MLB Trade Rumors: 5 potential landing spots for Christian Yelich

4. Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves match up on paper as a perfect trade partner for the Marlins if they are going to try and move Yelich before the season. It’s when you drill down further into the details of getting this deal done that cracks start to form. The Marlins have come to grips that they are going to have to strip away every established name from the roster, but sending an All-Star to a division rival is not going to be a priority — unless Atlanta is willing to massively overpay.

With a new general manager taking over for banned-for-life John Coppolella, the Braves may hesitate to jump into making aggressive trade offers until after new GM Alex Anthopoulos has a chance to fully digest what he is working with when it comes to young prospects. Atlanta does have one of the better farm systems in the league, but they are still a few years away from contending.

During his time running the Toronto Blue Jays, Anthopoulos was not shy about pulling off blockbuster trades. He ended a two-decade playoff drought by trading for David Price, Troy Tulowitzki and Ben Revere at the 2015 trade deadline.

The Braves have one of the deepest crops of starting-pitching prospects in the league, including six in the MLB top-100 and another in Max Fried who was a former first-round pick. The Marlins are virtually bereft of top pitching prospects and should be salivating over the chance to get their hands on the likes of Kolby Allard, Luiz Gohara or Ian Anderson. It’s probably best for the Braves to stand pat for now, but the possibility of pairing Yelich up with Gold Glover Ender Inciarte has to be attractive.