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

By Sam Peebles

General manager Alex Anthopoulos of the Atlanta Braves does an interview with Sportsnet in 2018. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
General manager Alex Anthopoulos of the Atlanta Braves does an interview with Sportsnet in 2018. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Braves
The Mariners’ Kendall Graveman is having a great year… and that won’t help him become an Atlanta Brave. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

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.

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