What do you get the team that has everything? That’s the question the Atlanta Braves find themselves asking as we approach the 2023 MLB trade deadline. The Braves have been baseball’s hottest team over the last two months, going 30-10 since the start of June — and now sitting with what is comfortably the best record in all of baseball.
Pick a category, and chances are Atlanta is at or near the top of the leaderboard. They’re first in slugging percentage and OPS and home runs, second in batting average and on-base percentage. They’re second in the NL in ERA and first in strikeouts, despite injuries to Max Fried and Kyle Wright.
Still, even the most well-rounded team could use something. So what might GM Alex Anthopoulos do to put his team in the best position to win its second World Series title in three years? Let’s break it down.
Braves trade deadline preview
Needs
Okay, “needs” is a strong word here. Every single Braves regular has an OPS at or above league-average; the worst mark belongs to Michael Harris II, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year who’s slashed .301/.338/.534 over the last month. Even the bench boasts solid options like Travis d’Arnaud and Sam Hilliard (though Hilliard is now on the IL). This is the deepest collection of position player talent in the league, and it’s not particularly close.
Where Atlanta might look to make a move, however, is on the pitching side. Fried and Wright are both expected to return in the next month or so, but with rookie Bryce Elder coming back to Earth a bit, some rotation depth couldn’t hurt. And, of course, you can never have too much bullpen depth, especially not with Raisel Iglesias struggling a bit this year and Nick Anderson now on the 60-day IL.
Potential Targets
Michael Lorenzen, Detroit Tigers
The Braves have no reason to play at the top end of the starting pitcher market, but Lorenzen is the sort of guy who might make sense. Detroit’s lone All-Star representative, the righty has been a reliable innings eater for the Tigers, with a 3.54 ERA and 10 starts of six innings or more. He’s not the flashiest, but he gives the team another sturdy option who the the rebuilding Tigers will likely be willing to part with as he heads into free agency this winter.
Matt Moore, RP, Los Angeles Angels
Angels GM Perry Minasian used to work in the Atlanta front office — he and Anthopoulos just linked up for the Iglesias deal last year — and no matter what L.A. decides to do at the deadline, dealing Moore could be a way to add future value without punting on 2023 entirely. The Braves could use another lefty option in the bullpen with A.J. Minter currently hurt, and Moore has been solid as the Angels set-up man when healthy this year.
Justin Lawrence, RP, Colorado Rockies
The Rockies seem to be constantly operating in a parallel universe, so who knows what they’ll decide to do at the deadline, but moving Lawrence would make a lot of sense. The righty has struggled with command in the past, but he’s kept it together so far this year with a 2.57 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 49 innings. He throws hard from a very funky arm angle, and he comes with several more years of team control. Of course, he’s already 28, so that shouldn’t mean too much for Colorado.
Trade chips
The Braves don’t have a ton of headline prospects — they’ve graduated plenty of them in recent years — but options still remain, especially on the pitching side. There’s young righty A.J. Smith-Shawver, who made his MLB debut earlier this year, as well as recent top draft picks JR Ritchie, Owen Murphy and Futures Game participant Spencer Schwellenbach. And there are also plenty of older, post-hype prospects like infielder Vaughn Grissom, who looked great in a Major League cameo last year but has languished in Triple-A behind Albies and Orlando Arcia. Lefties Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd have struggled in the Majors this season but still carry some prospect pedigree.