Atlanta Braves: Preliminary Look At Trade Targets

It is safe to say that the Atlanta Braves could use some help in their starting rotation.

The Atlanta Braves got a plethora of bad news recently of the loss of Huascar Ynoa to injury, and the delayed return of once staff ace, Mike Soroka.

The Atlanta Braves could use some some reinforcements in their rotation. There are obviously other areas that they could improve, like the bullpen, but for this exercise we will focus on starting pitching.

The Atlanta Braves should trade for a starter

First, there are some caveats here. This is a preliminary look at potential trade targets. The trade market has not settled yet, and although the Braves would benefit from adding a starter right now, the selling team will most likely want to wait till the trade deadline to boost the trade return.

There are all sorts of trade scenarios, but the most common one is when a contending team (also known as a buyer), trades with a team that is either rebuilding, or is about to start rebuilding (also known as a seller). The buyer typically trades prospects, or players that will be more valuable in the future to the seller for players that will help the team right now.

The difficult part about this is that there are so many uncertainties on which teams will be buyers and which will be sellers. For example, many thought that Cleveland or San Francisco may be in a position to be sellers this year, but they both have winning records. Many of the division races are very close, so it is hard to say who is definitely going to be sellers, and who will be buyers.

With the way the Atlanta Braves are playing, we don’t know for certain if they will be buyers.

There are some teams where the dust has settled, and there are some teams that are paper show that they should regress, so it is possible to still look at some preliminary trade targets. On paper, the Atlanta Braves are in a competitive window, so it is still safe to say that at this point in time, they will be looking for help at the trade deadline.

We will look at some candidates that are realistic possibilities, some that could happen, and some that are wishful thinking.