The Winter Meetings for 2018 have come and gone and if you were expecting a maelstrom of activity from not just the Braves but the rest of baseball itself, then you probably came away from this year’s meetings a bit disappointed. The only real “blockbuster” deal to happen basically involved Jerry Dipoto pulling a Jerry Dipoto and making a trade seemingly just to make a trade.
Other than that and some other mid-level acquisitions, we didn’t see any of the major dominos fall. Bryce Harper is still visiting with teams, Manny Machado is still out there on the market, and J.T. Realmuto is still part of the Marlins. Not much has changed when it comes to the big picture of baseball.
The same could be said for the big picture of the Braves as well. They were involved in a few rumors here and there but other than that, we didn’t see anything major happen on our front. There seemed to be some smoke surrounding the likes of Mike Foltynewicz, Ender Inciarte and couple of other plays but the smoke was immediately stamped out and the rumors didn’t get far.
Those rumors were pretty interesting though. In fact, Alex Anthopoulos did indeed say that they were looking at potentially moving big league players in order to swing a deal. That might just be GM speak (and AA has proven himself to be one of the masters in baseball at that sort of thing) but it’s also a bit of reality. Despite the fact that the Braves do still have one of the best farms in all of baseball to deal from, if they’re going to pull off a major deal in the future then we’ll probably end up seeing one of our big leaguers playing in a different uniform in order to make that happen.
If the Braves do potentially swing a deal for J.T. Realmuto — unless they can manage to swindle the Marlins into sending away their star player for relatively cheap — then we’re probably going to see some decent talent moved out. It could mean that in addition to seeing some big prospects moved around, we could also see some MLB talent on the move as well. That’s the price of being a contender — at some point, we’re going to see the Braves make a move that costs them a bit of their future in order to make sure that they can do something big here in the present.
The good news is that the Braves farm system could withstand a move like this and still be pretty good for the future. That’s why you stockpile talent like the franchise did during its rebuilding phase. At some point, you’ve got to figure out who’s worth keeping, who’s probably not going to pan out and who can be used to get players who are good right now.
This could also be interesting to see if a current starter for the Braves gets moved. I don’t think that we’re going to see Mike Foltynewicz get moved unless some sort of groundbreaking blockbuster occurs. I could see Sean Newcomb getting moved pretty easily. It would stink to see him go but you have to figure if they’re moving Newcomb then it’d probably be worth whoever it it is that would be coming back.
Ender Inciarte and Dansby Swanson would also be some decent-sized trade chips. I did previously say that the Braves may value Dansby’s defense enough to where they’d be willing to keep him but at the same time, if the right player comes up in trade talks and another team is willing to take on Dansby, then you’d probably have to pull the trigger. The same goes for Inciarte as well, especially considering if the Braves can manage to pick up another outfielder during the months that we have left in the offseason. This could also open the door for a potential trade of Johan Camargo if another team decides that they have faith in what he can do with his set of skills.
The point is that even after a somewhat underwhelming week of “action” at the Winter Meetings, the door is still wide open for the Braves to improve their squad ahead of what figures to be a tough task in defending the NL East crown and also potentially going deep in the next postseason. While it seems like the Braves probably haven’t made much headway in accomplishing what was stated as their goal of adding a starter, reliever and outfielder, they still have plenty of time to make something happen.
Who knows? Maybe the front office will find a way to get in on the Jerry Dipoto trade rampage and pick up a certain outfielder from the Mariners. Basically, patience is the name of the game at this point. Just as long as they’re not out here making desperation moves right before pitchers and catchers report, it’s not hard to imagine the Braves doing what it takes to keep up in what appears to be an emerging arms race in the NL East. Let’s see what happens.