The Atlanta Braves got so much more than Hector Olivera from the Dodgers

The Whole Context

Last season, the Atlanta Braves sent Alex Wood, Jim Johnson, Jose Peraza, Bronson Arroyo and Luis Avilan to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Olivera, Paco Rodriguez, minor league pitcher Zack Bird and a comp pick in the 2016 MLB Draft.

Let’s first talk about who Braves gave up in the trade.  Scouts are currently saying that Alex Wood might need surgery, Jose Peraza is struggling in Cincinnati, Bronson Arroyo doesn’t play baseball anymore, Luis Avilan is doing okay, and Jim Johnson is an Atlanta Brave (again) and just won NL player of the week.

Now, on to who the Braves got along with Hector Olivera (whom everyone seems to be forgetting).

Paco Rodriguez is an okay 25-year-old left-handed pitcher who hasn’t blown the doors off of any batters yet, but still has potential. He’s currently on the DL. He might turn out to be an asset. He might not.

Minor league pitcher Zack Bird might have reached his potential already. Sad, but maybe true.

But the Atlanta Braves turned that 35th pick in the 2016 MLB Draft into Joey Wentz. I’m not going to re-do it, but our pals over at Talking Chop did an outstanding scouting report on Wentz. For that, hop on over to here.

Wentz, a high school lefty out of Kansas, was deemed a top-thirty prospect entering the 2016 draft. On top of this, MLB.com prospect writers Callis and Jonathan Mayo rated him the 16th-best prospect available in this year’s draft. And ESPN’s Keith Law ranked him 22nd and Baseball America put him 26th.

Joey Wentz is an 18-years-old and his 7 games-pitched sample size this year in the Braves organization is too small to make any type of intelligent judgement on him yet.

But, I believe that he’ll be good and give the Braves another reason to thank Hector Olivera and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Next: Could B-Mac return to the ATL?

Jeff Schultz should know all of this, too… but it seems that he’s letting his opinions get in the way of his research.