The Atlanta Braves are already facing some long odds when it comes to making the playoffs in 2025. They are currently eight games below .500 and Fangraphs currently has their playoff odds at a pretty dismal 28.1% as we approach the halfway point of the season. Making matters worse, it sure seems like the blockbuster Rafael Devers trade may have hurt the Braves' odds even more.
It was reported last night that the Braves were among the teams pursuing Devers before he ended up getting dealt. As fun as that would have been, putting together a trade that would have made Atlanta's roster significantly better AND that Boston would have even entertained accepting seems incredibly difficult.
However, that doesn't mean that the Braves weren't impacted directly by the Devers trade because, as it turns out, one of their biggest obstacles to getting back to the postseason just got a major boost.
The Giants' gain from Rafael Devers trade is the Braves' loss in the playoff race
Right now, the easiest path for the Braves to get back to the playoffs is via the explanded wild card slots. Atlanta currently sits eight games back in the wild card race which is depressing in itself, but that race at least has multiple possibilities of teams that could fall off and leave a spot in the postseason ripe for the taking assuming the Braves figure out how to play well again very soon.
The problem here is that the team that seemed like the one most likely to fall out of one of those spots was the Giants and they just got a lot better. While San Francisco's pitching staff led by Logan Webb has remained a strength of their roster in 2025, the offense remained very sketchy as the Giants have struggled to attract top flight offensive talent in recent years.
With the addition of Devers on Sunday, that calculus changes a lot. San Francisco's offense is now substantially better and they look like a team that could hang on to a playoff spot instead of a flash in the pan. Right now, the Phillies, Giants, and Padres currently occupy the NL wild card spots and all three of them look like teams that can go the distance.
At the end of the day, the Braves can only control so much now. Their only hope is to start playing substantially better soon and maintain that pace through the end of the season and then cross their fingers that they can overtake one or more of these teams. Unfortunately, that plan just got a lot harder.