With the market for shortstops looking rather dire at the moment, it is little wonder that the Atlanta Braves hedged their bets a bit and traded for Mauricio Dubon. While not an ideal everyday shortstop by any stretch of the imagination, Dubon can at least play the position if needed and probably be an upgrade over what the Braves were running out there in 2025. Even if you are among those that want Atlanta to think outside the box and swing big for a shortstop, even those potential moves have seemingly insurmountable obstacles to overcome.
There have been some pretty wild proposals floating around for the Braves to address shortstop. The most popular one has easily been signing Bo Bichette to a mega deal and just closing your eyes and hoping the defense works out. Another name that was put out there was Marcus Semien who has barely played short since 2019.
However, one name we hadn't heard as an option was Semien's Rangers teammate, Corey Seager. While Texas would probably love to shed a chunk of Seager's salary as good as he is, there is one big problem with a potential Braves trade for him: apparently Seager has the Braves on his no-trade list.
Any hope of a surprise Braves trade for Corey Seager is dead on arrival because Atlanta is on his no-trade list
This is objectively hilarious. This isn't a situation where Seager has a full no-trade clause and just doesn't want to move. Those sorts of clauses are negotiated for a reason and are exercised all the time. Instead, Seager was only able to add a limited no-trade clause to his deal with the Rangers where he could name eight teams where he could veto a trade and one of them was apparently, yes, the Braves.
As to why Seager would have the Braves on his no-trade list, it is hard to say. Some players just prefer certain markets or climates for their families, but one cannot help but wonder if the Braves-Dodgers rivalry has something to do with and specifically Seager getting victimized by Tyler Matzek in Game 6 of the 2021 NLCS during what may be the greatest playoff performance in Braves history.
There are obviously some other problems as well with a potential Seager trade. Not only does Seager have a long history of injuries that would likely give Atlanta pause, he is under contract for the next six years and owed $186 million. Texas would likely have to eat some of that in order to move Seager, but exactly how much is unclear and it is difficult to find a number that would be acceptable to both sides.
Unfortunately, we can't even really explore the idea much further than that because, as Seager has made clear, such a deal is (probably) dead on arrival.