Atlanta Braves failed deals might make Manny Machado off-season target
By Fred Owens
The day after the trade deadline many sites and pundits evaluated what the Atlanta Braves accomplished. Most were complimentary in their assessments.
At that time Jon Heyman labeled the Atlanta Braves as “small winners” for enhancing their offense and pitching without weakening their farm system.
Now as we move away from the non-waiver trade deadline day, rumors about deals not made surfaced and led some to wonder whether those deals might be revisited this month or in the off-season.
The most frequent – and least likely – deal involves the Blue Jays continuously injured third baseman, Josh Donaldson. Donaldson only began sprinting this week so it seems highly improbable that any team acquires him this season. Even if his legs are finally healthy, he has shoulder issues similar to those of Ryan Zimmerman and he hasn’t swung a bat at live pitching in a long time.
The hottest take of the Braves deadline doings came from GM Alex Anthopoulos on MLB Network’s High Heat with Christopher Russo. Anthopoulos addressed philosophy, the Chris Archer deal and the players who came on board. That seems the best place to start.
Atlanta Braves GM on High Heat
The Anthopoulos call to High Heat (August 1st) began with Russo asking about the Braves philosophy at the deadline. Note that I’m paraphrasing for brevity throughout the interview piece, you may listen to their exact words at the link above.
Anthopoulos told Russo that the goal during July continued to be getting better long-term rather than adding expensive pieces who would leave after this season. He said Kevin Gausman, Adam Duvall, and (the currently injured) Darren O’Day met that criteria.
He went on to say that the Braves were in talks in which some of the higher value prospects would have left the team but he ultimately pulled back from those deals because other teams wanted too many prospects.
Russo asked about the rumored deal for Chris Archer and whether the Braves thought they would still be able to make that deal late in the afternoon of the 31st.
Anthopoulos told Russo that they felt they had an opportunity to make the deal as the deadline approached. But he also said that the ‘back and forth’ reported on the day was completely overstated.
The Braves kept in touch with Tampa throughout the process but they were fairly certain the night before and that morning that they were not going to get Archer. The Rays wanted a great deal for him and ultimately both teams (the Pirates and Rays) got what they wanted.
No forced trades
Russo asked if the way the Braves stumbled into the break and struggled a bit coming out led to deals that they would not otherwise have done.
Anthopoulos reiterated what he said many times leading up to the deadline. He and leadership felt a duty to reinforce the roster to acknowledge their belief in the team and do right by the fans. However, they made no deals because another deal (Archer) didn’t happen.
The players the Braves traded for had been on their wish list for a while and addressed some of the needs while building for the future.
Responding to a statement about the NL East being a wide open race, Anthopoulos said there were corner outfielders who might have given the team a short-term boost. They made no deals like that because he didn’t want to come this far with the young players then sit them down just to make a run.
He said playing the young players like Ronald Acuña and Johan Camargo and allowing them to develop made for sense for 2019 and beyond. The GM went on to restate the Braves emphasis on defense behind the young pitchers and implied some of the vaunted options would have weakened that defense.