The trade deadline may not be full of sellers, but the Braves have no choice but to be aggressive in trying to patch up some of their glaring holes. It’s a far more desperate position than we’ve seen the club in compared to previous years — one where they have a roster built to compete for a World Series and sit narrowly ahead of the Phillies atop the NL East, but can most likely only hang on with some help from Alex Anthopoulos.

Another thing that separates this year’s deadline is that the Braves actually have the organizational depth in their farm system to do just about anything they want without abandoning the future. Baseball America recently ranked the Braves farm system 14th out of 30, and that was before they factored in a new draft class that featured two first-round selections. This is a system trending toward the top 10, loaded with high-upside young players who will intrigue the rest of the league.

But just because the Braves have the prospects to make any deal doesn’t mean they’ll all be on the table. If the past has taught us anything, it’s that Alex Anthopoulos places a very high value on his prospects — and the Braves have typically been spot on with their evaluations, not budging when rival clubs tried to pry away the likes of Ronald Acuña Jr., Drake Baldwin, Michael Harris II, and Spencer Strider as they came through the system.

I’ve always come from the line of thinking that there are very few situations where an unproven prospect should be deemed untouchable. There are undoubtedly guys the Braves would like to keep — their entire top 10 is oozing with potential. But if someone is offering a frontline starter with 2+ years of team control, pretty much every prospect should be on the table.

If there were one exception at this point in time, it would be Eric Hartman. The 20-year-old has come out of nowhere this season, rocketing up prospect lists everywhere after hitting 20 home runs and swiping more than 30 bags over the first half. It’s been a historic run, and one eerily similar to the season Ronald Acuña Jr. put together when he became the top prospect in all of baseball back in 2017.

The one caveat with Hartman is that we’ve yet to see it above the High-A level. The Braves have elected not to move him up the system quickly despite his success, which could be for a variety of reasons. There’s no real need to push a 20-year-old who’s clearly building confidence and comfortable where he’s at, but it could also be that they aren’t quite as high on Hartman as they were on Acuña at a similar age — which isn’t necessarily a knock on Hartman.

The only people who really know are the ones inside the building, but I’d urge fans not to get too attached to anyone. I have Hartman as the top prospect in the organization — someone who could be an everyday regular in the Braves outfield within a couple of years. But he’s still relatively unproven, having not even reached Double-A. For the right frontline starting arm with multiple years of control, I’d think he’d be on the table.

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(Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire)