The Atlanta Braves found a new way to utterly exasperate their fan base on Sunday afternoon, somehow turning Grant Holmes’ 15-strikeout effort into an embarrassing 10-1 loss to the historically bad Colorado Rockies. Just hours earlier, a report from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale claimed that GMs around the league were “convinced that Alex Anthopoulos has zero interest in giving up players for prospects at the trade deadline.”
If you think those two things might be just a little bit at odds with each other, well, you wouldn’t be wrong. Atlanta now sits at 31-39 entering play on Monday, already a whopping 13 games out of first place in the NL East. The division already feels like a lost cause. And while the Braves might still try to talk themselves into Wild Card contenders, that’s an uphill battle as well — one that got a whole lot harder on Sunday evening, after the San Francisco Giants acquired star slugger Rafael Devers.
The Giants enter play on Monday at 41-31, in sole possession of the second NL Wild Card spot. That’s nine games better than Atlanta, and they just acquired the big bat they’ve been desperately searching for. Maybe Anthopoulos knows something we don’t; maybe he’s just posturing with over a month left before the trade deadline. Braves fans better hope so, because if not, this has the makings of an all-time blunder.
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Braves need to face facts after Giants trade for Rafael Devers
You can’t blame Atlanta for stubbornly believing in its core of talent. This has been one of the better teams in baseball for the last couple of seasons, and there are stars up and down the roster despite their disappointing record. Anthopoulos should give that roster every chance to prove it has some life left in it for the stretch run.
But at a certain point, as the saying goes, you are what your record says you are. And the standings don’t lie: It’s exceedingly unlikely that the Braves chase down a playoff spot, a fact that was underlined even more strongly once Devers became a Giant. If Atlanta was nine games worse than San Francisco without Devers, what’s going to happen now that he’s on board?
And if the Braves aren’t catching the Giants, they’re going to have to chase down either the Philadelphia Phillies or the San Diego Padres, two teams that have had Atlanta’s number recently and figure to make upgrades of their own in July. It all adds up to a pretty ugly picture for this team, at least as far as 2025 is concerned.
Granted, there’s still plenty of time left, and Anthopoulos doesn’t have to make any decisions just yet. Right now, though, the answer seems obvious: The Braves don’t have to blow it up completely, but there’s no reason for pending free agents like Marcell Ozuna to still be on this team in August unless something drastic changes. Now that Devers has entered the chat, that seems less likely than ever.
