The Braves came out of the 2026 MLB trade deadline without the splash many expected, but the biggest what-if on Alex Anthopoulos’ board may have ended up working in Atlanta’s favor.
Atlanta needed help in the outfield and a frontline starter to pair with Chris Sale. Instead, the club landed Lane Thomas for left-field depth and Tyler Mahle as its rotation addition, a quieter haul that left plenty of fans and analysts scratching their heads. Anthopoulos pushed back on the idea that the Braves had missed the point, saying the goal was simply to improve the roster.
“We did not go into the deadline with 'hey we have to get this.' We're just trying to make the team better,” Anthopoulos said.
The Braves did come close to making a much bigger swing. According to Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta and Texas had the framework in place for a deal that would have sent Jacob deGrom to the Braves before the veteran right-hander used his no-trade clause to stop it.
“deGrom, 38, exercised the no-trade clause in his Rangers’ contract to put the kibosh on trade talks that would’ve sent him to Atlanta last week,” Gabriel Burns reported for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The talks were extensive enough that the Braves and Rangers had the structure of a deal in place, which is why Texas approached him for approval.”
At the time, that was a tough miss for Atlanta. But by Thursday, the decision to stay put looked a whole lot different. deGrom was injured while pitching for the Rangers, and the latest concern only deepened the picture.
“We'll find out the severity of Jacob deGrom's tricep fatigue after the game, but with his glute/hip soreness already a thing and with Nathan Eovaldi on the injured list, the Rangers are in a brutal position with their two horses right now,” Rangers reporter Shawn McFarland posted.
If deGrom is already dealing with fatigue in August, the Braves may have dodged a risky addition at exactly the wrong time. He might have been far less useful down the stretch than Atlanta hoped, and the possibility of him becoming a postseason liability is now hard to ignore.
That makes Mahle’s early work in Atlanta look even more important. He has handled himself well in his first two starts with the Braves, and there’s no way to know what deGrom would have provided over that same stretch, especially with the triceps issue now in the mix.
What first looked like a deadline miss for Anthopoulos may now read more like a break. DeGrom’s refusal to waive his no-trade clause might have saved the Braves from a move that no longer looks nearly as clean as it did a week ago.
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