Ozzie Albies doomsday injury shouldn't force Braves hand with flashy trade partner

UPDATE (6:06 p.m. ET): The Braves announced that after undergoing x-rays, Ozzie Albies suffered a left wrist fracture, and is now sidelined for approximately eight weeks.

The original story can be viewed below:

The Atlanta Braves already had a lengthy list of injuries that they've had to deal with this season and now it only gets longer with Ozzie Albies headed to the IL with a wrist injury. Brian Snitker's comments made it seem as if Albies' absence will be longer than the minimum of 10 days he'd spend on the IL.

A natural reaction to an injury like this to a three-time All-Star would be for fans to clamor for their GM to make trades. Making a trade for a player like Jazz Chisholm Jr. would certainly win the headlines, but is he really the best fit?

The trade deadline is rapidly approaching and the Braves will and should make trades to bolster their roster. When it comes to second base, though, the Braves have an intriguing internal option already to hold the fort while Albies is out.

Braves should give top prospect a trial run before resorting to flashy trade

An argument could've been made that Nacho Alvarez, Atlanta's No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline and their best position player prospect overall, should've been in the majors already due to Orlando Arcia's offensive struggles. Now with Albies out, there's no reason for Alvarez to remain in the minors.

The 21-year-old didn't get off to the best start at AA Rome this season but once he was promoted to AAA Gwinnett, he turned it on. In the 27 games he has played at that level, Alvarez has slashed .342/.425/.586 with seven home runs and 24 RBI.

Now, he isn't a second baseman, but the Braves can easily insert him at shortstop and move Arcia over to the keystone. There's no reason to push the limited chips Atlanta has for Chisholm when Alvarez could be the solution.

At the very least, the Braves should run with him as an everyday player until the deadline. If he gets off to a slow start, then sure, Anthopoulos can look at several different trades for an infielder depending on what Albies' timeline is. By then, trade values will be lower anyway.

Alex Anthopoulos is not one to press the panic button. He didn't do so with unprecedented trades when Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. went down with their season-ending injuries, and there's a good chance he won't look to do so now with Albies. The fact that they have Alvarez waiting in the wings tearing up AAA makes it an easy decision to just give him a shot instead of going all-out for a player like Chisholm or anyone at this point.