The trade deadline is finally here and the Atlanta Braves remain poised to be rather busy. Last night, the Braves traded Rafael Montero to the Tigers for what appears to be the prospect equivalent of a bag of baseballs, but more work is to be done if this trade deadline is going to be considered a success.
Predicting player destinations and returns for most of the players that Atlanta could trade away today is almost purely guesswork as there are so many options and so little actual intelligence out there. However, we can make some educated guesses as to what the Braves will do on Thursday given how the market has unfolded.
Here are our final 2025 trade deadline predictions for the Atlanta Braves
All of the usual caveats apply here. These are not sourced tidbits nor are they likely to all be correct. This is just an educated guess as to the direction the Braves will take at the trade deadline given the prices and activity on the trade market thus far. Please save your angry emails.
The Braves will trade all pending free agents including Marcell Ozuna
The Braves keep losing and frankly, most of the pending free agents they have on the trading block haven't been playing well enough to justify keeping in a losing season. Marcell Ozuna has looked better lately, but that came after a horrid cold stretch and Atlanta's lineup has looked mostly better without him in it in recent weeks. Combining that with what appears to be a robust market for Ozuna as well as rentals in general and you have the recipe for all of the Braves' pending free agents to have new homes by the end of the day.
Ozzie Albies and Pierce Johnson will stay with the Braves
Conversely, it feels like this market may not be quite the boon for sellers that some thought it could be with the prices paid for Eugenio Suarez and Jhoan Duran being surprisingly reasonable. There was a chance that Atlanta could have been persuaded to trade Ozzie Albies or Pierce Johnson if they got really strong offers that valued their added team control, but it doesn't feel like those offers are likely to come. With both players being cheap and having a track record of performance, Atlanta isn't just going to give them away and now it seems like they will stay.
The Braves will add at least one bullpen arm with an eye on 2026
Yes, the Braves are sellers, but Alex Anthopoulos is opportunistic and this is the time of year when trades for relievers are plentiful. Atlanta very obviously needs to completely rework their bullpen and they are poised to lose a number of arms from it at the trade deadline anyways. Expect the Braves front office to get creative and add a real bullpen arm or two that is under team control through at least the end of next season to get a head start on the bullpen rebuild ahead of the offseason.