Braves: 3 trade deadline targets to avoid
By Sam Peebles
Braves trade targets to avoid: Juan Soto
Juan Soto would make any team better. This statement is not even a debatable topic. Juan Soto is a perennial MVP candidate every single year.
Since he made his debut, Soto has averaged 6.46 offensive WAR per 162 games played. For reference, that would put him on the top 10 in MLB every single year.
Since 2018 he has already accumulated 19.3 WAR, and has an insane slash line of .294/.427/.540, which equates to a 159 OPS+. For reference, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman have never had an OPS+ that high in any season.
Why wouldn’t the Atlanta Braves trade for Soto?
Soto is having a down year by his standards, mostly due to a drop off in power. He currently has an oWAR of 1.9 and a slash line of .236/.382/.449. This is still excellent considering he leads the league in walks and has an OPS+ of 144.
Even with a ‘down year’ for him, Soto is still easily one of the best hitters in the league with his OPS being the 26th in MLB while leading the league in games played.
In a world where future contracts are not part of the game, trading for Soto would make sense for the Atlanta Braves. However, that is not the world we live in.
The Atlanta Braves are in a win-now mode, and have shown that they are not afraid to mortgage the future with the trade they made for Matt Olson. The issue here is that they would further mortgage the future with a very little chance of extending Soto.
Soto is a Boras Corp client and is the type of player that is going to sign a mega deal. This is not the mode of operation of the Atlanta Braves front office.
2.5 years of Soto would a boon for the Atlanta Braves, but odds are that there will be a bidding war if he becomes available, making him extremely expensive. This does not even factor in the future salary via arbitration where he is already making $17 million this season, which will only increase.
With Atlanta’s current contract situation, the only way it would make sense to add Soto from a business standpoint is if they can shed some salary. With Ozuna being the salary that makes the most sense to shed, it does not look promising.