Former GM at The Athletic thinks Braves should trade Travis d'Arnaud

Jim Bowden thinks Travis d'Arnaud plus a prospect could net Atlanta a starting pitcher in return

Believe it or not, the MLB Trade Deadline is only forty-one days away. 

And it's going to be a doozy.

Thanks to the addition of an extra Wild-Card spot in each league, there's more teams than ever that are still "in it" at this point in the calendar. In the American League, if the playoffs started today, Tampa Bay (51-25), Texas (45-28), and Minnesota (36-38) would be your three divisional winners with Baltimore (45-27) clearly in the 1st wild card spot. There are seven (!) teams within five games of the final two wild card spots in the American League, currently held by the NY Yankees (40-33) and LA Angels (41-34). 

It's a similar story in the National League, with Atlanta (47-26) on track to be the #1 seed and clinch home field advantage, with Arizona (44-30) and Cincinnati (39-35) winning their divisions. For the Wild Card, Miami (42-32), SF Giants (41-32), and LA Dodgers (40-33) would have those spots, but again there's six teams within six games of the final spot. 

All of this makes it tough to understand who exactly would be sellers at the deadline and who would be buyers, and so a lot of articles right now are going through and naming not only plausible trade candidates from the bottom-dwellers (Oakland, Kansas City, and surprisingly St. Louis) but also fringe playoff teams like the White Sox, Guardians, and Brewers. 

Which makes Jim Bowden's latest article for The Athletic even weirder. In the piece, creatively titled "MLB Trade Deadline Targets" ($), he lists Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud as a trade target. 

A co-starter, on the team with the best record in the National League, trading a 2022 All-Star? It's an odd call. 

Here's what Bowden had to say about the idea of trading d'Arnaud: 

D’Arnaud is so valuable to the Braves because he protects them from an injury to catcher Sean Murphy and/or DH Marcell Ozuna and gives them a clutch hitter off the bench at any time. They are not looking to move him. However, if a team were willing to offer a mid-rotation starting pitcher for d’Arnaud and a prospect, then Atlanta would have to consider it. D’Arnaud is signed through this year with an $8 million team option for 2024.

To his credit, Bowden mentions Atlanta's not looking to move d'Arnaud, and the current injury situation with Sean Murphy is a perfect illustration of why. 

But I'll acknowledge that Atlanta's farm system isn't very strong right now, with it being depleted through graduations, trades, and injuries to some of the top pitching prospects. If Atlanta wants to acquire a quality starting pitcher for the stretch run,they'll have to consider tapping into a Major League depth piece like d'Arnaud, Kevin Pillar, or someone else to make the deal work instead of just relying on prospects. 

I'd disagree that Atlanta would do it for a mid-rotation starting pitcher, though. To take on the risk of being one Sean Murphy injury away from regressing back to below-average production from the catcher position, Atlanta would need to get someone back of a higher caliber than a Zach Greinke or a Rich Hill. 

Atlanta probably would consider making the move if it were someone of the prestige of a Shane Bieber, Corbin Burnes, or even an Alex Cobb/Sonny Gray type. 

So in other words, don't expect it to happen anytime soon. 

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