Nobody can say this about the Braves anymore
The narrative that the Atlanta Braves are “cheap” hasn’t been true for quite some time. Even after a relatively quiet offseason last year, they still finished 2025 with the ninth-highest payroll in baseball at $220 million. In fact, Atlanta has carried a top-10 payroll in every season since the shortened 2020 campaign. They are consistently […] The post Nobody can say this about the Braves anymore appeared first on SportsTalkATL.com.
The narrative that the Atlanta Braves are “cheap” hasn’t been true for quite some time. Even after a relatively quiet offseason last year, they still finished 2025 with the ninth-highest payroll in baseball at $220 million. In fact, Atlanta has carried a top-10 payroll in every season since the shortened 2020 campaign.
They are consistently one of the bigger spenders in the sport, but when Braves Chairman Terry McGuirk and Alex Anthopoulos pound their chest each offseason about being a top-five payroll, it naturally sets the bar pretty high. That happened again during an earnings call for Atlanta Braves Holdings a little over a month ago.
“I think aiming back to the top five is a place that I want to get to,” McGuirk said. “I think we’re capable of that.”
Since then, those words have been backed up with action. The Braves have already committed more than $60 million to their active roster for 2026 through a flurry of free-agent signings, pushing their total payroll allocations for next season to north of $260 million. That would shatter the previous franchise record of $238 million, set back in 2024, and firmly places Atlanta in the conversation as a top-five payroll in the sport. Even more encouraging, it doesn’t appear the Braves are done yet.
On the latest episode of SportsTalkATL, Alex Lord and I break down Atlanta’s offseason to this point and discuss what still needs to be done over the next few months to put the Braves firmly back among the league’s elite. You can watch full episodes of SportsTalkATL on our YouTube channel. Be sure to like and subscribe.
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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
The post Nobody can say this about the Braves anymore appeared first on SportsTalkATL.com.
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