Health is key in every sport for every team hoping to have success, but it felt especially crucial for the Braves to stay healthy during the second half of the season with Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider already out for the rest of the year. So, of course, the first series following the All-Star break resulted in two more stars hitting the IL with significant injuries.
Max Fried is now on the 15-day IL with nerve damage in his throwing arm. Structurally, it looks like he avoided something season-ending, but he’ll still rest for at least a couple of weeks before throwing again, and the Braves are going to move about things very cautiously with him.
Fried’s IL designation was announced yesterday morning. Little did we know it wouldn’t even be the most devastating news of the day. During the Braves series finale against the Cardinals, Ozzie Albies left the game with a wrist injury. It didn’t look good, and it didn’t take long for the worst fears of Braves fans to be realized. Tests revealed a fracture, and the expectation is he’ll miss eight weeks, which is essentially the remainder of the regular season.
Adding a starting pitcher and middle fielder at the trade deadline was a possibility even before these injuries. Now, they are much greater needs, particularly up the middle. In the immediate, the Braves will turn to a top prospect in Nacho Alvarez to replace Albies. There’s a lot to like about Alvarez, who has been on fire ever since receiving a promotion to Gwinnett a little over a month ago. However, he’s still just 21-years-old and doesn’t even have a full season under his belt above the AA level. Expecting him to competently replace Albies may be wishful thinking.
But Albies isn’t the only middle infielder that may need replacing. It’s no secret Orlando Arcia has been arguably the worst starting position player in all of baseball since the beginning of May. He has no business playing shortstop on a club with legitimate championship aspirations. The thought was that Nacho Alvarez could eventually get a chance in Arcia’s place; now, Alvarez has been forced up out of necessity.
Even if Alvarez has success leading up to the trade deadline, it doesn’t change the fact that the Braves still need another middle infielder. Unfortunately, there aren’t many inspiring options that will be available. The one that’s been discussed the most is Bo Bichette, who would make a lot more sense now that Albies is down with an injury.
However, Bichette was also injured over the weekend, suffering a calf strain and will miss multiple weeks. That doesn’t mean he should be completely off the table, but it certainly complicates things for both the Blue Jays and any team inquiring about his services.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. now also becomes a much more intriguing trade candidate, and his versatility as both an outfielder and second baseman has to be extremely appealing to the Braves, who would like to address both areas. Luis Rengifo offers a similar skill set defensively, and then there are some under-the-radar names like Amed Rosario and Paul DeJong that could be targets for the Braves as well, ones that could be had for very little prospect capital.
It’s certainly not the sexiest group of trade candidates, and if you’re looking for the perfect fit, that may be impossible to find. With that being said, there are avenues for Alex Anthopoulos to take, and the injury to Albies makes it a lot more likely the Braves target a middle infielder over the next week or so.
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Photographer: Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire
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