Sure sounds like Braves fans shouldn’t get hopes up for major pitching upgrade

It's been obvious all season that the Atlanta Braves need an upgrade in their pitching rotation. The hole formed in their rotation after Spencer Strider went down with a season-ending elbow injury and the Braves have never seemed to recover.

They initially planned to make Bryce Elder their fifth starter, but he struggled immensely to begin the season. He posted a 6.46 ERA across five starts. Their easiest solution to this problem is to get Elder back to his All-Star form from a year ago.

After Elder, Atlanta tried a mix of their best pitching prospects, all of which failed to be too competitive in the big leagues. Darius Vines, Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep all received a chance that was met with struggles. Top prospect, AJ Smith-Shawver looks promising but he got injured in his only outing of the year.

This has left Atlanta fans to beg for the front office to make a huge move for an ace in the trade market. Jim Bowden, a former MLB GM and analyst for The Athletic ($), doesn't think they will aim that high though.

MLB analyst connected Braves to underwhelming trade target starters

On Bowden's list of starting pitchers that the Braves could pursue were Erick Fedde, Paul Blackburn and Trevor Williams. This isn't exactly the Sonny Gray, Garrett Crochet or Jack Flaherty that many Atlanta fans were hoping to hear.

Obviously, this doesn't eliminate the Braves from trading for some of the top pitchers on the market, but it's certainly not a promising outlook on things.

Fedde has been good for the White Sox this year, but one can only wonder how long he can continue this production. He's having by far his best season in the big leagues and there are a ton of question marks about if it will continue in the second half. Fedde has never thrown over 133.1 innings in a season and he's already closing in on 100 this year.

Trevor Williams looked good in 11 starts for the Nationals, posting an ERA in the low 2's, but has since landed on the IL. Williams is also having a year much better than expected and for the Braves, they would be buying him at his absolute highest value ever.

Paul Blackburn currently sits on the 60-day IL with no timetable for a return as he recovers from a foot injury. He was doing okay in 2024 before landing on the injured list, but this isn't exactly the game-changing pitcher that Atlanta would be after.

With the way the Atlanta offense is trending, they need their pitching staff to carry the load until the lineup figures it out. If Jim Bowden is correct with these connections, Atlanta could be in for a tough couple of weeks.