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Atlanta Braves rumors: Anthopoulos is waiting, holding his trade cards

By Alan Carpenter|
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 27: Shoppers walk past a 'Sale' sign on Oxford Street on December 27, 2017 in London, England. Fewer people have hit the high street for the post-Christmas sales this year as people opt to shop online. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 27: Shoppers walk past a 'Sale' sign on Oxford Street on December 27, 2017 in London, England. Fewer people have hit the high street for the post-Christmas sales this year as people opt to shop online. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
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LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 27: Shoppers walk past a ‘Sale’ sign on Oxford Street on December 27, 2017 in London, England. Fewer people have hit the high street for the post-Christmas sales this year as people opt to shop online. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 27: Shoppers walk past a ‘Sale’ sign on Oxford Street on December 27, 2017 in London, England. Fewer people have hit the high street for the post-Christmas sales this year as people opt to shop online. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

Saturday morning makes it 4 full days remaining until the non-waiver trade deadline.  So why are we waiting?  There’s reasons.

Many trades have been made already this month among most all of the contenders.  Yet the Atlanta Braves have managed just one – a fairly shrewd acquisition of Jonny Venters on Thursday night.  Let’s take stock of what has happened, by whom, and what might remain.

You almost have to wonder, now, if the Braves are looking are the trade market like somebody checking out the bread and milk aisle in the grocery store… many hours after others already had gotten word of a snow forecast.  There’s a bunch of empty shelves, it seems.

I’ll start with Venters, but we will also go down the list of top trade targets (with either their new team or their current status) as given by MLB Trade Rumors late this past Spring:

JONNY VENTERS.  The Braves gave up virtually nothing to get a pitcher who has been throwing very well lately.  The $250K International money passed along will be much more useful to the Rays than it could be for the Braves, who are faced with the need of rebuilding an entire International scouting and signing program… but not yet.

As for the ranked players…

1. MANNY MACHADO.  Dodgers.
2. KELVIN HERRERA.  Nationals.  More on them later.
3.  J.A. HAPP.  Yankees.
4.  COLE HAMELS.  Cubs.
5.  MIKE MOUSTAKAS.  Brewers.  Guess they are ‘going for it’.  Kinda shocked at the price.
6. WILSON RAMOS.  Still available.
7. TYSON ROSS.  I don’t even think the Padres are entertaining the notion of selling him.  There’s been zero rumors about him.  I think MLBTR may have misspelled ‘Zach Britton‘ for this slot.
8.  BRAD HAND.  Indians.
9.  RAISEL IGLESIAS.  Not actually available (Reds).
10.  J.T. REALMUTO.  Not really available.
11. BRAD BRACH.  Still available.
12. JOAKIM SORIA.  Brewers.
13. CRAIG STAMMEN.  No action whatsoever.
14. SCOOTER GENNETT.   Still available.
15. JOSE ABREU.  NoT really available… maybe.
16. Adrian Beltre.  Still available.
17. Adam Jones.  Still available.  Think Phillies, Indians, or Yankees.
18. Justin Smoak.  Still available.
19. Yangervis Solarte.  Kinda available.
20. Nick Castellanos.  Not really available.
21. Kirby Yates.  Still available.
22. Nate Jones.  Still available.
23. Kyle Barraclough.  Still available.
24. Shane Greene.  Still available.
25. Mycal Givens.  Still available.
26. Keone Kela.  Still available.
27-30:  Matt Harvey, Bartolo Colon, Doug Fister, Mike Fiers.  All still available.
32. Seunghwan Oh.  Rockies… though he’s been unable to find his way to Denver yet.

All others in the 31-50 range:  All still available… not that many get you excited.  News sourced from myriad freely available media reports.

Meanwhile, recent action

  • Astros:  acquired Martin Maldonado
  • Brewers:  looking good to get at least 1 Oriole.  Kevin Gausman could very well be one of their targets.
  • Yankees:  acquired Zach Britton, who was inexplicably not on that Top 50 list.
  • Diamondbacks:  Eduardo Escobar (a nice get for them)
  • Cardinals:  released Greg Holland
  • Mariners:  Sam Tuivailala
  • Yankees:  will be looking for shortish-term replacement for Aaron Judge (if such a thing exists)
  • Phillies:  Asdrubal Cabrera
  • Ryan Pressly (Twins relief pitcher).  Everybody has checked in on him.
    • whoops… 5 minutes after I finished this…

    Okay, so what?

    We’re getting to crunch time here, and there’s reasons to wonder what – if anything  further – that the Braves might do between now and Tuesday afternoon.

    Yes – I’m raising the possibility that there might not be much trade action going on for Atlanta.  Let’s look at the reasons:

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