That includes Chris Sale, who is still under contract for the Braves for the 2026 season.
It’s extremely likely that the Atlanta Braves aren’t going to be one of the buyers for the upcoming Trade Deadline at the end of this month. The Braves went 0-2-and-BBQ in the 2024 NL Wild Card series and are very likely going to miss out on the Postseason entirely here in 2025 after having a calamitous first half of the season.
As such, there was a very open question as to which direction the Braves would head in once the deadline rolled around. They haven’t been able to go on the type of run that would engender any type of real hope that this team is going to contend here in 2025, which means that all eyes are focused squarely on the future at this point. The only question then became whether or not the Braves would opt to go for a retool and a serious refresh of their big league roster or take this opportunity to burn it all down and begin a drastic rebuild.
If reports are any indication, it appears that the Braves are going to take the more pragmatic approach of retooling in order to making sure that 2025 is an outlier rather than a sign of things to come for the future of this organization. Robert Murray of FanSided is reporting via his source that the Braves have no intention of trading anybody under team control for next season and anybody in their long-term core.
With contenders searching for starting pitching, one name to cross off the list: Braves ace Chris Sale. Atlanta has not discussed Sale and will not consider moving the left-hander or any player under control beyond 2025, per sources. https://t.co/ups2NQ38ug
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) July 10, 2025
Right now, the only regulars who aren’t under team control for 2026 are Raisel Iglesias, Rafael Montero and Marcell Ozuna. Everybody else either has multiple years of team control left or they’re still in their pre-arbitration or arbitration years. That includes Chris Sale, who still has an $18 million club option before he returns to free agency. In fact, I know y’all noticed that Robert Murray named Sale specifically as one player who the Braves have not discussed in trade talks at all. If anything, this kind of confirms that the Braves are going to bring Sale back for 2026.
So with that in mind, that makes any type of trade speculation concerning the Braves very easy. While this all could very well be another smokescreen from Alex Anthopoulos, it also makes plenty of sense for the Braves to opt for a retool over a rebuild. Again, I’d much rather bet on players like Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies bouncing back in a Braves uniform over the next couple-to-few seasons rather than tearing it all down and hoping that a new crop of prospects will be able to reach the levels that they hit in the recent past. The Braves could net themselves a pretty solid haul if they choose to deal one of their catchers as well but again, it’s clear that the Braves aren’t going to be aggressive about selling off what they have under team control. As long as that’s the case, I don’t think that they’ll be enthusiastic about trading either Sean Murphy or Drake Baldwin unless they just get a perfect sweetheart deal from another team.
So again, with the caveat being that Alex Anthopoulos has one of the best poker faces in all of baseball, it sure doesn’t seem like we’re going to be in for an eventful trade deadline. It’ll be fascinating to see what direction the Braves choose to go in going forward but for what it’s worth, it would make all the sense in the world if the team opts for a retool instead of a rebuild. We’ll see what happens!