Is it possible the Braves are sellers at the trade deadline?

At 27-31, the Atlanta Braves have the eighth worst record in all of baseball. They have the fourth-worst record in the National League — ahead of only the Pirates, Rockies, and Marlins — and sit in fourth place in their own division. The playoffs aren’t completely out of sight, as they sit 5.5 games back of the final wild card spot, but with nine teams in front of them in the wild card race, making up ground on all of them will be incredibly difficult.

There’s not much to like about the current state of the Braves. The offense — despite all of the star power — continues to prove to be inept, especially with runners on base. After scoring just seven runs against the Red Sox over the weekend, the Braves rank 20th in runs scored and are just 16th in team OPS, a far cry from their historic offensive output a few years ago.

The bullpen has also proved disastrous, particularly in high leverage situations, ranking 24th in fWAR with just 0.3. And while the rotation has been the lone bright spot in Atlanta, there are concerns after AJ Smith-Shawver was recently deemed out for the season with a torn UCL. The depth is now paper thin, and there are still four months left to go on the schedule.

The Braves’ streak of seven consecutive postseason appearances is in jeopardy. Things need to change for the better, and fast, or Atlanta will find themselves in too deep of a hole to dig out of, making this next couple of months leading up to the trade deadline very intriguing.

Some fans have already waved the white flag on the season. Which, while pretty ridiculous, is somewhat understandable given how frustrating this team has been to watch on a nightly basis. The offense can make any sane person want to bang their head into a light pole for three straight hours, and even when they do get blessed with a lead, the bullpen seems to have no problem coughing it up. The Braves find themselves in a low-scoring affair decided by one run every day, and more often than not, they’ve come out on the losing end, a simply terrible way to live.

It has some pounding the table for Alex Anthopoulos to sell ahead of the trade deadline, and admittedly, they do have some intriguing pieces that could fetch a haul if that is the direction they decide to go.

Marcell Ozuna has been among baseball’s best designated hitters for three years now and is in the final year of his contract. If the Braves find themselves way out of it in a couple of months, he’s most likely to be moved. Chris Sale is also someone the Braves could consider trading. The reigning NL Cy Young award winner does have a team friendly option for next season. Which, on one hand, makes him unlikely to be moved, but on the other hand, he would fetch the Braves a king’s ransom in return. If the offer was too good to pass up, Alex Anthopoulos would have to consider it.

The Braves could also field calls on former All-Stars like Sean Murphy, Michael Harris II, and Ozzie Albies, as well as relievers like Raisel Iglesias, Dylan Lee, and Pierce Johnson. Atlanta could conceivably undergo quite the transformation if they fell out of the race before the trade deadline, but it still feels highly unlikely things get bad enough that they end up selling.

The Braves are only 5.5 games out of a playoff spot, and that’s with seemingly everything going wrong. The offense has severely underachieved, and despite that, they still have a +13 run differential. The returns of Acuña and Strider have not had their effect yet, at least in terms of wins and losses. That will undoubtedly happen eventually, especially with Acuña looking like the 2023 NL MVP version of himself thus far. 

Another couple of injuries could change things, but a lot would still have to go wrong for the Braves to find themselves in the sellers category come the trade deadline.