This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman's Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NORTH PORT, Fla. -- Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos provided updates on Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider when he spoke to media members before Friday’s workout at CoolToday Park.

Here are some of the more interesting tidbits from his answers about offseason spending and planning for both 2025 and beyond:

“Joe Jiménez is the one loss we haven’t been able to account for.”
OK, Anthopoulos might have been speaking the obvious with this specific sentence. The Braves’ most glaring need is to add a legit high-leverage option to pair with Pierce Johnson and Dylan Lee. Maybe Aaron Bummer proves capable of being called upon in any situation. Maybe Daysbel Hernández steps up and starts living up to the expectations set when he first arrived in the Majors in 2023. Maybe Angel Perdomo comes back from Tommy John surgery and produces the impressive strikeout rate he did with the 2023 Pirates.

There are a lot of questions surrounding the back end of the bullpen. But the relief corps is the one aspect of a roster that can be addressed with constant tinkering throughout the season. Riding the hot hand can solve a lot of problems. Could the Braves have tried to sign a reliever? Sure. But the free-agent relief pitching market is somewhat like junk bonds in that it’s hard to project the value, especially from a year-to-year basis.

Think about what the Braves got out of the deals they gave Will Smith, Chris Martin and Kirby Yates. Smith and Martin made contributions, but both faded during the final year of their respective contracts. Yates was a gamble coming off Tommy John surgery. The Rangers were the biggest benefactors of the time and money the Braves put into Yates, who revitalized his career last year in Texas.

At least with internal gambles like Hernández, Perdomo and Bummer, the Braves can tinker and not be financially burdened over time.

“Everything we looked at was, who do we think will be significantly better than what we think Grant Holmes might be?”
This was in response to a question about whether Anthopoulos believes he has enough insurance to protect himself in the starting rotation. As things currently stand, the Braves will open the season with Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Spencer Schwellenbach, Ian Anderson and Holmes in the rotation. Once Strider returns at some point in April, Holmes or Anderson could go to the bullpen.

We know the Braves explored starting pitching opportunities. They were interested enough in Nathan Eovaldi to at least look at his medicals. They reached a five-year, $45 million to $48 million agreement with Jeff Hoffman before right shoulder concerns nixed that deal. Hoffman would have likely been used as a starter for the first couple years of the deal.

So, yeah, the Braves were open to adding a starting pitcher. But in the end, they opted to take what should be just a short-term gamble on Holmes and Anderson. When Strider returns, he will team with Sale, López and Schwellenbach to give the Braves a front four that, when healthy, would match up against any team’s, including the Dodgers.

As long as Anderson pitches like he did before physical ailments halted his success in 2022, moving Holmes to a relief role would help strengthen the bullpen. And if other options are needed, it’s not like Bryce Elder and AJ Smith-Shawver (Atlanta's 2024 No. 2 prospect) are chopped liver. One has been an All-Star and the other has the potential to become one.

“You're not going to be able to go sign guys to be on the bench and sell them on a platoon and so on, because that's likely not going to be the case.”
With Jarred Kelenic, the Braves should have a valuable backup outfielder after Acuña returns. But choosing who is the best option to begin the season as a backup infielder is like choosing which No. 16 seed is going to pull an upset in this year’s NCAA Tournament. You have Nick Allen, whose value doesn’t extend beyond his glove. You have Luke Williams. And now we have outfielder Eli White, whose bid to make the team has improved with the revelation he is going to play the infield during most of Spring Training.

Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies and Orlando Arcia are going to play on an everyday basis. Blooper, the team’s mascot, spends more time on the field than Braves backup players. But the biggest concern is where will the Braves turn if an infielder is injured. No. 4 prospect Nacho Alvarez Jr. wasn’t close to being MLB-ready last summer. So, he’ll be a prospect to watch in camp.