Braves Rumors: Matt Olson disgusted, Acuña has Strider in awe, Tigers trade idea

Braves Rumors: Tigers Triple-A reliever Miguel Diaz could be sneaky trade target

A new day, another Braves trade target that could make sense. But in a world where just about every White Sox pitcher or big-name pitcher on a bad team has been thrown out as a possibility for Alex Anthopoulos to pursue on the trade market, there are some overlooked options that, though they might not be top of mind, could be exactly what the pitching staff needs.

Instead of Mike Clevinger, Lucas Giolito or whoever else from the White Sox, or even in lieu of an Aroldis Chapman from the Royals, there’s another hurler in the AL Central who could be of assistance. He just happens to be in Triple-A right now with the Tigers.

Miguel Diaz was floated by Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report as an “outside-the-box” option for the Braves to potentially add on the trade market and it’s difficult to not pick up what he’s putting down.

The 28-year-old reliever doesn’t have a breaking pitch in his arsenal, but showed great progression in the majors while seeing time with the Padres from 2017-21, going from a 7.34 ERA in 2017 to posting a 3.64 ERA and 1.19 WHIP over 25 appearances in that 2021 campaign.

He then signed a minor league deal with the Tigers last season, getting called up for three appearances, allowing one hit, two walks and one earned run over 3.2 innings of work. He’s continued to show positive signs in Triple-A too, working 18 innings thus far with a 1.50 ERA and a 25/3 K/BB ratio right now.

Given that Detroit hasn’t called him up to the big league roster, Diaz could be available at an extremely cheap price. And given that the Braves simply need competent, inning-eating arms right now amid the myriad of injuries to the pitching staff, the “outside-the-box” option maybe shouldn’t be that outlandish to consider at all.