MLB Rumors: Braves trade buzz, Blake Snell surprise market, Yankees-Yamamoto truth

MLB Rumors: Braves trade buzz leaves questions but several open doors

It's been a bit of a wild if not unspectacular offseason for the Atlanta Braves to this point. There has been plenty of movement for Alex Anthopoulous but any of the big names that the club has been connected to thus far have not come to fruition. And on top of that, we have some unconventional trades wherein the Braves took on and dumped salary to get guys like Jarred Kelenic, among others.

The question that's now lingering with the calendar about to turn to 2024, however, is if the Braves still have something big still cooking, especially with fellow NL contenders, the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking the bank for Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Could they go after a trade for a Dylan Cease or Shane Bieber? Will they pursue big names like Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, or others?

Anthopoulos gave some semi-optimistic updates on the Braves' process to this point speaking with Jeff Schultz of The Athletic ($):

"We pursued Aaron Nola (who re-signed with the Phillies)," Anthopoulos said. "Beyond that, we’ve engaged clubs and inquired on trades. The starters who have been moved, and one specifically, we didn’t need to trade core players off our roster. It would’ve been a prospect-based deal and we had the prospects to do it and we elected not to. Obviously, we’ll find out three, four, five years from now if that was the right call. It’s similar to when guys like Spencer Strider and Michael Harris were prospects and we elected to hold those guys as well, and we’re glad that we did. It’s tough to judge because you’re trying to project out what guys will be. So far, I’ve elected to say no."

More importantly, he didn't shut down the possibility of a trade, though AA did note that the chips would have to fall right for the Braves.

"We’re sitting here in the middle of December. It’s still pretty active," Anthopoulos said. "There’s still a lot of conversations. There’s also dominoes that get impacted — somebody gets signed and another player shakes loose in a trade. We still have at least another six weeks, and even then, you’re two weeks from reporting. So there’s still time."

As for who the Braves could make that deal for, Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report offered a bit of a dark horse name from a familiar dance partner, the Oakland A's, suggesting a deal for southpaw Paul Blackburn in a one-for-one trade for No. 6 Braves prospect JR Ritchie.

Blackburn has pitched in just 21 games in each of the past two seasons with middling results as he's posted a 4.35 ERA and 1.395 WHIP over that span. Would that really be an arm, especially given the uptick of production for the bats Atlanta has acquired from Oakland, worth giving up a top-end prospect in the farm system? Only time will tell.

However, it's starting to feel increasingly urgent that the Braves make some big move, whether for Blackburn, Cease, or otherwise.