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Atlanta Braves trade deadline: why this is so difficult to navigate

By Alan Carpenter

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 20: New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and New York Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon listen to manager Mickey Callaway speak during a press conference before the game between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on May 20, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 20: New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and New York Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon listen to manager Mickey Callaway speak during a press conference before the game between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on May 20, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Braves
LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 04: General manager Alex Anthopoulos and manager Brian Snitker #43 of the Atlanta Braves talk during batting practice prior to Game One of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on October 4, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

While making trades is a difficult task in the best of circumstances, there are several considerations that Alex Anthopoulos has to navigate this Summer.

It’s a narrow path that the Atlanta Braves need to walk.  Improve the team.  Don’t overpay.  Get impact players.  Protect the farm system.  Fill multiple needs.  Don’t give away the future.

It’s always been a delicate balance that happens between making deals and holding onto prospects too tightly.  There are unenviable decisions that have to be made.

What’s more is that many current parameters within the Braves’ organization – and what we’re seeing around baseball – are complicating a task that’s already complicated enough by itself.

Here’s 5 aspects about the process involved to illustrate what we mean…

5. New GMs, New Rules

It used to be relatively predictable.  A few buyers, many possible sellers and generally speaking, there were buyer’s markets.  In 2012, though, the Wild Cards were introduced… and they did exactly what was expected:  it has made more teams competitive for longer periods of time.

On top of this have been some new General Managers who haven’t seen fit to play by the same kinds of ‘traditional’ rules that seemed to exist before 2010.

Alex Anthopoulos is one of that new generation, so he’s probably a bit better equipped to handle these changes than others.  Certainly he’s seen the changes during his stints in Toronto, LA, and now Atlanta.

Others – A.J. Preller, Jerry DiPoto, Brodie Van Wagenen… there’s a bunch of them… have been wheeling and dealing a great deal… and BVW may have already pulled off the most interesting surprise move of the Summer.

In fact, only seven current GMs were hired to their jobs before the Wild Card era… and 2 of those were hired as it was about to start (the off-season of 2011-12).

What we’ve seen is a new paradigm in which teams are generally in 1 of 3 modes:  tanking, rebuilding, and winning.  There are some teams in ‘win limbo’ (see the NL Central, for example), but by and large that’s the demarcations.

Lately, there have been so many teams in the Tanking/Rebuilding categories that none of them are able to guarantee one of the highest draft picks and thus appears to be an inflated desire to “win” any trade of what assets they have.

Said another way, these teams need premium prospects to rebuild and can’t necessarily count on the draft to make it happen.  Instead they are placing high price tags on impact players – that they will never be able to use well – in the hopes of accelerating their rebuild.

Drafts gain 1-2 good prospects each year on average… trades can nab 2 or 3 in a single deal for those who play their cards right.

The Braves did this… along with getting high draft picks.  But now the shoe is on the other foot.

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