Can Braves really justify buying at the trade deadline?

After another discouraging offensive performance, one that would make a blind man happy he can no longer see, the Atlanta Braves have now lost five of their last six games. In three of those games, they were shutout, as they’ve fallen 7.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race with eight teams in front of them, including the Miami Marlins.

This is not a good baseball team in any aspect. The offense ranks 24th in runs scored, and they continue to fall in that category. Nothing has gotten better for the Braves lineup, not even Ronald Acuña Jr.‘s electric return has mattered. If anything, the Braves have gotten worse as a group over the last month.

On top of that, injuries have really begun to take their toll on the rotation, the one aspect that was carrying the club through the first half of the season. AJ Smith-Shawver is out for the season. Reynaldo Lopez likely is as well, and Chris Sale was just added to the 60-day IL with a fractured rib cage, meaning the earliest he can return is the middle of August.

The Braves now feature a rotation with two guys that shouldn’t even be in the majors. Their bullpen is streaky at best, and their lineup has performed like the worst in baseball for over a month. The type of drastic turnaround that is needed in order to make up 7.5 games in the wild card race feels almost incomprehensible.

A couple of weeks ago, Alex Anthopoulos made it very clear that he would not be selling ahead of the trade deadline.

“We’re not selling,” the Braves GM said emphatically. “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.”

Perhaps that’s still true, but fast forward a couple of weeks, and the Braves have not made up any ground, and they just lost the reigning NL Cy Young award winner to the 60-day IL.

Not selling is one thing, but buying? There’s no way Alex Anthopoulos can justify that with the way this team has played this year, especially with a farm system that is already paper-thin from top to bottom. Nobody wants to hear it, especially Braves fans who are used to being in the mix year after year, but this team may have no choice but to sit back and take their medicine before licking their wounds and preparing for the 2026 campaign.