Atlanta Braves podcast: Off Leo’s Rocker S3E21 analyzes the trade deadline

The Atlanta Braves did what they needed to do at the trade deadline, but did they get everything accomplished that was needed?

It is likely that 29 of the 30 General Managers around baseball weren’t satisfied with their accomplishments before the trade deadline passed… and that includes Atlanta Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos.

If anyone is high-fiving their own successes, it’s probably A.J. Preller of the Padres… though there was certainly a high price to pay for all he got done in acquiring enough big bats to replace a third of his regular starting lineup.

But we fans always want “more” out of our team… almost no matter what else may have happened.

That’s why Mets fans are frustrated today (see this tweet for a summary of the reasons for their angst) and White Sox fans are apoplectic … just to name two clubs.

That said, the Atlanta Braves, as noted above, did the necessary things, but they also did the unnecessary in getting Austin Riley locked up for the next decade.

There’s one more major task to go along that line, and it involves shortstop Dansby Swanson, who has been rather quiet about the subject of his status… a stark contrast from Freddie Freeman’s outspoken desires to remain in Atlanta.

We’ll skip the recap of how that went.

There’s at least an outside chance of one more deadline move for Atlanta.  No, teams can’t make any more trades at this point, and even waiver procedures can’t be used to move talent around any longer (which spares you my annual post of The Rules of how that goes).

One More Deal for Someone

But in a very odd turn of events yesterday, there appeared this line on the transaction pages for the Milwaukee Brewers:

“Milwaukee Brewers designated RHP Dinelson Lamet for assignment.”

Astute fans will note that Lamet was seemingly a key part of the return going back to Milwaukee in the trade with San Diego that sent closer Josh Hader to the West Coast.

This, therefore, seems both bizarre and confusing… and the explanation from the Brewers front office didn’t exactly clear up the matter, citing an issue with their “roster fit” as “subsequent transactions played out”.

The Crew acquired RHP Matt Bush and EHP Trevor Rosenthal late on deadline day while DFA’ing 3 players – Lamet included.

One possibility for the snafu is the combination of Lamet reaching 5 years of service time (which effectively cancels a team’s right to option a player) and Milwaukee being stuck at the limit of 13 pitchers on their active roster.

What seems most likely is that the Brewers didn’t notice that 5-year threshold being reached, and that fact hosed their plans for optioning Lamet to AAA.

So… Lamet now can be a free elf:  once the waiting period ends, he has the ability to declare himself a free agent – refusing the assignment to the minors.  At that point, he could sign with any team.

UPDATE:  eh… it didn’t quite work that way… the waiver claims system was still in place and thus the Colorado Rockies have snatched up Lamet.

I imagine that Atlanta is already trying to charm his agents (the MVP Sports Group) with hints that “any pending free agents” they represent might want to check in with them

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Among their clients:

• Cristian Pache
• Dan Winkler
• Orlando Arcia
• Josh Donaldson
• Jorge Soler

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To the Podcast!

Anyway… time to let y’all in on this week’s trade deadline edition of Off Leo’s Rocker…

• Grab it from your favorite subscription site
• or from this handy direct download link
• or just listen right here via our inline player…

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Thanks for checking it out this week… our next edition will likely come next weekend after we’ve seen the results of some of post-deadline games… namely the big Mets series starting tonight!