I cannot wait for football season to get here. At the end of the month, college football will be fully underway with the NFL right around the corner. While I understand that seamheads are a different breed, you cannot possibly tell me that you are enjoying anything coming out of the Atlanta Braves right now. The fine folks in New York and Philadelphia are giddy, but they have not won anything yet...
Either way, former Braves beat reporter Justin Toscano for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution dropped a delicious nugget about what may be going on in Atlanta on X. Unfortunately, it looks as though his five-message thread has since been deleted. Regardless, it indicated that Braves ownership group Liberty Media may be the reason for Alex Anthopoulos' inability to pull the trigger on any move at all.
The impression that Toscano got is Liberty Media believes this season from hell for the Braves is the anomaly, and not the 2021 World Series Championship run. They believe running it back could result in one last title run for this core. I am utterly speechless. Either way, I do not think Anthopoulos has lost all abilities to be a sound general manager in baseball. His bosses are not helping him out at all.
So in the event Anthopoulos has not in fact become incompetent, here is who could have been dealt.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
5. Unloading the albatross that is Jarred Kelenic would have been sweet!
There is no way around it. The Jarred Kelenic addition from a few years back has been nothing short of terrible for the Atlanta Braves. The former blue-chip prospect in the New York Mets organization was all hype and no production during his first few years in MLB with the Seattle Mariners. That largely continued in Atlanta. He strikes out way too much and is so inconsistent on the diamond.
Kelenic may have been recalled to Atlanta from Triple-A recently, but that is only because Ronald Acuña Jr. was placed on the injured list. I understand that Kelenic is only in the arbitration stage of his big-league career, but he is a Quadruple-A player if I have ever seen one. Getting him off the books for a prospect, a bag of baseballs, or someone to stock the Braves' Coke machines would be great.
Instead, the Braves will be staring failure in the face every time he comes to the plate or is in the field.
4. With enough due diligence, Sean Murphy could have netted a big return
Trading away catcher Sean Murphy was always going to be little more than a pipe dream, but I have been under the impression that if he were to have been dealt, he could have been some contending team's offensive boost they may have needed to chase a pennant. He has become some levels of redundant with rookie Drake Baldwin's emergence, but both guys will occasionally man DH as well.
The big issue in trading away Murphy was it was always going to be either him or designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, and not both. Unfortunately, neither player of note got traded, and now no one is happy. What I will say is catcher is never a position group I expect to see star players dealt at the deadline. It is almost always more of an offseason sort of acquisition. Everybody has their own guys.
Moving Murphy may have netted the Braves the most amount of prospects, but it was not happening.
3. Cashing in on Dylan Lee before he imploded would have been so cool
As is the case with Jarred Kelenic, left-handed relief pitcher Dylan Lee is only in the arbitration years of his big-league tenure. That being said, he had up until recently been the Braves' best reliever for much of this lost season. He is the last mainstay from the 2021 Night Shift bullpen that helped bring Atlanta its second world championship. A lefty with good stuff and movement could have been had.
Instead, Lee had a night from hell in the final day of July. He helped the still somehow contending Cincinnati Reds completely erase an 11-3 lead by his own doing. Atlanta would go on to win this wild one in extra innings, but any real value Lee had entering the deadline is no more. He has gone from a player Braves Country could lean on, to becoming the latest example of another relief pitcher liability.
Lee should be a part of next year's team, but not cashing in on him feels like a wasted opportunity.
2. Why is Raisel Iglesias still on this team? I have no earthly idea, folks...
The Atlanta Braves acquired Raisel Iglesias as the trade deadline three years ago, and they should have gotten rid of him yesterday. Quite literally... Probably not since the peak of Craig Kimbrel, or maybe even since the three years that John Smoltz did it two decades ago, have I ever really been confident in the Braves' closer. They always get guys who soft toss and cannot locate the baseball.
Iglesias was thought to help round out the bullpen in 2022 behind another absolutely maddening closer in Kenley Jansen as the Braves' setup man. I cannot believe Jansen is going to end up in Cooperstown one day... Unbelievable... While I understand that Iglesias offered very little value on the trade market, he is one of two notable players on the Braves' roster who were playing on an expiring.
A change of scenery may have helped him get the most out of his diminishing talent in his mid-30s.
1. How was Marcell Ozuna that unmovable at the MLB trade deadline?
What I think this all boils down to is the Braves having available pieces at the deadline that either are not playing well, or play a position that does not have a robust market. It was probably more of the latter's case with Marcell Ozuna, but this has not been one of his better seasons with the Braves since 2020. I understand he has dealt with a hip injury all season long, but his job is to hit. He is not doing it.
Even though he had 10-5 rights, as well as varying degrees of off-the-field baggage, a power bat from the right side should have been had at the deadline. Like ineffective closer Raisel Iglesias, Ozuna is playing out the last year of his Braves contract. Because he too is well on the wrong side of 30, there is zero chance the Braves are going to bring him back next season. He will walk away for nothing, y'all.
At this time, fire the entire coaching and training staffs after the season, and let's start over then...