The Big Deal. It’s something we’d all like to see, but they are as rare as … an Atlanta Braves World Series title.
After another thrilling season where the Atlanta Braves unfortunately fell short yet again, it is time for the hot stove to light up. For this weekend – the busiest shopping days of the entire year – we’ll likewise throw our hats into the General Manager’s ring and try to make some deals.
While it may be a few weeks (or months, if last offseason is anything to go by) before any significant moves occur, at the very least I can speculate a bit to see what could happen if management decides to make an exciting move (Exhibit #1: the Braves signed Will Smith, which I did NOT expect.).
For this exercise, I decided to use a website called Baseball Trade Values. It assigns each player a numerical value and the closer you get the value for each side to even, the more likely that the trade will be accepted. Let me be clear, I don’t believe this site is the gospel for making trades. I just wanted to use a tool that could give me some ideas.
Last week, most of the MLB site editors from FanSided got together for a week of wheeling and dealing… a condensed simulation version of the kinds of things that could happen in December in San Diego.
You can read about what Fred Owens did for the Braves here, here, here, and here; but for sure, the ‘big deals’ were few and far between – even among these armchair GMs.
Probably the biggest mock trade concocted in this simulation was one that sent Corey Kluber to the Yankees for Clint Frazier, Luke Voit, and Nick Nelson.
For today? It’s the official start of the Christmas season, so let’s think big! It’s our Christmas wish list!