When the Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to San Francisco on Sunday night, it got the entire world of baseball talking. Not only did the move completely change the complexion of the trade deadline and the 2025 season, but it raised some key questions as to the Red Sox's short-term future. Given the Atlanta Braves' position at the moment, this uncertainty could be an opportunity in disguise.
The Braves have their problems, but the biggest one right now seems to be a bullpen that they cannot trust with almost any sized lead. Raisel Iglesias has cratered in his contract year and the rest of the pen has ranged from mediocre to a special kind of bad in the case of Jose Ruiz and Rafael Montero.
If the Red Sox have decided that they are willing to punt on the 2025 season after trading Devers in exchange for long-term gains, Boston does have a couple of relievers in Garrett Whitlock and Greg Weissert that they should check in on.
Braves should seek bullpen help from Red Sox in the event that Boston does a fire sale
Aroldis Chapman is going to be the name that gets the most attention at the deadline regardless of the Red Sox's intentions. He is having a good season in Boston and will be a free agent at the end of the season. However, aging relievers are a risk that Atlanta probably can't afford to take especially with Chapman's history. In addition, the Braves tend to prefer to target bullpen arms that come with some control and the Red Sox have a couple better candidates in that mold.
Whitlock is under control through 2028, but that includes two reasonably priced option years which would give the Braves some payroll flexibility. He is also been pretty good in 2025 as the 19 year-old righty has posted a 2.97 ERA and 3.26 FIP this season with some encouraging swing and miss. In Weissert, he has less of a track record and would come with more (and cheaper) team control as a pre-arb player. He isn't as good at getting strikeouts as Whitlock, but he pounds the strike zone and his fastball is grading out very well in 2025 despite a relative lack of velocity.
Unless the Braves are completely out of it by the beginning of July, you can pretty much etch in stone that Alex Anthopoulos is going to add some bullpen help before the trade deadline passes. If the Red Sox take a nose dive after trading Devers, it is clear that they have some arms that would be of interest to Atlanta.