The Atlanta Braves trades with the Athletics under Alex Anthopoulos have been stellar, so which trade targets on the A's in 2023 should the Braves be after?
On Memorial Day, the Atlanta Braves began a three-game set with the Oakland A's, the bottom-dwellers of baseball on pace to shatter the MLB record for losses in a single season. Oddly enough, the Athletics got the better of the NL East leaders in the series-opener, but it's been Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves who have been getting a leg up on the A's in recent years, specifically in the trade market.
In consecutive offseasons, the Braves have fleeced the Athletics for first baseman Matt Olson, who was landed as a Freddie Freeman replacement, and catcher Sean Murphy, who has just been an upgrade to the position group overall. Both players have been All-Star worthy in the 2023 season and are key cogs in making Atlanta look like a contender.
But with the July MLB Trade Deadline fast approaching, there's a world where the Braves and A's could get back to doing business with the former expected to be buyers and the latter almost surely set to sell. So which Athletics players should be Braves trade targets ahead of the deadline? There are three options that would make a lot of sense.
Braves rumors: 3 trade targets Alex Anthopoulos can steal from the A's again
3. Paul Blackburn is risky but his debut makes a Braves trade worth considering
Oakland getting the Game 1 win in the series against Atlanta also marked the season debut of right-handed starting pitcher Paul Blackburn while the Bravos were focused on the return of Michael Soroka in their own regard.
Blackburn had been on the IL since the start of the season due to a torn fingernail and subsequent issues with blisters. In his return to the mound, though, he was stellar as Oakland worked to keep his pitch count monitored, going 4.0 innings and giving up just four hits and two walks along with one earned run while striking out six Atlanta hitters in the outing.
Earlier in the season while Blackburn was on the IL, I wrote that Anthopoulos should steer clear of Blackburn. The impetus behind that thought process was that the 29-year-old was coming off his best and lone good season in the majors last year as he posted a 4.28 ERA and 1.26 WHIP over his 21 starts, but that could very well have been fool's gold.
We only have a small sample size, but the debut from Blackburn is promising that he may just be a quality starting pitcher right now.
The question for the Braves now comes from if they want to upgrade starting pitching. Max Fried should be back in the coming weeks at some point, Soroka is back in the majors, and Jared Shuster has been finding his flow as of late. That seems to round out the rotation on the whole.
At the same time, though, if there are any setbacks with health or performance from those guys, that could leave Atlanta looking for more depth in order to avoid more bullpen games or a lack of confidence in Dylan Dodd. If that's the case, Blackburn could be a nice pitcher who should be cost-effective on the trade market to bring into the back end of the rotation and keep things stable, assuming the Atlanta front office believes he will maintain this level of performance.
2. Richard Lovelady could helps the Braves bullpen tremendously
All told, the Braves current situation likely dictates that, if they are going to target the pitching market at the deadline, it's more likely that they pursue options to upgrade the bullpen before dipping their toes into the starter pools. Luckily for them, the A's also have an option for the club to upgrade their relievers too.
To be quite frank, when you see that Richard Lovelady has a 2.35 ERA on the season playing for a team in Oakland that has allowed 390 runs before the end of May — 84 more than the second-worst team in the majors in that regard, the Rockies — it should stand out. He's been one of the few arms the Athletics have been able to turn to that hasn't gotten consistently rocked.
Lovelady has made 17 appearances for the A's this season with the southpaw going 15.1 innings with the aforementioned ERA and an impressive 0.98 WHIP. He's allowed just five total runs on the season with a 16/7 K/BB ration for the year and has simply been a solid lefty out of the bullpen.
Incidentally, the reason that the Lovelady is with the Athletics is because he was waived by the Braves after the spring. Having said that, Alex Anthopoulos could admit his mistake in letting him go and try to work out a budget-friendly deal that could bring him back to Atlanta.
With the way that AJ Minter has mightily struggled this season and with Tyler Matzek still recovering from Tommy John surgery, the Braves could use another solid lefty in the bullpen to help them close out games. And if they're looking to Oakland, Lovelady is by far the best option presented to them, especially after posting a solid 3.48 ERA and 1.06 WHIP with the Royals in his last major-league season in 2021.
1. Brent Rooker has cooled off but still needs to be on Braves trade radar
For more than a month now, the possibility of the Braves upgrading the outfield by going after Brent Rooker has been on the radar. The two biggest factors in that were the fact that Rooker was white-hot to begin the season and Marcell Ozuna was somehow hitting even worse than he had in the previous two seasons with Atlanta. It felt like an obvious match to make.
The situation, however, has changed a bit over the month of May. While Rooker has cooled off with a .610 OPS in the month after posting a 1.262 OPS in April, Ozuna has found himself once again with a month that could legitimately have him in the NL Player of the Month conversation, posting a 1.066 OPS with nine home runs and 20 RBI in May alone.
Wherein these numbers and wild swings the truth lies, however, is the important context. It's highly unlikely Ozuna keeps up his current pace while Rooker's recent slump is likely a regression to the mean. However, if he stays where his season-long numbers currently are with an .876 OPS, 11 homers and 32 RBI for the year while Ozuna either slightly improves his season-long numbers or stays at a .789 OPS, there's a trade to be made here for the Braves.
Rooker is almost four years younger than Ozuna and won't even hit arbitration until after the 2024 season. Meanwhile, Ozuna has two years left on his deal while currently at 32 years old before a club option for the 2025 season. And when you factor in that Rooker appears to be ascending while Ozuna has been a headache the past two years, it's not hard to decipher who the better long-term option would be.
Given the year he's had overall, Rooker should draw some heavy trade interest around baseball. But with Anthopoulos' relationship with the A's, he should be able to come in and work up a deal that would not only improve the outfield platoon for the 2023 season but, much like with the Olson and Murphy trades, set up the Braves better for the future as well.