Braves Today

Who are the top trade pieces for the Atlanta Braves?

If Atlanta wanted to make a deal on the trade market, what prospect capital would they be willing to part with?

Lindsay Crosby

The Atlanta Braves feel like they're good for one good offseason splash a season. 

Looking back over the last three years, Atlanta added pitcher Charlie Morton after 2020, Matt Olson after 2021, and Sean Murphy after 2022. Morton was a free agency signing, but the other two were both trade acquisitions (and both from the same team, the Oakland Athletics). 

Between the promotions of young players and the frequent trades to upgrade the major league roster, Atlanta's farm system is widely considered to have fallen into the bottom third in baseball as far as quality and quantity, but there's still useful pieces there that would be desirable to other teams. 

If Atlanta wanted to strike a deal on the trade market (say, for Mitch Keller of the Pirates or Tyler Glasnow of the Rays), what are their most attractive trade chips? 

Infielder Vaughn Grissom is a likely candidate to get moved

Grissom, 22, was somewhat of an emergency call-up last August when injuries to both Ozzie Albies and ineffectiveness by four different backups necessitated Grissom's promotion from AA Mississippi (when he'd only played 22 games) straight to Atlanta. 

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In 41 games in 2022, he batted .291/.353/.440 with 5 homers while manning second base, and followed that up with rotational work in 2023 while Orlando Arcia was out with a micro-fracture of the wrist. But his production slipped both at the plate (.280/.313/.347 with no homers) and defensively (six errors in just 158 innings), and he was replaced by Braden Shewmake before ultimately being sent back to AAA Gwinnett for most of the rest of the regular season.

In his postseason comments, Alex Anthopoulos referred to Grissom as an infielder and said finding playing time for him was a priority for 2024, but Atlanta's settled infield combined with Grissom's success in AAA Gwinnett may make him an appealing trade target to other teams. 

If Atlanta discusses trade deals, expect Grissom to be one of the first names offered. 

Could Michael Soroka get moved by Atlanta? 

The righthander has battled back from multiple Achilles tears to finally make it back to MLB, but didn't have the season he was hoping from a statistical perspective. Combine that with the fact that he accrued a fifth year of service time while on the injured list and can now reject any assignment to the minor leagues and you have the possibility that Atlanta either non-tenders Soroka or, more likely, sets an arbitration hearing with him and flips him via trade. 

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Being owed a projected $3M in his final year of arbitration before free agency, it's easy to see a team asking for Soroka back in a trade, hoping he can get even 80% of the way back to his NL Rookie of the Year runner-up 2019 form. 

Catcher Drake Baldwin is talented but at a position of depth 

Baldwin, Atlanta's 3rd-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft out of Missouri State, climbed all the way from High-A Rome to AAA Gwinnett in his first full season of the minors, batting a combined .270/.385/.460 with 14 homers in 109 games. 

More than capable with the bat, Baldwin also caught 23% of attempted basestealers and allowed only three passed balls in almost 630 innings behind the plate, showing that he'd potentially a well-rounded package at catcher. 

But with 2023 All-Star Sean Murphy locked up for five more years (and a club option on a 6th season, his age 34 season) and "backup" Travis d'Arnaud in the fold for up to two more seasons, Baldwin may not have a major league spot for a while. 

Atlanta's been known for good catcher play over the years, not only from their backstops (Brian McCann, Javy Lopez) but also prospects they've traded, including William Contreras (currently the starter in Milwaukee), Shea Langeliers (currently the starter in Oakland), and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (who played for 12 years with six different teams). The pedigree of talent from the organization is good enough to give an acquiring team confidence in what they're getting. 

We have Baldwin as the #13 prospect in our organizational prospect rankings, coming out this week, while MLB Pipeline has him at #28.

Atlanta's pitching depth could be utilized in a trade

As we saw last year, when Atlanta utilized thirteen traditional starters (and sixteen different starters overall, when counting openers), the BRaves have a wealth of back-end rotation types in AAA. 

It's entirely possible that an organization becomes enamored with Jared Shuster, Allan Winans, Dylan Dodd, or Darius Vines and asks for one of them in trade to take starts in 2024. 

In just the last three years, we've seen Atlanta trade potential starters in Patrick Weigel (Milwaukee), Bryce Wilson & Ricky DeVito (Pittsburgh), Ryan Cusick & Joey Estes (Oakland), Andrew Hoffman (Kansas City), and Tucker Davidson (Los Angeles Angels) and it could be argued that the Braves nailed their evaluations on each of those outgoing players.  

Atlanta's pitching-heavy drafts of the last few years means that the Braves have plenty of not-yet Rule 5 eligible arms to package in a deal, as well. There will be plenty of arms available if Atlanta wants to refuse to trade AJ Smith-Shawver and 2023 draftee Hurston Waldrep (which is the correct move - I wouldn't move either one, honestly). 

There's always Jesse Chavez

I don't know why, but Atlanta's traded the now 40 year-old Chavez twice and he's found his way back every time. The most recent trade was in August of 2022, when Chavez was packaged with starter Tucker Davidson for closer Raisel Iglesias from the Los Angeles Angels. Chavez was waived within a month of being traded and promptly rejoined the Braves, where he's been ever since. 

He spent half of the year on the IL with a fractured shin, but also had one of his best years since 2018 with a 1-0 record and 1.56 ERA in 34.2 innings in 2023 - provided he's healthy, Atlanta bringing him back on another minor-league deal feels like an easy decision for a team that's going to lose up to five relievers to free agency this season. 


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Lindsay Crosby
LINDSAY CROSBY

Managing Editor for Braves Today and the 2023 IBWAA Prospects/Minors Writer of the Year. You can reach him at contact@bravestoday.com

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