3 bold predictions for Braves after MLB Trade Deadline

2. Richard Rodriguez will help set the right tone for the much-maligned bullpen

From a simple operations management standpoint, your team is only as good as your floor. For the 2021 Braves, that floor has been its bullpen. While it has pitched better in recent weeks, this unit lives to blow leads late in games. The starting pitching has been much-improved the last few months, but the Braves are not getting the production they need out of their relief pitching at all.

This is where Rodriguez comes in. Despite pitching for a struggling Pittsburgh Pirates team, the Dominican right-hander is in the midst of career year. He saved a handful of games this season for the Buccos, which gives Atlanta another option should the Braves’ current closer Will Smith struggle in the ninth innings of some games. Either way, Rodriguez helps solidify the back-end.

Atlanta is fortunate to have infinitely better starting pitching than it did a year ago. Free-agent acquisitions Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly have pitched fantastic after rough starts to the year. Max Fried and Ian Anderson offer a ton of promise early in their careers, as do Kyle Muller and Touki Toussaint. All the while, Rodriguez provides the bullpen the spark it had been really lacking.

1. The Braves will finally get above .500 in the second half of the season

At this time, this is the only thing that matters. For the Braves to push for a fourth straight NL East crown, Atlanta must first cross the impossible threshold of playing over-.500 baseball. As a shock to most outside of the Southeast, the Braves have yet to be above .500 at any point this season. This club has treated a .500 record like an asymptote that it is never, ever allowed to cross.

Ultimately, Atlanta’s inability to play anything better than .400-plus baseball stems from inconsistent offensive production and having to rely on a bullpen it cannot trust. So Anthopoulos went for broke and got the Braves the bats they needed to offset the Acuña and Ozuna losses while Travis d’Arnaud works his way back from a busted thumb. He also traded for a closer.

If Atlanta can hold its precious leads after dusk and can hand the rock off to a relief pitcher with confidence, we just might maybe see the team that came up one win short of winning the NL pennant only a season ago. That feels like a lifetime ago. While there are no guarantees the Braves will make the postseason this year, you have to applaud Anthopoulos for pulling the trigger in July.

Atlanta is only four games back of the New York Mets after the trade deadline has come and gone.