The Atlanta Braves have been lucky to have one of the best bullpens in baseball this season. There have been a couple of hiccups, but overall they've been pretty dependable. However, it's always a great idea to consider improving that bullpen at some point. Atlanta looks poised to make a run at the postseason, and they'll need a great relief core to help them navigate that.
The seventh, eighth, and ninth innings are pretty well covered between Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez, and Raisel Iglesias. Atlanta has a good bit of dependable right-handers to use as well. However, they could use another lefty to pair with Lee. Dylan Dodd has done a decent job in his brief stint with the team. He has a 0.93 ERA over 9.2 innings with one walk and 11 strikeouts. Dodd also has the benefit of being able to pitch multiple innings.
While he's done an admirable job, the Braves would be wise to weigh their options and maybe find someone with a bit more experience. Atlanta could turn to the National League Central to find a couple of options.
Braves could look to NL Central as a trade partner to address the bullpen's need for another dependable lefty
Gregory Soto
Soto is having a very good season for the Pirates, with a 2.13 ERA over 25.1 innings. He has 10 walks, 31 strikeouts, and a 0.79 WHIP over that time frame. His xBA and xERA back up just how well he's pitching at .160 and 2.16, respectively.
He has excellent numbers in average exit velocity (84.6 mph), whiff rate (27.9), strikeout rate (32.0), barrel rate (3.7), hard-hit rate (31.5), and ground ball rate (46.3). Soto does need to work on improving his walk (10.3) and chase rates (26.4), however. He will be a free agent after this season, so the Braves would only make this trade with the right offer.
JoJo Romero
Romero has been a dependable reliever for the Cardinals over the last few years. He had a breakout year in 2025, where he had the lowest ERA of his career and pitched a career high of 61 innings. He is pitching well so far again in 2026 with a 2.81 ERA over 25.2 innings, including 10 walks, 23 strikeouts, and a 1.21 WHIP.
However, his advanced metrics show there is a lot of underperformance this season. Romero continues to sport an excellent breaking run value and groundball rate (51.4%). Unfortunately, he is below average in almost every other metric outside of barrel rate.
Below average in almost every other metric except his barrel and whiff rates, which sit just above average. He limited hard contact last season, but no such luck thus far. That underperformance could help decrease his cost, especially with him becoming a free agent after the season.
The only concern is that his performance isn't much different from Aaron Bummer's, besides his fastball velocity being a bit better. Romero could benefit greatly from having a great defense behind him with his fantastic groundball rate.
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