God knows you’re not here to read about the 2025 Braves, so let’s look to the future.
MLB Trade Deadline week is here, and while the dam hasn’t fully broken, the transaction waters are definitely starting to flow. On Monday, the Rays traded C Danny Jansen to Milwaukee, and Chris Paddack moved in-division from Minnesota to Detroit. We’re still waiting on the first blockbuster of the summer ahead of Thursday’s 6pm ET trade deadline, but things are definitely starting to happen.
The Atlanta Braves have also made some minor moves, acquiring Erick Fedde and Carlos Carrasco as bandaids to patch up this double-amputee of a rotation. We’re still waiting to see how they will approach the deadline when it comes to selling off some of their veterans like closer Raisel Iglesias and DH Marcell Ozuna.
If the Braves opt to trade their Major League pieces for prospects, we shouldn’t expect anybody too significant in the return. Part of the reason that the Braves are sellers at all is that Iglesias and Ozuna have both been shells of their former selves, and with them having just a half-season of team control left, the price can only go so high. There is enough about Iglesias’s profile to suggest he would help a contending team, so I imagine he’ll fetch the biggest package, but it still most likely will not be a top 100 prospect coming back to Atlanta. With GM Alex Anthopoulos continuing to say that the team will be trying to compete in 2026, though, I’m wondering if we might see the Braves try to find a way to acquire Major League talent that would be under team control for 2026.
A three-team trade could help them to get controllable MLB talent. For instance, let’s consider the Twins, who will be sellers at the deadline and are rumored to be listening to calls on a couple of the top relievers in the game in Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax. Duran and Jax both have two more years of arbitration after 2025, and both are among the best high leverage relievers in the game. What if the Braves, in trading their closer, managed to get back an even better closer in return? We’ll need a contending team to complete the three-team hypothetical here – let’s use the Cubs as an example, and let’s say Griffin Jax is the one the Braves are able to get.
- ATL: receive Jax, send Iglesias to Chicago and prospects to Minnesota.
- CHC: receive Iglesias, send prospects to Minnesota
- MIN: receive prospects from CHC and ATL, send Jax to Atlanta
From Chicago’s perspective, it’s the same as trading prospects for Iglesias straight up. From the Twins perspective, it’s the same as trading Jax for prospects straight up. But from Atlanta’s perspective, they’re able to use an asset they no longer need in Iglesias to slightly lessen the prospect package that they would need to come up with on their own in order to land a talent like Jax, who has the 3rd best K-BB% and 2nd best FIP among all relievers since the start of 2024.
Think about it this way; if the Braves want to trade for Major League talent like Jax or Duran this offseason, they’re unlikely to include Major League talent from their own team in the package (as they’ll be trying to contend), so they will have to come up with the best prospect package possible. If they do a trade now, though, they could send Ozuna or Iglesias to a contending team and use some of that team’s prospects to help them get a deal done.
Even if a three-team trade doesn’t materialize, there still might be ways for Anthopoulos to add Major League talent for 2026 while still trading away their veterans on expiring contracts. In their trades of Iglesias and Ozuna, they could look at trading for someone who is injured and expected to miss most or all of 2025, such as Michael Grove or Gavin Stone of the Dodgers, both of whom are buried in LA’s long-term depth chart but would be candidates to fill out the back end of the Braves rotation in 2026. Anthopoulos also likes to buy low on guys who have struggled recently but have a history of success – Joc Pederson, Chas McCormick, and Jordan Hicks represent a few such names. There’s also the idea of taking a flyer on an unestablished but intriguing bullpen arm, such as Craig Yoho of the Brewers or Brooks Kriske of the Cubs.
The Braves could still take a bit more of a traditional approach to the buy/sell, too. They could trade Iggy and Ozuna for the best possible prospect packages while also trading away prospects to try and get talent that would help them next year. If Joe Ryan were made available, for instance, the Braves could consider unloading several top prospects to get him for 2026 and 2027. There is likely to be some kind of bidding war for Mitch Keller, too, and it wouldn’t be shocking if the Braves saw something they particularly liked in his profile, such as his durability. For more of a #4/5 type of SP, they might consider someone like Jeffrey Springs of the A’s. On the reliever side, Jake Bird or Seth Halvorsen of the Rockies both have some promise.
There are dozens of other names that we could throw out there. At the end of the day, I’m excited to see how it all shakes out and hopeful that the Braves will be creative about adding talent that helps the Braves’ chances of reclaiming their place atop the NL East in 2026. We’ll have answers in just a couple of days.