Asking Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos about Jacob deGrom, without saying 'Jacob deGrom'

LAS VEGAS -- It seems that anyone who has been within 100 miles of the Mets has heard the one about Jacob deGrom wanting to play for the Atlanta Braves. DeGrom himself has never said this in public, but there sure are people in his orbit who believe it to be true.

But that’s not what we’re here today to tell you. You’ve surely already heard that speculation. We’re here to relay what Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos said about his team’s willingness to add a high-end free agent starting pitcher.

GMs are typically strict about not naming free agents, but Anthopoulos knew what I was asking about: The perception that bidding for a starter in deGrom’s price range was not the way the Braves did business.

When I walked over to Anthopoulos’ scrum during Wednesday’s media availability at the GM meetings, he was in the middle of an answer about his starting pitching depth:

“We’ve got four guys who basically have jobs in that rotation,” he said. “The fifth spot is open. Whether that’s [Mike] Soroka, Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller, Bryce Elder, Kolby Allard and so on. As we sit here today, unless we acquire somebody else, those guys will all be competing for the five spot.”

Here was an opportunity to smuggle in a deGrom question.

“Given all the depth in your rotation, especially at the top end, would you rule out pursuing high-end starting pitching?” I said. “Or are you open-minded?

“You don't rule anything out,” Anthopoulos said. “I think it's just you always -- you don't go into the offseason saying you have to address X, because you may not find the right deal, whether that's trade or signing, So it's just, do you make your club better?

“I’ve said this before, but the year that we got Josh Donaldson, we weren't looking for a third baseman. We just wanted a middle-of-the-order bat and [Johan] Camargo had had a very good year for us. [But] that made the most sense. That was the best deal for us.

“When we signed Kenley Jansen last year, we had been exploring free-agent relievers, but we'd also explored some other things. If we had gotten some other deals done on position players, maybe we don't do that deal. That made the most sense for us.

“We like our depth and we like the four guys we have. We like the young guys we have, all with options and really just go with a hot hand at a given time. And there's a lot of them. It's a lot of guys, so that's a good position to be in."

“It's obvious what I'm getting at,” I said.

“Yeah, of course,” Anthopoulos replied. “Can’t say the name."

“No, I won’t say the name,” I said, before pausing to figure out how to further ask about deGrom without saying “deGrom.”

“From an outside perspective, there's [a perception of], the Braves are great at doing extensions with their own guys and wouldn't necessarily be a franchise that will go big on starting pitching free agent. Is that a fair characterization generally?”

“No,” Anthopoulos said.

“Do you think that's too general?”

“I think that’s too general. I've been here the last five years, going into year six. If we think something makes sense for the organization, we do it. We've done all kinds of things.

“We had never done a $200 million contract. We did it with Austin Riley. We've never done a 10-year deal. We did it with Austin Riley. But that wasn't like there was some rule. It just worked out that way.

“We don't really have anything we're locked in on. We’re just open-minded to everything and if we think it makes sense, it makes the club better then we're gonna look to do it.”

That was the end of the exchange.

So: I’m no longer going to say, “The Braves don’t really go big on free agent pitching.” That’s what we learned today.