Three key starters return for the champion Braves. | Shutterstock
Three key starters return for the champion Braves. | Shutterstock
Much like the team did in the 1990s, the Atlanta Braves are keeping a stellar starting rotation together for another season.
The Braves, coming off a World Series win, said Charlie Morton, Max Fried and Ian Anderson will all return this season.
“You feel good about the Braves’ chance to win whenever Morton, Fried or Anderson are on the mound that evening," team officials said in a release.
The trio started 11 of 15 postseason games last year.
The Braves employed a similar strategy in the 1990s, when they kept Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Steve Avery together while the team was a perennial winner in the National League East. Atlanta made four World Series appearances in six years with those hurlers on the roster.
The team announced that it re-signed Morton (14-6 record last year, 3.34 ERA) to a one-year pact for $20 million after a stellar 2021 campaign.
Anderson (9-5, 3.58), 23, signed a one-year deal in October, and Fried (14-7, 3.04) is working under a $6.5 million deal.
Major League Baseball is entangled over details in a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, but pitchers and catchers are slated to report to spring training the week of Feb. 14, with position players to arrive later.
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