Atlanta Braves next pursuit may come via the mound
The Aces in the Deck
That sends us back to the trade market, but doing so would seem to be that place where Anthopoulos would rather be.
He’s certainly not shied away from big deals involving pitching, at various times having traded away new Hall of Famer Roy Halladay and (then) prospect Noah Syndergaard, but also acquiring the aformentioned David Price and (then) Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey.
This off-season, we’ve talked at some length about the pitchers more-or-less available on the market right now, but while I won’t belabor the details, let’s add a reminder or two about these guys:
That’s really about it among those who are either ‘aces’ or ‘in the conversation for being known as aces’… and those who could be gettable.
But acquiring any on that list would pose some difficulty…
THE PROBLEMS
KLUBER. Does Cleveland really want to move him now? Given all of the smoke about that earlier in the off-season, you’d think that he might prefer to be elsewhere.
Regardless, Kluber comes with up to 3 years of control and perennial Cy Young consideration (2 awards in the past 5 years with numerous votes in the intervening years).
If this were to happen at all, there are some conditions that Cleveland would undoubtedly require for any possible deal:
- A major league outfielder (they need 3)… read this to mean ‘Ender Inciarte‘ since available center fielders are practically non-existent.
- A major-league pitcher. Pick one not named ‘Foltynewicz’.
- A ML-ready pitcher prospect. We have a few of those, too.
I spoke of ‘reconfiguring the outfield’ earlier? This is what I was referring to. The Braves would almost certainly then have to find another outfielder of their own… another trade, more prospects lost.
(But maybe this is why the connection to Joc Pederson came up recently?)
BUMGARNER. You would think that a deal for him wouldn’t be that costly, but even the Giants’ new GM understands how much ‘MadBum’ means to the team and to the city.
Yet, the Giants desperately need prospects, and with only a year of control remaining, there is more than a reasonable chance that he could depart after 2019 anyway.
The biggest concern is about Bumgarner himself and whether he can bounce back from a lackluster 2018 (ERA was in the low 3’s, but only 130 innings pitched).
While the Braves would certainly rank a Kluber acquisition at the top of their own wish list, the most ‘gettable’ of this trio is likely Bumgarner.