3 Braves trade targets from bottoming-out Cardinals and 2 to avoid

Braves Rumors: Trade to avoid with Cardinals No. 1 – Lars Nootbaar, OF

Even amid the struggles for the Cardinals this season, the fact of the matter is that Lars Nootbaar has continued what he did during the World Baseball Classic as a member of Team Japan by looking one of the best young outfielders in baseball. His numbers aren’t gaudy by any stretch, but he’s continued to be a solid player on the rise.

After middling a bit over the past two seasons, Nootbaar has really broken out by slashing .266/.380/.390 this season and already accruing 1.3 WAR over 45 games, highlighting that he’s equally as valuable with the glove as he is a solid hitter. And at just 25 years old and with the outfield depth in this system, that could make him an ascending asset with immense trade value.

That indeed seems to be where things could be trending to. We don’t even know if the Cardinals are for sure going to be selling at the deadline but, if they are, we then don’t have a real clue if they would want to get the biggest return possible for any of their assets by trading Nootbaar, one of the most valuable pieces in the organization.

No matter what ends up being the case, though, that’s a pool that the Braves shouldn’t wade into. After the Matt Olson and Sean Murphy trades, Atlanta still has several prospects with value, but much less so than they did previously. Going after Nootbaar would mean likely mortgaging the rest of their system-wide trade assets, which just simply isn’t good business when there are multiple holes that could be addressed.