Braves: 1 stat proves Atlanta must trade for a slugger

One statistic shows exactly why the Atlanta Braves need to make a trade for a slugger sooner than later.

Someone get the Atlanta Braves some salty and fatty foods to help them with this hangover. The team is fighting to even get to .500 in a division the New York Mets look ready to run away with.

What’s wrong with the Braves? The performance over the last 30 games for some of their top hitters deserves plenty of the blame.

That’s a lot of outs and strike three calls for four guys who just won a World Series ring and another, Matt Olson, who came over to replace one of the franchise’s biggest stars.

Slumping Braves bats prove Atlanta needs to trade for a slugger

Even if just one of these hitters breaks out of this slump, it might be too late for Atlanta to make up ground in the National League. They’re losing to the best teams in the league and often playing down to their opponent. The only solution may be to reach outside of the organization as they did last year and trade for a slugger.

Trades at this point in the season might be more difficult to pull off but it’s also June later this week and there are teams clearly out there with no interest in competing. While a readily available player such as Joey Gallo might just exacerbate the ongoing issue, it’s players like him the Braves should look to acquire and turn things around.

Alex Anthopoulos was able to pull this off brilliantly last summer by acquiring Joc Pederson, Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall, and Jorge Soler. Although none were individual stars in the regular season, they each improved the club’s offense.

This might be exactly what Atlanta needs to do in 2022.

The already-buried clubs would be the first Atlanta should contact for some help. Someone such as Nelson Cruz of the rival Washington Nationals might be the exact kind of player they might be able to land before he completely loses all kind of value. A little more exciting, maybe the Braves turn to the Kansas City Royals for a trade involving Andrew Benintendi—a more flexible outfielder who could do more than fill in as the DH.

The ‘who’ isn’t so obvious for Atlanta right now. These numbers, however, give a clear picture of the ‘what’ Atlanta needs.