Trade deadline: the Atlanta Braves need to sell… and buy

There are a lot more dynamics to team-building than a simple “buy” or “sell”.  The Atlanta Braves will have to wrestle with this over the next weeks and months.

Even before Ronald Acuna’s injury, it was going to be difficult for the Atlanta Braves to put together a viable and effective shopping list for the coming trade deadline.

Now… reality may be setting in. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the team has to go down a single path:  2022 will bring a new season and the preparation for that should already be underway.

Officially — or at least publicly — the Braves are in a “wait and see” mode as Ken Rosenthal reports.

That sentiment is based around what we’ve been saying:  that the schedule coming out of the All-Star break is truly brutal… the Rays, Padres, Cardinals, Brewers, and Mets.  All of that before the July 30 deadline.

Despite all of the crushing injuries, it’s hard to wave that white flag since the Mets are still barely ahead of the field.  One slip-up from them and the entire playoff race becomes a rugby scrum among four different teams.

But there are things that the Braves need to do… here’s why:

Acuna and the Braves Outfield

There’s two key aspects to this point… here’s the first:

Ronald Acuna will almost certainly be unavailable to the team until something around 10-11 months (May/June) from now.

Oh, I know:  we’ve heard 9-10 months. That’s a good start, but it doesn’t include getting in game-shape.

We saw multiple Instagram videos of Acuna’s intense workouts from last Winter as he got ready for this season.  He won’t be able to do any of that this coming Winter.

Once he’s cleared to resume baseball activities, he will then be able to start working out in earnest.  Yes:  he’s committed to do so “1000%”, but that can’t even begin until… maybe March or April?  And he certainly can’t do the kind of work done during the prior off-season.

So… his production needs to be replaced… somehow.  Let’s see if we can find somebody to do that.

The Braves Rental Center

If the team fades in the next two weeks and the ultimate decision is to “sell”, then there are definitely some resources that Atlanta could use to give them real prospects to use for future considerations — and to offset any losses taken via an outfielder trade.

Here’s a sampling of the top possibilities:

• CHARLIE MORTON.  A playoff-hardened starting pitcher.  These are going to be very hard to come by, but the Braves might choose to make theirs available.  He’s retiring at the end of the year anyway, so gift him with one last playoff run.
• DREW SMYLY.  Yes, I’m serious… his pitching in the last 2 months is most definitely worthy of a trade:  2.84 ERA in June, 2.53 in July.  Again, teams are going begging for starting pitching with all the injuries around baseball.
• WILL SMITH.  He’s got another year of control, and while his contract ($13m per year) isn’t small, it allows the Braves to “buy” a better prospect if they kick in some cash.
• LUKE JACKSON.  A 1.64 ERA for the year is better than all but 10 relievers with 30+ innings… and most of those are on contenders and won’t be traded.
• TRAVIS d’ARNAUD.  Yes, he’s hurt, but won’t be for long, and it doesn’t take long to find a possible destination for him and his expiring contract:  the Padres, Astros, A’s, Mariners, and Mets all have bottom-half-performance out of their catching position.  Add the White Sox, who lost Grandall and there’s a possible bidding war if the Braves make him available.

So yes… without a big turn-around by the end of July, this season could rapidly turn into mush, but there’s a fair chance that the Braves could still make things work in their favor.  Not necessarily for now — but definitely for 2022 and beyond.

Play it right, and the team could cash in quite well.

In the short term, it stinks for fans, but the long term could look a lot brighter.