Once a heralded prospect in the Baltimore Orioles organization, Dylan Bundy is finally putting all the pieces together.
It is a understatement to say that the Atlanta Braves rotation is a mess right now.
The injury to Mike Soroka only put it in more shambles than it already was, but being truthful, it was a mess as soon as we found out Mike Foltynewicz and Sean Newcomb could not be counted on, at least in the early part of this season. Adding Ian Anderson tonight — even if he’s spectacular — won’t cure those ills, either.
So as we sit less than a week away from this year’s altered trade deadline, it is no secret that the Atlanta Braves are going to need pitching and possibly more than one piece at that.
It will not be easy, as this could quite possibly be the best seller’s market ever at a trading deadline due to only a handful of teams being out of it and the shortened season on top of that.
Some deals will be made, though, and I would be very surprised if the Atlanta Braves did not make at least one minor move.
Depending on how you feel though, the best option may be Dylan Bundy for the Atlanta Braves.
While some of you may be thinking, go big for Lance Lynn, keep in mind about a dozen other teams will be going for him and the Rangers have him under contract for next year adding even more value on him.
As mentioned earlier, years ago Dylan Bundy was one of the premier prospects in the game but things never worked out in Baltimore. He was traded to the Angels before this season and has pitched the best he ever has in his career so far.
38 innings of 2.58 ERA ball and a WHIP under 1.00 — all while averaging more than a strikeout per inning.
Small sample size? Perhaps, but let’s face it…it only needs to be for a short time this year for it to be successful.
The other side of the coin is Bundy is arbitration-eligible for one more year, so this would look a lot like the Kevin Gausman trade a few years ago.
One challenging proposition would be the Angels are desperately needing pitching, so why would they trade away arguably their best starter at this point? A couple of reasons come to mind:
- They are not competing this year, so would they really risk not getting a few prospects now for one year of Bundy next year, when they are not gonna compete again?
- Why not go to a team like the Atlanta Braves and ask for a couple of young starters who can potentially help you out starting maybe next year?
So that leaves us with one last question. What would the Angels possibly want in return?
Here are two trade proposals that were viewed as “likely” on baseballtradevalues.com
- Braves get Bundy
- Angels get Kyle Muller, Huascar Ynoa, and Touki Toussaint
The second one:
- Braves get Bundy
- Angels get Bryse Wilson and Patrick Weigel
The simple fact is that there probably will not be too much really available over the course of the next few days, so who really knows?
A 1/2/3 combination of Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Dylan Bundy could be pretty fun to watch in 2021 though.
Let us know in the comment section below how you would feel about possibly adding Dylan Bundy onto the Atlanta Braves roster.