If the Atlanta Braves don’t acquire them NOW, maybe they’ll try again later when the road to October Baseball heats up at the trade deadline (or at the season midpoint)
As names continue to be picked off the shelf and the Atlanta Braves‘ options to fill in their gaps continue to narrow, there is some belief that they aren’t going to fill those gaps with permanent/big fishes (yet).
Some said maybe Nick Markakis could be putting on an Atlanta Braves uni again for 2019 or maybe some platoons until better options come along. The latter point is where this article comes in. Tomahawk Take’s Jake brought up the question earlier this week, “What if the Atlanta braves do nothing else this offseason?”
This whole offseason, whether by a lot or a little, the Braves have been linked to plenty of intriguing players to improve the roster, from Bryce Harper to Madison Bumgarner and from Dallas Keuchel to Mitch Haniger.
So far, however, the only major talk that has led to an official move is the signing of Josh Donaldson. And the later we go into the offseason, the more names that the Braves were somewhat linked to become unavailable: Andrew McCutchen, Michael Brantley, JA Happ, Wilson Ramos, etc. Even TALKS of a player are falling out as their talks for J.T. Realmuto supposedly “ended.”
However, even though the Braves aren’t continuing to make splashy moves, it doesn’t mean they won’t do it next week, the week after that…or even near the trade deadline. Plenty of playoff-essential players are acquired during that time like Andrew Miller was for the Indians in 2016 or Yoenis Cespedes for the Mets the year prior.
Some of the names the Braves are linked now could still be available by then, and we’ll be looking into that. Again this is the WAY TOO EARLY PREDICTIONS, so assume these 10 names are available (their teams aren’t in contention) and aren’t dealt by the trade deadline.
Also for this article to work, we’ll assume the Atlanta Braves will go into the season with the roster as it is NOW. So that means either Adam Duvall or Johan Camargo is in RF, Mike Foltynewicz is the #1 starter and the young arms are splitting time in the back end of the rotation and the bullpen.
Since it’s this early, just about any names can become a trade candidate by then and we’ll be here all day if we try to name them all. So with this list, I picked some names that I felt would be most likely candidates that have somewhat already been linked to the Braves.