The Braves headed into the trade deadline with a number of holes to fill and left with some still wide open. Atlanta had a need for multiple outfielders, a middle infielder, and another starting pitcher would have made everybody feel a lot better with Max Fried and Reynaldo Lopez currently dealing with injuries.
My key to this year’s trade deadline for the Braves was quantity over quality. That usually isn’t the case in any situation, but for this team, it feels like they need bodies more than anything. There are four or five guys currently on the roster that have no business getting playing time on a club with serious World Series aspirations.
Eddie Rosario has been so piss poor this season he was DFA’d by the Nationals, who were sellers at the trade deadline. Ramon Laureano was DFA’d by the Guardians, who boast one of the worst offenses in baseball. Whit Merrifield was DFA’d by the Phillies, who didn’t feel like he was even worthy of a roster spot on a team chasing a World Series. Nacho Alvarez is only playing because of injuries and should still be in AAA, while Orlando Arcia is a backup utility piece at best. All of these guys are starting games for the Braves, and Alex Anthopoulos responded by swinging just one trade for Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson ahead of Tuesday night’s trade deadline.
But let’s play devil’s advocate for a second. Once the trade deadline was completed, Anthopoulos discussed how outrageous the prices were for helpful pieces. There’s no arguing that point. With the expanded playoffs, very few teams really feel like they are out of it. Most clubs are buying, and a lot of others are standing pat and seeing how things play out. This causes insane bidding wars that didn’t exist in years past. Role players were going for an arm and a leg in some instances.
Given the track record of Alex Anthopoulos, it’s not exactly shocking he didn’t get involved in many of these, especially when looking at the Braves chances this season. Without Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider in October, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to go “all-in,” so to speak, and is one more league-average bat really going to be the difference in the Braves winning the World Series?
Atlanta’s best path to a championship this year is if their pitching staff gets to October healthy and stands on its head like it has most of the season. This is not a team that’s going to slug its way through the postseason.
Still, I can’t help but think about the 2020 campaign, and the lack of moves Anthopoulos made at the trade deadline. Of course, those were funny times with the uncertainty surrounding COVID, so it may not have been possible for him to do something significant. However, had he added just one worthwhile starting pitcher — which couldn’t have been a more glaring need at the time — we’d be talking about the Braves as back-to-back champions in 2020 and 2021.
This Braves team may have problems, but they still have a pitching staff capable of winning a World Series. Not giving these arms the best chance possible at achieving glory doesn’t sit right with me. Relying on Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall, and Whit Merrifield to turn back the clock seems more like a far-fetched pipe dream than an actual plan. Perhaps it works, but if the Braves’ offense comes up just short the rest of the way, it will be yet another what could have been, as the memories of 2021 drift further away.
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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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