On Feb. 5, 2014, Freddie Freeman signed the longest contract in Atlanta Braves history, an eight-year extension worth $135 million that runs through 2021. The Braves were coming off a 96-win season, were one of the youngest teams in the majors, signed Jason Heyward to a two-year deal that same day, and the team had announced a new stadium project a couple of months prior. The future looked bright.

Less than two years later and Heyward is gone, Craig Kimbrel is gone, Justin Upton is gone, Brian McCann is gone, Evan Gattis is gone, Kris Medlen is gone, Alex Wood is gone and now shortstop Andrelton Simmons is gone, traded away Thursday night to the Angels for two pitching prospects. They'll move into their new ballpark in 2017 but the team moving in there isn't going to be any good.

As Buster Olney wrote today,

They are going to lose a lot of games -- and believe it or not, it's happening for the sake of winning.

Eventually. If everything goes according to plan. If they picked the right players.

At the very least, the Braves have managed to escape the worst possible place to be for any organization serious about pursuing championships now or in the future: They got out of the middle, which is where the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics and San Diego Padres resided at the end of the 2015 season.

Braves fans aren't happy about this, and it's a tough pill to swallow considering where the organization stood just two years ago. The move to the northern suburbs was made, in part, to improve accessibility to the park, since a lot of Braves fans come from Cobb County, but attendance -- which peaked during the dynasty days at 3.8 million and remained above 3 million through 2000 -- was down to barely 2 million in 2015. That's going to fall even more with the trade of Simmons and a team that will lose 90-plus games again. As Braves blogger Martin Gandy wrote at the Chop County blog:

This one hurts. Damn the baseball analysis for a minute ... Andrelton Simmons was easily my favorite Atlanta Braves player still left on the team. I first saw him in Danville, Virginia, a month after he was drafted. At the time we weren't sure whether he would be a pitcher or a shortstop. What first caught my eye, in the midst of a 100+ degree heat wave, was his arm ... his cannon. On some throws to first I couldn't tell what was higher, the temperature or the speed of his throw. At the plate he was a scrapper, but one that could put the bat on the ball with relative ease. ... From a business of baseball perspective, this was a decent trade for the Braves. Not great, maybe not even good, but decent. Like the [Hector] Olivera trade, this is another trade with a lot of risk based on the acquisition of unproven talent in exchange for proven talent. From a public relations and fan perspective, this was a horrible trade for Atlanta, as they seemed to unnecessarily give away a fan favorite player.

That leaves Freeman as the clear face of the franchise. And you wonder: Why not trade him as well? Freeman is a good player but not a superstar, and a lot of teams need a first baseman. He's still young and his future salaries ($20.5 million to $22 million per season from 2017 to 2021) are reasonable in today's market. Hey, stockpile more young pitchers if you want. Maybe you'll get enough of them to build that 1991 Braves-like rotation, or something resembling what the Mets have put together.

Freeman had been the first first baseman since Orlando Cepeda to have three 20-homer seasons through his age-23 season but his power hasn't really developed from there -- he's more of a line-drive guy than a lift-and-pull hitter -- and he's hit .300 just once, hitting .288 and .276 the past two seasons, respectively. So maybe the Braves evaluate Freeman, like Simmons, as a nice player but maybe a little overrated.

Look at some of the potential trade options:

Boston Red Sox: They plan on moving Hanley Ramirez to first base, but if they can trade Ramirez (the Red Sox would have to eat some of the salary), Freeman would be tailor-made for Fenway Park, slapping doubles off the Green Monster. The Red Sox also have a deep farm system, with position-player prospects like outfielder Manuel Margot that the Braves need to add to their haul of pitching prospects.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Freeman's salary may be prohibitive to the Pirates, but they could easily carry him at his 2016 salary of $12 million. Freeman would be an upgrade over Pedro Alvarez, who could be let go or traded to an American League team that needs a DH. The Braves could get first-base prospect Josh Bell as part of the deal.

St. Louis Cardinals: Matt Adams isn't a long-term solution to first base and the Cardinals need offense. Lance Lynn's injury puts a cramp in their pitching depth but maybe these two can come up with another win-win deal like last year's Jason Heyward-Shelby Miller trade.

Houston Astros: Chris Carter provides power but hit .199 and the Astros could use a left-handed bat to help balance out Jose Altuve, George Springer and Carlos Correa. They have plenty of room to add payroll. First-base prospect A.J. Reed, who hit .340 with 34 home runs in the minors between Class A and Double-A, may be the real deal but would be bait to get the sure thing in Freeman.

Cleveland Indians: The Indians should move Carlos Santana to DH and acquire a first baseman. How about Danny Salazar or Carlos Carrasco, or maybe a trade built around outfield prospect Bradley Zimmer, who hit .273/.368/.446 in the minors with 16 home runs and 44 steals?

Hey, if you're going to start over, start over. At this point, what's one more PR hit?