The Athletic has already gone back and handed the Braves a better look at their trade deadline, and this time Atlanta came away with an A.
That shift came as part of the outlet’s weekly power rankings, where the Braves were tied for second with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The timing made that placement easy to question after Atlanta had just swept Los Angeles and both clubs entered the week with identical records, but the bigger storyline was the deadline review attached to the rankings.
Johnny Flores Jr. called the Braves’ deadline a success after the club chose not to make the kind of all-in splash that usually dominates July. Instead, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos went after upgrades around the edges, bringing in Tyler Mahle, Lane Thomas and Brent Suter.
“Under president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, the Braves eschewed the all-in move, instead upgrading around the margins by adding Tyler Mahle, Lane Thomas and Brent Suter,” Johnny Flores Jr. writes. “Consider the moves a massive success.
Mahle, who arrived in Atlanta with a 5.13 ERA, has pitched to a 1.48 mark in five starts, going for at least six innings in four of them. Suter has a 1.26 mark as a multi-inning arm, and only Thomas has been middling, though he wasn’t anticipated to be a world-beater.”
On pure return, the Braves did well. Mahle has been the standout, turning in a 1.48 ERA across five starts after arriving with a 5.13 mark, and he’s gone at least six innings in four of those outings.
Suter has been just as useful in relief, posting a 1.26 ERA in a multi-inning role. Thomas has been more ordinary, but that fits the role he was brought in to play.
The cost matters too. Atlanta did all of that without parting with any notable prospects, which makes the transaction side of the deadline look sharp. In that sense, Anthopoulos squeezed real production out of a modest set of moves.
But there’s still another way to judge the deadline, and it’s the harder one: was it enough?
The Braves still have obvious holes, and some regression feels inevitable for the players they added. The real question is whether Mahle, Thomas and Suter can be more than useful pieces and actually tilt October games. That remains to be seen.
So the verdict is split. Atlanta’s deadline work looks smart and efficient. Whether it was bold enough to carry this roster through the postseason is a different matter entirely.
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