First off, this is a big shout-out to DJourn for helping to keep the convo going over in The Feed. He’s been touching upon some rumors throughout the offseason and I figured that it was my turn to weigh in on some of them. It’s November 10 and there’s not much else going on — even with Awards Week going on, the GM Meetings taking place in Las Vegas and the lockout looming, there still hasn’t been a ton of talk about player movement or acquisition from a Braves perspective.
Not a lot has changed in
that regard but hey, there are some rumors out there so let’s go ahead and talk about what’s out there, shall we?
Will the Braves trade Ronald Acuña Jr?
No.
Well, I guess I’d better expound upon that. The answer to this was “no” before Jon Morosi poured cold water on that rumor. The easiest way to put it is that it still makes plenty of dollars and sense for the Braves to hold onto a player of Acuña’s caliber. Both he and Ozzie Albies signed two of the most absurdly team-friendly deals that you’ll ever see players of that caliber (especially Acuña’s) agree to, so from a financial standpoint the Braves are going to hold on to both of those players for as long as they see possible and aren’t going to hit the “eject” button any sooner than they’d feel necessary.
Secondly, Acuña is still a really good player who has shown that he can still dip into the superstar vein of form that made him one of the most electric players in baseball not all that long ago. Sure, his performance in the Postseason was concerning but really, who else was producing in the plate on a consistent basis during this past Postseason run outside of Michael Harris II? Acuña’s failure to show up at the plate during the NLDS was certainly disappointing but he certainly wasn’t alone in failing to reach expectations during that series.
Also, it’s not like the trade banter makes sense in a way that it would for, say, Spencer Strider. Strider was reportedly involved in the trade talks that would’ve brought the Braves Jacob deGrom and that only made sense because Strider is clearly diminished from where he was before his elbow issues began. While Acuña has also taken a step back since dealing with injury issues of his own, he’s also shown that he can go into supernova mode once he’s healthy and has things figured out.
From August 1 through the series-clinching series in Houston in late-September, Acuña was hitting .283/.340/.528 at the plate with a wOBA of .373, 12 homers, five stolen bases and a 136 wRC+. That’s still a step back from what he did in limited time during the 2025 season (.290/.417/.518, .403 wOBA, 21 homers, 162 wRC+) but it’s close enough to where it’s clear that if Acuña can stay healthy and get on a run, he can aboslutely be a star-caliber player going forward.
I’m sure that this’ll make for some tricky contract negotiations going forward when you consider his body of work and the pros and cons that come along with potentially making a long-term commitment to Acuña once his contract is up but at the same time, I’d imagine that the Braves would much rather have him around than to ship him elsewhere and risk seeing a potential superstar get right with another ballclub. The Braves under Alex Anthopoulos aren’t afraid to let core players walk (see: Freddie Freeman, Max Fried, Dansby Swanson, etc.) but they also aren’t willing to just ship them out, either. It’s extremely unlikely that the Braves will be trading Acuña any time soon.
Is Jurickson Profar done with the Braves?
Now this has been an interesting saga to keep track of. Jurickson Profar is certainly making an effort to return to the Braves for the 2027 season but based on what Alex Anthopoulos said about Profar in his end-of-season media availability and the inked article from Mark Bowman, I think this could be a situation where the Braves might actually decide to cut bait if it came down to it.
It might sound like a cliché but the Braves definitely do value a harmonious clubhouse. It’s part of the reason why they chose to promote NL Manager of the Year finalist Walt Weiss from bench coach to manager and it’s Anthopoulos has frequently cited character as one of the factors that goes into his search for and recruitment of players. A peaceful clubhouse is a clubhouse that will remain laser-focused on winning and pulling in the same direction and it’s hard to imagine that being the case when it comes to a guy like Profar who left his teammates in the lurch for one-and-a-half seasons due to some decisions off-the-field.
I figured that due to the suddenly-affordable deal that the Braves have Profar on that this would be a no-brainer to keep him around. However, if the clubhouse doesn’t want him around then maybe we’d see Alex Anthopoulos give the players what they want and ship Profar out one way or another. He certainly didn’t commit to the idea of keeping him around during that aforementioned media availability so maybe there’s a source of fire coming from the smoke billowing from Mark Bowman’s article.
Phillies interested in Ha-Seong Kim
Well, good luck with all of that!
No, but seriously, this does seem like the type of move that would be right down Dave Dombrowski’s alley. Ha-Seong Kim is a veteran with a proven track record of production and there’s certainly a universe where Kim never slipped on ice in January and we’re talking about the Braves needing to figure out a way to keep him. However, we are currently in the universe where that finger injury essentially wrecked his season and now we’re even further removed from his last fully productive season of 2024 — and he’s officially over 30-years old as well.
Still, it would make sense that if the Phillies are still trying to hold on to this current era then they’d give Ha-Seong Kim a try. With Trea Turner apparently being destined to play center field going forward, they have a pretty large hole at shortstop with not too many appealing candidates left to fill it. Considering how bleak the free agency market is for shortstop, if you’re going to go down the free agency route then taking a flier on Kim would make a decent amount of sense. It’s a huge gamble at this point but hey, scared money don’t make money, right?
Anyways, I’m saying all of that to bring it home in a perspective that makes sense for Atlanta: He’s probably not coming back here, either. I’d have to imagine that at this point after a full season and a month of having Ha-Seong Kim around, the Braves are probably in the “thanks, but no thanks” territory with him. He was lovely to have around by all accounts and we’ve talked about how he stayed a consummate professional despite his struggles but it’s still highly unlikely that we’ll see Ha-Seong Kim return to Atlanta. Maybe if they get really desperate then we’ll see talks of a reunion for a second full season start to heat up but for now, the Braves might just let the Phillies take their crack at it.
