Perhaps the best contract was the one Atlanta awarded to Alex Anthopoulos.

I wonder how much of us in Braves Country truly appreciate how fortunate we are to have Alex Anthopoulos leading the Atlanta Braves?

In November 2017, at a disheartening moment, Anthopoulos became general manager of the club. John Coppolella, the previous general manager, had been fired by MLB for blatantly breaking several laws pertaining to the signing of international free agents.

Due to the infractions and his refusal to assist with investigators, he was later suspended from baseball and was only allowed to return in January 2023 ($) (although he is still not employed by the league). MLB punished the team rather harshly for Coppolella’s missteps, granting free agency to 13 of their international signees, placing serious and stringent restrictions on international signings for the next three seasons, and forfeiting their third round pick in the upcoming MLB Draft. The team was coming off of four straight losing seasons where they finished a combined 91.5 games back in the NL East and saw manager Fredi Gonzalez fired.