The Braves are expected to be in the trade market for an outfielder with Ronald Acuña Jr. out for the season with a torn ACL. While Jarred Kelenic and Adam Duvall will assume corner outfield duties regularly for the time being, there’s absolutely no way that Alex Anthopoulos sits on his hands here.
MLB insider Jon Morosi has already provided us with three trade candidates for the Braves to keep an eye on — Brent Rooker, Tommy Pham, and Taylor Ward. The latter of which plays for the Los Angeles Angels, who, according to Robert Murray, are already listening on trade offers.
The #Angels have begun listening on certain players in trade discussions, per @ByRobertMurray on The Baseball Insiders livestream.
LAA currently sits 20-33 and 8 games out of a playoff spot. pic.twitter.com/kVToomtQ8l
— MLB Deadline News (@MLBDeadlineNews) May 28, 2024
Typically, trades don’t occur this far away from the trade deadline for various reasons, but mostly because teams aren’t prepared to punt on the season before June, especially with the playoffs now expanded to 12 teams.
However, the Angels are one of the few organizations that know where they sit, and not in a good way. They don’t have a roster capable of competing, and their farm system might be the worst in all of baseball. They should be listening on all of their players, and it could provide an opportunity for the Braves to swoop in and strike a deal well before the trade deadline.
Taylor Ward
We might as well start where Morosi did with Ward, who owns a 126 OPS+ thanks to his 11 home runs. He has two years of control beyond this, which should appeal to the Braves. There is a worry of injuries with Ward, but he’s making less than $5 million and won’t make much more next year, so a Braves trade could be worth the risk.
Luis Rengifo
Rengifo has logged games at three infield positions as well as three outfield slots. Though he’s not especially strong defensively, he’s versatile, and the Braves could kill two birds with one stone because they could upgrade their bench too.
Rengifo is currently hitting .326/.374/.504 this year for a 142 wRC+. Regression could certainly be coming because of his .365 batting average on balls in play, but even still, he’d be an above-average offensive player and is a possible Braves trade candidate.
Brandon Drury
Drury smacked 28 home runs in 2022, which he parlayed into a two-year, $17 million deal with the Angels. He followed it up with a 26-homer campaign last season while bouncing around the diamond. However, he’s been struggling this year.
He’s slashing a putrid .173/.230/.240 with just one home run, but he has battled hamstring tightness and migraines. If he can kick the nagging injuries and get some better luck (just a .209 BABIP), he could be due for a turnaround. It also helps that he’s played all four infield positions and the corner outfield spots. This could be a nice buy-low player that would cost very little to acquire; the kind of moves Alex Anthopoulos has become known for during his tenure as Braves general manager.
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