The Braves’ recent slide has put a few players under a brighter spotlight than they’d like. Atlanta has dropped seven of its last 10 and is trying to avoid a sweep against the Brewers on Sunday, and the bigger concern is that several of the players the club was counting on after a quiet trade deadline have not delivered.
Not everyone is in the same boat. Austin Riley has struggled at times, but his contract all but guarantees the Braves will keep working to restore his value. Others, though, are looking a lot less secure as the organization starts thinking ahead to 2027.
Grant Holmes is one of the clearest examples. The elbow injury he worked through rather than addressing with surgery appears to have taken a real toll on his ability to miss bats and work through lineups multiple times.
He is also entering his final year of pre-arbitration, and with several pitching prospects pressing for opportunities, his standing in Atlanta looks shaky. A move to the bullpen would not be a surprise, and an offseason trade would make sense if the Braves decide his value is higher elsewhere.
Sean Murphy is in a tougher spot for a different reason. He remains respected for his work behind the plate and has shown he can hit at a high level, but Drake Baldwin is already one of the best catchers in baseball right now.
Murphy also has not been able to stay healthy, and his $15 million annual salary through at least 2028 makes the setup even more awkward for a player who is getting the lesser share of a catching platoon. Once the season ends, the Braves finding a trade partner for Murphy feels like the kind of move that would benefit both sides.
Atlanta could bring back a package of prospects and clear money for other needs.
Dom Smith lands on the list more because of what the Braves need than because of any surprise. He is on a one-year deal, and after his strong opening stretch, he has not been good.
That makes his place in the 2027 picture pretty thin already. The larger issue is that Atlanta still needs a real plan at designated hitter.
Giving Ronald Acuña Jr. more time there is one possibility, and adding another bat to rotate through the role is another. Either way, Smith looks like a short-term answer.
Jim Jarvis also had a real chance to lock down a job. Ha-Seong Kim has missed most of the year and has not performed well when available, and with no other internal shortstop prospects close to the majors, Jarvis had the position to himself in many ways.
His defense has held up, but the bat has cooled after his hot start following his MLB debut. Through 124 plate appearances, he owns a .564 OPS, and that is not the kind of production that points to a future as an everyday shortstop.
Atlanta will need to revisit the position after the season.
Mike Yastrzemski rounds out the group. The Braves were likely hoping he would provide enough offense to stay in the lineup every day, but his season has been uneven.
He has had some useful stretches, yet he has been unplayable against southpaws, and his overall line of .230/.318/.387 in 111 games does not give Atlanta much to work with. With Jurickson Profar officially a bust and not someone the Braves should bring back, left field still needs a real solution.
Yastrzemski’s $10 million salary in 2027 complicates things, though the club option for 2028 could make him easier to move if another team wants to take a shot while Atlanta searches for a more productive answer.
In Other News...
Former Braves Outfielder Is Already Making Atlantas Deadline Trade Sting
The Braves did not get much back in the moment when they sent Eli White to Boston before the trade deadline, but the move is looking a little sharper on the other side already. White has slipped into a useful role with the Red Sox, and in a recent comeback win over the Giants, he helped tilt the game by driving in a run and later scoring the winning run in the ninth inning.
For Atlanta, that kind of quick impact is exactly why deadline deals can linger. White has fit as a depth piece in limited action, showing he can handle left-handed pitching and bring value on the bases and in the field, which is the sort of low-profile production teams often miss once a player is gone. [Read more 🡒]
Braves First Round Pick Is Already Changing The Draft Debate
Carter Beck was the sort of first-round pick that invites instant second-guessing, especially when a club takes him 26th overall and the conversation starts before hes even settled into pro ball. Atlanta did the opposite of sitting still with him, moving him through Low-A Augusta and High-A Rome early in his first taste of the minors, and the early returns have been hard to ignore. In 15 games, Beck has hit .367/.424/.467 and already flashed the kind of bat-to-ball ability that can quiet a draft room in a hurry.
The bigger question now is less about whether Beck can hit and more about where the rest of his game goes from here. Scouts like the aggression he brings to the plate and the speed he can add on the bases, while also seeing room for growth in outfield defense and in the kind of power that tends to separate a promising prospect from a true middle-order threat. For a Braves system that leaned into upside on draft day, Beck is already making the argument that the original debate may have been the wrong one. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Top Prospect Found Perspective During A Night He Desperately Needed
The Columbus Clingstones turned one of their regular-season nights into something bigger with their annual CURE Childhood Cancer Night against Montgomery, pairing players and coaches with local pediatric cancer patients. For Braves top prospect Eric Hartman, the evening ended up carrying a different kind of weight too, because he found himself right in the middle of a memorable performance at the plate while also taking in the human side of the night around him.
Hartman launched his first Double-A home run and finished with three hits, a needed breakthrough for a player whose attention was split between baseball and perspective. He also spent time meeting the pediatric cancer patients and reflected on how much the experience meant to him, leaving the night as much about gratitude as production. [Read more 🡒]