Atlanta Braves: Don’t Get Your Hopes Up About Acquiring These Players At The Trade Deadline

The trade deadline is getting closer, and suggestions across social media platforms of who the Atlanta Braves should pursue in a trade are starting to ramp up.

There have been a wide range of suggestions of who the Atlanta Braves should pursue as the trade deadline approaches. It is part of what makes this time of the year so fun. Bouncing trade proposals off of other people and getting their opinion, and vice versa.

There have been names floated around that absolutely make sense for the Atlanta Braves, but there are also quite a few names that have floated around social media that fans should just simply not get their hopes up about.

Trades typically work a certain way, and that will play a part in any move the Atlanta Braves will make

First, both teams need to agree to the trade, which means the Atlanta Braves can’t just throw away contracts of players they no longer want and acquire a player they do want. They are not going to trade away Ender Inciarte, Johan Camargo, and Josh Tomlin and get Kris Bryant. Sure, anything is possible, and salary dumps happen, but we have to be realistic here.

Also, typically a team in contention for a playoff spot is not going to trade away a player that can help them this year. It does happen sometimes, but it is extremely rare. So, the odds are that the Atlanta Braves will line up with a team that is out of playoff contention this year.

There some outliers, like salary dumps, or change of scenery type moves, but these are not the type of big-name moves that you see floating around social media leading up to the trade deadline.

Don’t get your hopes up for these players

With Alex Anthopoulos at the helm, anything can happen, although we have yet to see a big blockbuster trade during his time in Atlanta. Even if Anthopoulos was prone to making big moves, there are a few names that have been floating around that we should just forget about happening.

Let’s take a look… but sorry to burst the bubbles.

MITCH HANIGER and KENDALL GRAVEMAN (Mariners)

Once the news broke that Marcell Ozuna was injured, and then arrested, the trade package of Mitch Haniger and Kendall Graveman made a ton of sense.

The Mariners had a losing record of 26-27, and Jerry Dipoto is arguably the most trade-happy GM in Major League Baseball. The Braves need a relatively cheap middle-of-the-order bat, and they definitely need bullpen help.

Mitch Haniger is having a very good season, and could be in consideration for comeback player of the year. He is slashing .250/.298/.486 with 16 HR, an OPS+ of 118, and has accumulated 1.1 WAR.

For reference, The Atlanta Braves second-best starting outfielder has a WAR of 0.3. Not to mention, Haniger would only cost the pro-rated amount of 3.1 million this year, and is arbitration-eligible next season.

Kendall Graveman has had an excellent season. In 21.2 innings he has an ERA of 1.25 which is 229% above average, 8.7 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, an insanely low WHIP of 0.646, and his strikeout to walk ratio is 5.25. Graveman would be an instant upgrade to any bullpen he joins. He is a free agent at the end of the year, so he would not cost a ton in prospect capital.

It’s true, the Mariners will probably not win the World Series this year.  However, they have not made the postseason since way back in 2001. They currently are 3 games over .500 and have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games.

To be fair, they have -45 run differential, so this scenario could change quickly. But as for now, the current situation remains the same.

The Mariners are 3rd in their division, but unless they get blown away with a trade package, it does not make logical sense for the Mariners to give up Haniger and Graveman when the return package would not garner anything significant enough for them to give up hope of reaching the playoffs for just the 5th time in 45 years.

JOSE RAMIREZ (Indians)

Before the season, many believed that the Cleveland Indians may be ready to start a rebuild after trading Francisco Lindor to the Mets. This lead to speculation that they may trade their other star hitter in 3rd baseman Jose Ramirez.

At the start of the season, the chatter to bring in Jose Ramirez to play 3rd base for the Atlanta Braves was almost deafening. With Austin Riley stepping things up this year, that chatter has died a bit. However, a perennial MVP candidate is the type of guy you can consider bringing on your team while moving Austin Riley to left field — if that is what it took.

Ramirez has arguably been one of the most underrated players in the league. Since 2016, when he started being a full-time player, he has averaged 5.89 WAR per 162 games played. For reference, Juan Soto averages 5.34.

From a full-body standpoint, Ramirez is playing better than Juan Soto. Ramirez is also on a cheap contract of 5 years and $26 million with a team option for the 2022-2023 seasons.

Unfortunately for the Atlanta Braves, acquiring Jose Ramirez only got harder now that Cleveland is in the thick of things being 9 games over .500, holding a wild card spot, and being only 2 games behind the White Sox for the division lead.

They also are not very strong offensively, so taking away their best hitter that is under a very team friendly contract does not make much sense at all, unless they received a trade package that was heavily in their favor.

At the trade deadline, anything can happen. It is part of why it is so fun to discuss trades. However, some trades are just extremely unlikely. Don’t get your hopes up for the Atlanta Braves to trade for these big names.