ESPN highlights Braves 'untouchable' prospects ahead of trade deadline

When it comes to the Braves’ prospects, nobody has shown enough to have earned the title “untouchable.” However, Alex Anthopoulos did say there’s at least one of their younger players who’d be very difficult to part with.

“Off Limits? No,” Anthopoulos said. “We actually had a meeting today talking about that exact scenario. It depends, right? Most times at the deadline the rentals are the guys that are available in trades, meaning guys on expiring contracts… But look, there might be some surprising controllable guys, meaning guys with more than one year of club control that we kind of went around the room and said is there anybody — because we know we’re going to get asked this — there’s probably one guy that we’d have a hard time with.

“But do we have a slam dunk, like somebody we think is a Hall of Famer right now, no. We have some guys we think are really good. I think the tricky part for us is we always want to win in the current year, but we’re trying to keep this sustainable. We have a core, we have a very good core, but that core is aging… If you want to not have a rebuild, you need some young guys to replenish.”

The Braves haven’t typically moved off their top prospects at the trade deadline. That could obviously change, but ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel believes history is a strong indicator of the future, which is why he doesn’t see Anthopoulos seriously entertaining offers for any of their top three prospects — Cam Caminiti, Eric Hartman, or Tate Southisene.

“The Braves don’t tend to deal from the top of their system, as they’ve had a lot of success holding and developing those players, and then putting them in the rotation or the lineup,” McDaniel writes. “As such, I think it’s unlikely they will deal any of Southisene, Hartman or Caminiti, and they can’t deal any of the recent draftees.”

It would likely take a frontline starting pitcher with multiple years of control for the Braves to even consider moving off any of those three. Caminiti has the ceiling of a frontline starter. Eric Hartman is putting together a historic campaign in High-A Rome, proving to be a legitimate five-tool prospect. And Tate Southisene is having about as impressive a first full season of professional baseball as possible — still just 19 years old, and already promoted to High-A Rome, where he’s sporting an OPS well north of .800.

That still leaves the Braves with quite a desirable group of young players to choose from, including several arms that are already major-league ready. AJ Smith-Shawver, JR Ritchie, Hurston Waldrep (assuming his injury isn’t serious), and Owen Murphy will all attract suitors. The Braves also have some very intriguing prospects at the lower levels in John Gil, Briggs McKenzie, and Alex Lodise.