I’m going to start this by addressing the headline. When it comes to Atlanta Braves President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Alex Anthopoulos’ claims that the Braves got better after the 2026 Trade Deadline, I’ll let this clip from Futurama speak for me:
I mean, the Braves did add Tyler Mahle to the rotation, they added some very solid outfield depth in Lane Thomas and they brought in Brent Suter to help fortify what’s already a solid bullpen. Technically speaking, the Braves got better with
these additions.
With that being said, it’s very difficult to feel excited and that is solely down to the fact that Atlanta was unable to add a front-line starter to their rotation. It now appears that (outside of the ever-reliable Chris Sale) the Braves will be leaning on pitchers like Martín Pérez, AJ Smith-Shawver, Bryce Elder, (maybe) Spencer Schwellenbach and the newly-acquired Tyler Mahle to help them get outs during a Postseason scenario. Again, it’s difficult to feel excited!
Despite the overwhelming feeling of underwhelm permeating across Braves Country, AA remained defiant and adamant that everything is A-OK as far as the team is concerned. “Since the All-Star break, […] we’ve been fifth in MLB in ERA. During the first two months of the season we were top-five in MLB in ERA,” maintained AA when he was asked about the pitching staff during a post-deadline press conference. . “Obviously in the middle, we weren’t. Does that mean you’re not looking to get better? Absolutely, in all areas — bullpen, offense, rotation, yes. But, you’re managing short-term and long term and you’re going to do what you feel is best for the club and you’re not going to force a deal.”
“We said no to a lot of things,” continued AA. “That’s not easy to do but you have to do what feels right for the organization.”
AA was pressed multiple times about whether or not he was close to acquiring a front-end starter or if there were certain things that got in the way. Anthopoulos was cagier than usual in his responses, stating that it wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about deals that didn’t get done. I’m guessing that’s a recent development since we did hear about the Kyle Schwarber deal from 2021 that didn’t go through and that was straight from AA himself, so maybe there’s a statute of limitations on that?
I digress, though. The only thing that came of that line of questioning is that AA had his eye on “one other guy who we thought was incredibly impactful” but no names were named. Either way, Anthopoulos continued to maintain that he’s willing to defend the state of the big league roster at the moment. He did mention that the Braves are playing well coming out of the break and that they’re in first place. That much is true — the Braves are in a good spot right now and it’s hard to envision them falling off to the point where they miss the Postseason.
Still, it’s also hard to envision this team having enough reliable starting pitching to make it deep into the Postseason. They certainly have the relief pitching to do it and when this offense is clicking, they can swing with anybody. It’s just apparent at this point that the lineup will have to perform at an elite level and the bullpen is going to have to continue shouldering a heavy load if this team is going to make a deep run in October. With all due respect to the aforementioned starters, there just isn’t a ton of confidence here.
Alex Anthopoulos (at least publicly) still has plenty of faith in the club. “How many times do we say ‘This team won the deadline […]’ and then you look up and certain players were unbelievable and certain players didn’t play well. That’s the toughest part — from here on forward, we’re looking at two-month sample sizes,” explained AA later on in the presser. “We can look at the back of the baseball cards of some of these great players and say […] that ‘this team on paper looks great’ and then all of a sudden performances change and health [changes].”
“We’re going to soon find out what were the best acquisitions […] We’re going to find that out pretty soon,” continued AA. “I just think that you’ve got 29 other clubs and you know your own roster, your fit. Ultimately, you’ve got to give to get and ultimately, are you prepared […] to give what could be the [Michael] Harris [II]s or the [Drake] Baldwins. Are you willing to do that?”
AA continued by stating “In some instances, we make trades and others, we hold them back. We look back over time and we cross check ourselves. But, to sit there and say ‘This team did X,’ it doesn’t always work out that way. It doesn’t always work out that way with the projections. I don’t know what the preseason projections were for all these teams but I don’t know how accurate they were. I know there are changes every year. There are some teams that sold that people expected them to be good and there are some teams that are buying that didn’t think that they’d be contending.”
“I don’t think anybody’s good enough to know what’s going to happen,” concluded AA. “But, you are expected to know your own team and your own organization when you’re trading young players.”
Hearing that, it suddenly made sense why we saw that wave of promotions on the farm. That honestly should’ve been the initial sign that the Braves weren’t going to dip into the farm and trade away some potentially impactful prospects. While that would’ve made sense considering what the asking price was for some of the big names who did move and some of the players who were under team control past this season, it’s still certainly disappointing that the Braves didn’t come away from this deadline having used that talent on the farm to potentially upgrade their rotation in any major way.
Despite the lack of moves, AA is still convinced the team has gotten better and also stated that he’s not fully focusing on the Postseason until “we get there.” “Hopefully we get there […] We still have two months. There’s a long way to go — there’s going to be injuries the next two months for everybody. You’re still weighing all of those things [when it comes to getting outs in the Postseason]. We’ve seen teams do all kinds of things with openers and short starts and bullpen games, guys going on short rest, we’ve seen that happen,” explained AA. “Everything’s in play when you’re trying to win but you cross that bridge when you get there. The focus for us is that we’re playing well coming out of the break and we have a nice lead but it doesn’t mean a thing.”
“We’ve got another two months to go and the NL is very strong. There’s great teams and a lot of teams added (including us) and guys are going to continue to get better, so we have to make sure that we keep our foot on the gas and try to get to the playoffs,” stated Anthopoulos.
All of that sounds good and it does seem like AA has a nice line of communication with manager Walt Weiss when it comes to the roster and how it’s constructed but it’s still hard to weigh that with the inaction when it comes to the starting rotation. It’s not like this is a new problem, either — fans and media alike have been clamoring for some type of addition to the rotation since the early portion of last offseason and it still seemed like there was a chance to address that situation at the deadline even if they didn’t do so before Opening Day.
Instead, it sure seems like Alex Anthopoulos is convinced that the starting rotation will be good enough to get the Braves where they want to be by the end of the season. Now, there’s a question of whether or not the end-goal is actually to add another World Series trophy to the cabinet or if it’s to simply get back to the Postseason. If it’s the latter then sure, the Braves are likely going to have enough to make it back to October and should also have enough to get back to the top of the division.
If the goal is truly to win another World Series then it’s hard to envision this rotation helping to win one of those tough, gritty, low-scoring games where there’s a ton of drama hanging on every pitch, much less every out. We’ve got some bad memories around here of seeing this team’s pitching staff essentially get bombed out of the Postseason and hopefully that won’t be the case this season.
With that being said, it’s clear that it’s not going to take a Herculean effort from the lineup and some surgical precision from the bullpen in order to make sure that this team has truly got what it takes to make a deep run in October. For now, let’s hope that Alex Anthopoulos is right and that we’re all panicking. If he’s right, a parade may be coming soon. If he’s wrong then, well, enjoy the fireworks from the opposition once October rolls around. We’ll see what happens.
