In the interest of full disclosure, as someone who is thoroughly immersed in the minor leagues and prospects, I love the process of rebuilding. Watching young, talented players find their way in pro ball is something that brings me joy. Sure, it is also hard to watch guys fall off to the wayside due to injury or ineffectiveness or someone else coming along who is better, but on the whole seeing players giving everything they have to improve and realize their dreams is a blast and being a fan of an organization that has been thoroughly committed to bringing in lots of talent into the minor leagues has been exciting.

That said, I am also very sympathetic to those fans who have hated it. I didn’t grow up a Rome Braves fan or a Macon Braves fan or a Gwinnett Braves fan....I grew up an Atlanta Braves fan. The first baseball game I remember watching with any amount of real attention was Jack Morris vs. John Smoltz. I saw them clinch all those division titles since then and I saw them win the World Series in 1995 and break my heart in those Series against the Yankees. As John Coppolella said himself, for fans that remember those times and long for them, truly rebuilding is “f-ing miserable”.

But that was the path the Braves chose and there are a lot of good reasons to do it from an awful TV contract and payroll disparities to a roster at the time that had real if flawed talent on it but that talent was about to leave in free agency to chase the monopoly money some clubs had to throw around to a farm system that had no real help coming. Choosing to trade away guys like Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, and Craig Kimbrel had real merit and the Braves got a lot of talent back in those deals. Even if most of that talent never pans out (which is largely true of most prospects), those are deals that could easily make the Braves better down the road and a lot of teams would have done them.

However, the problem becomes when you start ratcheting expectations up before you should. We heard a lot, especially in the wake of the trade of Shelby Miller to the Diamondbacks, that the Braves were going to be competitive again in 2017...that waves were coming...that fans were going to see a winning team again in the first season at SunTrust Park. These were clear expectations for fans to have and understandable goals for a team that was breaking in a sweet new ballpark and surrounding amenities that they wanted fans to come partake in. All the while they continued to add more and more talent this past offseason with guys like Alex Jackson and Luiz Gohara (is “Thank you, Jerry DiPoto” the new “Thank you, Dave Stewart”?) to a minor league system that is now universally praised league-wide.

Things have changed, though, in the 2017 season. The Braves are off to a better start than last year, but it is hard to see them as “competitive” right now. Bartolo Colon is well into his 40’s and doesn’t look anything like the age-defying hurler he was for the Mets and elsewhere. Julio Teheran hasn’t been an ace or even a strong #2 type pitcher this year. In fact, the rotation which was laden with inning-eater veterans and some young promise hasn’t really eaten innings and the promise has been inconsistent at best and the lineup has the incomparable Freddie Freeman and a bunch of inconsistency as well. However, most would agree that the idea of being truly competitive in 2017 was always a pipe dream and while not impossible, it was also unrealistic especially given how bad the free agent class was this past offseason.

But that was not all the Braves did in 2017...what they did is place big bets on 2018 at the expense of what I would consider more reasonable player development paths. While the aggressive promotion of Ozzie Albies at the beginning of 2016 was news, this year they went wild with not only putting two very talented but very young pitchers in 19 year olds Mike Soroka and Kolby Allard straight into AA, but they put Alex Jackson in high-A and have him convert to catcher there after not playing the position since high school instead of holding him in extended spring in order to get acclimated back there. Ronald Acuna, another teenager, had a total of 68 games in full season ball before he was promoted to AA despite having things one could argue he needed to work on (strikeouts, inconsistency at times....basically all the stuff you are supposed to have problems with as a young prospect but also have the time to work through).

These do not feel like the moves with player development in mind...they feel rushed even if they do work out. In fact, as of right now things looks good with Allard dominating AA, Soroka doing Soroka things with hiccups now and again, Jackson’s bat has come alive again for Florida even if the catching is still raw, and Acuna homered in his first two games at Mississippi....but that doesn’t mean they were moves with an eye solely on rebuilding. These are the moves trying to accelerate a rebuild...put Miracle-Gro on it so that there is a grand influx of talent soon rather than when it might be more logically ready.

All of these are big bets on 2018 and the stakes should be high for John Coppolella and the front office. If you are going to really push prospects to be really close to the majors by the end of the season, it is a clear signal that all of the moves you have been making are going to bear their fruit soon for better or worse. A team doesn’t make these moves to have guys repeat a level the next year...this is with an eye on spring training 2018. It is a much harder sell to say to fans “don’t worry, we are rebuilding, help is on the way” when a big chunk of the help is on the 40-man roster or close to it. At some point, fans need the product on the field to be good and the Braves are betting that this young crop of talent is going to be ready sometime in 2018.

You probably read the title of this article and thought I had lost my mind a bit, which is probably (definitely) true. It is absolutely true that the Braves haven’t just committed to a rebuild, they have committed to a model from which they want to run the organization for the foreseeable future: lots and lots of young pitching, build up the farm system, stay away from big dollar free agents, get value for any asset in a trade. The Braves have done well there. But this is a team that needs help at the very least at third base, catcher, second base, and the rotation and soon to be competitive. Based on their current posture towards 2018, that means moves will have to be made to make that happen. The farm system might help there with the aforementioned guys plus Patrick Weigel and Lucas Sims close and maybe even a Drew Harrington, Max Fried, Tyler Pike, or Luiz Gohara could sneak in to give the rotation a boost.

Those are big “ifs” though which is the problem with prospects....no one is a sure thing. Maybe the Braves can swing some big trades at the trade deadline or this offseason to utilize the currency they have to get some more major league caliber talent on the roster. However, this is where the Braves track record of has been far less sparkling....trading for major league ready talent. The Braves’ eye for talent that is young has been good, but guys who were supposed to be nearly major league ready like Matt Wisler and Aaron Blair that the Braves acquired have not really worked out. The Hector Olivera trade was a disaster and while that disaster was turned into taking Matt Kemp off of San Diego’s hands, it is still one trade the Braves wish they could have back. In short, the Braves now need to do what they haven’t really done and that is switch gears towards being buyers even if they still sell from time to time to keep the pipeline flowing. Because of their own strategic decisions of late, they should be held accountable for creating the expectations they have and they should go get the players they need and not just one-year roster fillers. This is easier said than done of course, but it is where we are now.

A team should always already be rebuilding and having an eye on the future and the future still looks bright for the Braves. It is entirely possible that all of these aggressive promotions will make them look like geniuses sooner rather than later. But it is risky and with risk comes real downside not only for the team, but for the folks in the front office. The rebuild may not ever be truly over, but after this season rebuilding needs to being an excuse for a poor product on the field given the expectations in place for 2018.