The Atlanta Braves Position Themselves for Playoff Push with Deadline Moves

The Atlanta Braves made some excellent moves to bolster their roster for the stretch run without giving up many prospects for the future.

The Atlanta Braves have been one of the most pleasant surprises to this point in the 2018 season. Not thought to be competitive this year, the Braves are only a half game out of first place in the National League East as of August 1st.

After going through a mid-season skid that saw their division lead turn into a deficit, the Braves needed to fill some holes if they had any real aspirations for October baseball. Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves front office successfully filled those holes without giving up much at all in prospect capital. All in all, it was a very successful deadline for the Braves that now has them set up for the stretch run.

The Offense

The Atlanta Braves offense has been surprisingly strong this season with a 108 wRC+ on the season. The offensive unit is a large part of the club’s success with young talent up and down the lineup. Led by MVP front-runner, Freddie Freeman, the offense may be the key to whether the Braves are able to make it to the playoffs. The lineup only had a couple of holes in it with Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte being the only below average hitters, though those two are defensive stalwarts up the middle that provide value in different ways.

The Braves did make an offensive move though, trading for outfielder, Adam Duvall. Duvall will mostly provide depth and a solid bat off the bench, but he has a chance to make a big impact with his work against left-handers. Duvall has a career wRC+ of 107 versus left-handers. Compare that against Ender Inciarte’s career 72 wRC+ and you can see why Duvall will make a great platoon partner with Inciarte. Duvall is also an excellent defender in left field. Duvall’s 15 Defensive Runs Saved are the most among National League left fielders and second most behind only Alex Gordon in all of baseball. This will allow Braves manager, Brian Snitker, to platoon Inciarte and Duvall without really missing a beat defensively.

The Pitching Staff

Despite much of the Braves’ rebuild revolving around pitching, the pitching staff has really been the Achilles heel of this team so far in the season. That’s not to say that the pitching has been bad, they have just been roughly league average, which is not ideal for a playoff contending team. Of all the National League teams in contention for playoff berths, the Atlanta Braves rank toward the bottom in every important pitching category.

They don’t have to suddenly become the best pitching staff in the league to make the playoffs, but they do need to improve down the stretch if they don’t want their season to end in September. Luckily, the Braves front office made several marginal improvements to the staff that might just give them the boost they need.

The big acquisition at the trade deadline for the Braves was former Baltimore Oriole right-hander, Kevin Gausman. The Braves were able to trade from their prospect depth to bring in the young and controllable Gausman. Gausman fits right into the middle of the Braves rotation and at the very least provides depth to a rotation that was beginning to show its age at times. The move allows for a quasi six man rotation of Mike Foltynewicz, Sean Newcomb, Kevin Gausman, Anibal Sanchez, Julio Teheran, and Max Fried or any of their other young arms they wish to call upon.

This essentially guarantees that the Atlanta Braves will have a reliable starter who can keep the team in the game on any given night. Gausman also has some upside as a former top-five pick who has excellent, groundball inducing stuff, solid control and is moving into a much more favorable situation in Atlanta. Gausman has the potential to become a major factor down the stretch in the playoff race.

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The Atlanta Braves bullpen has been the most ridiculed unit on the team for most of the season and for good reason. While the team has a few good options in the pen, they have routinely trotted out the likes of Peter Moylan and Sam Freeman over the course of the season. Alex Anthopoulos was able to improve both of those bulpen spots without surrendering a single prospect. The Braves acquired lefty reliever and fan favorite, Jonny Venters, and former all-star, Brad Brach, for only international money that the Braves can’t even really spend. While neither of these pitchers is a big game changer, they both will improve on the weakest spots of the roster. In a race as close as the National League playoff race, marginal moves like these can make the difference.

The Odds

The important thing about all of these moves is that they helped this team improve their chances of making the playoffs without mortgaging much of the future at all. According to Fangraphs, the Braves increased their chances of making the playoffs 3.1% with all of their moves and now stand at 36.2% playoff odds. Baseball Prospectus projects an even better situation for the Braves giving them a 55.6% chance at making the playoffs. These projections peg the Braves to win roughly 87 games. That may or may not be enough to get them to the playoffs, but regardless it would be an outstanding outcome considering the expectations for this year.

While making the playoffs this year is obviously the goal, the Atlanta Braves are set up to be even better for many years to come.