The 2022 calendar year will be remembered as a year of celebration and a year of sadness for the Atlanta Braves.

For the first time in 26 years, the Bravos entered a season as the defending World Series champions. They posted another pennant and collected championship rings. While the season did not end the way that Braves fans would have liked – a postseason loss to a division rival is definitely a downer – the team captured another National League East Division title and rallied past the hated rival New York Mets.

Those are enough reasons to celebrate.

But then you consider how the Braves shrewdly maneuvered for a Matt Olson trade and then sign him to an eight-year, $168 million contract. He was far from being the only Brave to receive a contract extension.

Third baseman and arguably the face of the franchise Austin Riley received a 10-year, $212 million contract. Rookie right-hander Spencer Strider received a six-year, $75 million deal, and fellow rookie phenom Michael Harris II signed an eight-year, $72 million deal. That is four star players the Braves have locked up for the foreseeable future.

That doesn’t even count the most recent six-year, $73 million deal given to catcher Sean Murphy after his trade from the Oakland A’s. The championship window will remain open for a while.

But with every year comes a little bit of sadness; 2022 was the year the Braves saw their two most popular players, Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson, leave in free agency. Freeman signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers last March for six years and $162 million.

It still is a mind-blowing concept that one of the organization’s most popular players ever would leave after a World Series title to go to the Braves’ biggest postseason rival.

Freeman’s departure had to lessen the blow of the idea that another long-time Brave would leave as well. I mean if Freeman could find it within himself to bolt the Braves, why would it be so hard to fathom the same could happen to shortstop Dansby Swanson.

He agreed to a seven-year, $177 million deal with the Chicago Cubs in mid-December. It still was a jolt to the heart of the average Braves fan, because he was different than Freeman in that Atlanta was his home. If any player was going to give the Braves a hometown discount, you would have thought Swanson would have been that guy.

But he wasn’t, and that’s okay. He got his money, and the Braves are still poised to contend for years to come.

It was indeed a banner year to be a Braves fan with a little bit of sadness sprinkled in there. What will 2023 bring? Hopefully, another pennant of course.