Alex Anthopoulos lays out Braves trade deadline blueprint: 'We’re not selling'

The Atlanta Braves are among the most intriguing teams at the trade deadline. They came into the season with World Series aspirations, given the second-best odds of any team to win it all, behind only the Dodgers. They also have an aggressive general manager in Alex Anthopoulos who doesn’t know anything but buy, buy, buy.

However, anytime a club is seven games under .500 and facing a deficit of 12.0 games in their own division, along with a 6.5-game hole in the wild card race, it’s reasonable to consider them potential sellers.

Alex Anthopoulos nixed all of that on Wednesday morning in an interview with Nick Cellini and Chris Dimino of 680 The Fan. 

“We’re not selling,” the Braves GM said emphatically, a point he reiterated throughout the conversation. “A month from now, we are 30 games under or something crazy, I guess I would reconsider. I’ve been in the postseason personally — talking about myself, totally selfishly — ten seasons in a row. I don’t remember what it feels like to not be contending.”

Anthopoulos would go even further, saying later in the interview that the Braves unequivocally are not considering trading any player with multiple years of club control.

“No. Zero,” he said of the Braves potentially trading Chris Sale. “We are not selling, especially players with club control beyond the current year. Will not happen. I never make definitive statements unless I’m going to stick to them. So, once you make definitive statements, and then you go back on them, you’re a liar and you’re done. So, WILL NOT HAPPEN!”

But this is where the tea really gets juicy, and why this interview might be exactly what much of Braves Country needed to hear. Alex Anthopoulos even admitted that he’s trying to make a trade right now.

“I’m trying to make a trade now. Very hard right now to make a trade in June. Just to signal to everybody and say, ‘Hey, we will not sell.'”

Alex Anthopoulos is always generally candid and honest every time he makes a public appearance, but this is about as straightforward of an interview that you’ll hear in any sport from a general manager. Anthopoulos is trying to make moves as we speak to better the roster, citing the Braves’ slumping offense as the club’s biggest weakness to this point in the season.

Jurickson Profar, who just began playing minor-league games yesterday and can return in early July, should certainly help improve that facet. However, that probably won’t deter the Braves from adding to their outfield, given Profar is ineligible for the postseason, and Anthopoulos is also reportedly monitoring the market for shortstops in an attempt to upgrade from Nick Allen.