaded question. I mean, this maybe the data is the same for everybody. With the amount of pitching injury you guys have had over the last couple of years, do you look at everything internally and say, are we doing everything from a health and conditioning and training standpoint? Or is it just coincidence and bad luck? So, well, there's pre-existing things for some of these guys, right? So, I can tell you that, look, 2024, we had incredible health, right? We let MLB and ERA, our guys were incredible, right? Start to finish. Guys like Sal, who had had a lot of issues in the past, Ronaldo Lopez was transitioning. He needed some time. But overall, he gave us a really solid year. It was an all-star, and just transitioning from a reliever and so on. But we had a lot of success. So, I'd say this, AJ Smith-Sharer, when we drafted him, there was some things that came up.

18:31And it was either we're going to fail him, or he's going to go to college. But it's one of those things that you don't just get surgery on someone right out of the gates, right? I remember, you know, he's passed now, but Roy Hall had a pitch with tears and all kinds of stuff, his entire career. So, you don't treat the MRI. You treat that's always kind of the rule of thumb. You always treat the sense symptoms. So, but you ultimately know with some of these guys, at some point, something could happen, especially if there's pre-existing things and concerns. I could tell you with Waldrip, you know, he had some things two years ago, right? He was hurt when he first got called up. Then he made it through last season with no issues. 29 starts, wire to wire, did an unbelievable job. And then all of a sudden, the loose body's got him this past spring. So, with a lot of these guys, look, even Schwalmbach, when we drafted him, we knew he was going to need Tommy John. We liked him as a first round talent, but we thought we could get him in round two. And I told him this, because we knew ultimately he would need to get surgery and so on.

19:31So, look, I think the track record over eight years, the same, the same staff and so on. We're always going to review. We're always going to take a look at things. There's no doubt about it. But look, this is across the game. And the other thing, too, is with velocity, and no knock against Breitelder, and he's had a lot of health, but, you know, these guys that are throwing 95 plus at big velocities, you're just more susceptible to being hurt, especially when you're starting, maintaining it. When you're not throwing it's hard, definitely not putting as much strain on your arm. That's not to say we're just putting our heads in the sand. We talk about it all the time. We're pretty strict with who we walk away from in terms of free agents, and so on. But I could tell you, we're not all the locals. We have the cleanest MRI we had seen shoulder elbows, so on, had made back-to-back years of starting of 34 and 33 starts, and he's young. And then, you know, he had the shoulder issue pop up for us. But we're not alone. This is an issue across the game. But we've had pretty good success, I'd say, in an eight-year run. And look, it hasn't been good.

20:32Obviously, the last 12 months too, a little bit beyond that. So we did review the tape on the two potential mistakes on Waldrip when it happened, and then the 800 OPS. I'm like, oh, we need to determine their play on. So there was no flag on the play. Oh, yeah, you guys, you guys deep pockets short on. You guys are in the case of it, and no chance. You just learned that. No, well, we pay the favor. Listen, a mistake, if you want us to pull the tape, we'll pull the tape, and shake-shack sounds great, I think. Hey, you guys got it. Come on, we just went to a nice CLStateCow. That happened. High-end. That happened. You guys were killing it, ordering orders. Left, right? It's true. That's true. That's right. Alex, it's always a pleasure to know it's a busy day. Thanks so much for making the time. All right, guys. I really appreciate it. Thanks.