The Atlanta Braves had an inexplicably bad trade deadline. Yes, the season was essentially over for them, so it didn't make sense for them to improve their roster, but they had chances to dump players on expiring contracts like Raisel Iglesias and Marcell Ozuna and, for reasons both in and out of their control, they failed to do so for the most part.
Something the Braves did do at the deadline, though, was add veteran depth arms like Erick Fedde and Carlos Carrasco, giving them pitchers who could simply eat innings to cover for a rotation filled with injuries - or so we thought. Fedde hasn't been great, but he's been able to complete five innings in two of his three starts and he's allowed four runs or fewer each time he's taken the hill. Carrasco struggled so mightily in his three starts to the point where he was DFA'd.
Yes, the Braves made a trade to acquire the veteran with the hope that he can simply give them innings every fifth day, only to DFA him not even three weeks later. That's a bad look.
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Braves somehow made most depressing deadline deal look even worse
It doesn't get more depressing than watching a team out of contention acquire a 38-year-old who wasn't good enough to pitch for most of the year on a New York Yankees team that desperately needed help on the pitching front. It's even worse when said pitcher can't meet the lowest of expectations and gets DFA'd shortly after acquiring him.
To be fair, the Braves didn't give up anything of importance, with cash or a player to be named later headed to the Bronx. Still, could the Braves not have found anyone better? Could they not have simply promoted Hurston Waldrep, who now certainly gets to stick around after this move, a little earlier?
Giving something up, even if it isn't much, for Carrasco, was always a bad look, and the Braves should've known better than to have gone down this path.
Braves should've known what they were getting in Carlos Carrasco
The Braves should've known more than mostly any other team what they were getting in Carrasco at this stage of his career. In 2023, while pitching for the New York Mets, Carrasco had a 6.80 ERA in 20 starts. The only reason he made so many appearances for the Mets was because New York had given up on its season, much like Atlanta. In that season, Carrasco allowed four runs in five innings of work against the Braves.
Things, predictably, have only gotten worse for Carrasco in the two years since as he's aged even more. He was DFA'd after 21 lackluster appearances for the Cleveland Guardians last season, and after allowing six runs in just two innings of work on Tuesday against the reeling Mets, has a 7.09 ERA in 11 big league appearances in 2025. He hasn't been close to effective in years, and yet, the Braves, even knowing how bad he looked in 2023, willingly gave something up to acquire him.
Taking a chance on Fedde, who pitched well for most of last season and is significantly younger, made sense. Doing so with Carrasco, even given their need for starting pitching, did not. The Braves should've looked elsewhere, and now have to live with giving something up for a mere three starts from a 38-year-old in a lost season.