The Atlanta Braves came into the season with high expectations, but quickly dropped to the bottom of the league, and they haven’t recovered.
With that in mind, the Braves are expected to sell at the trade deadline with the expiring contracts almost certainly being moved.
FanSided’s Christopher Kline recently suggested the Braves could cut ties with second baseman Ozzie Albies in a deadline deal. Albies’ name hasn’t been mentioned in very many trade rumors to this point.
“We cannot know the future, but Albies looks like a shell of himself. He’s batting .219 with a troubling .617 OPS and nine home runs in 393 at-bats,” Kline wrote. “There is some bad luck involved, but Albies’ analytics are in the toilet across the board. He’s bottom-15th percentile in expected average and slugging, hard-hit rate, barrel rate, exit velocity — the list goes on.
“He’s fine on the base paths. He’s fine in the field. But the offense is catastrophically bad, continuing a negative trend that dates back to last season. The Braves can straight-up improve their production at second base with the right in-house promotion or a separate trade. It won’t take much.”
Trading Albies could make sense, even though the Braves have some team control.
If there’s a team in baseball that’s desperate enough for a second baseman that they’d be willing to cut ties with solid prospects in an Albies deal, trading him makes sense for the Braves.
It’s hard to imagine the former star will turn his play around for the Braves. Atlanta would be better off finding a new second baseman than trying to fix Albies. He’s struggled tremendously, and it wouldn’t be the worst idea for the Braves to deal him at the deadline.
