Every single year at the trade deadline, the position that sees the most players change teams is bullpen arms. There is not a contender that couldn't use more relief depth and given that relievers also usually don't come with prohibitive contracts even if they have team control. For the Atlanta Braves, that tendency seems to play right into their hands.
The bullpen arms the Braves are going to have readily available at the trade deadline are far from perfect. Raisel Iglesias is putting together arguably the worst season of his career, Pierce Johnson would fetch a nice return except Atlanta may prefer to keep him, and Rafael Montero is actively bad.
However, you don't need perfect trade targets this time of year if the market is in your favor and as the days go by, it is becoming clear that the bullpen trade market is not as robust as buyers would like.
Braves may get to reap the rewards of what is very clearly a seller's market when it comes to relievers
According to reporting by The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the current trade market for relievers is extremely top heavy, expensive, and uncertain. Yes, there are sexy names out there like Emmanuel Clase, Mason Miller, Jhoan Duran, and Ryan Helsey, but the asking price for those guys is so high that they are essentially unavailable except to the most desperate or, in Helsey's case, still very pricey for a rental that isn't having a good year.
Making things even more interesting is the recent discipline handed down to Clase. The Guardians' closer has an electric arm coveted by nearly everyone, but the gambling investigation that resulted in him being placed on non-paid leave is going to have him basically untouchable at the deadline at minimum.
Once you get past that tier of reliever, the options are far less exciting. The only potentially available closers beyond those guys are Iglesias and the Padres' Robert Suarez who San Diego may hang on to as they are still hanging around in the playoff race. There are plenty of rental arms out there just to fill bullpen space, but few have been as effective and would come with team control like Johnson would.
The market over the next couple of days will determine exactly how short the supply of useful relievers will be. If we see some bigger names get moved, then the supply has increased and the odds of overpaying for the Braves' arms go down significantly. However, if we are approaching the actual deadline and teams start getting antsy knowing that they need relief help, Atlanta could end up much further ahead than we currently think.