The Braves‘ offensive struggles have been well-documented this season, and it seems Alex Anthopoulos was at least inquiring about doing something drastic to improve it by way of a blockbuster Rafael Devers trade. According to Sean McAdam, the club inquired about Devers before the Red Sox traded him to the Giants.
While Atlanta won their series against the Rockies, it didn’t end like many had hoped, as Colorado trounced the good guys 10-1 on Sunday. However, all of that sulking immediately went away when news broke that the Red Sox traded the face of their franchise.
Boston and Devers have had issues. It’s known. The club asked him to come off third base for Alex Bregman, and then asked him to go back after Bregman suffered an injury. He didn’t like that. They also asked the 28-year-old to play first base after Triston Casas was lost for the season. He didn’t like that either.
Rafael Devers took great exception to those requests. He clearly didn’t feel valued by the Red Sox, and the club clearly felt he didn’t exude the right attitude as a leader in the organization, one they paid hundreds of millions of dollars. It culminated in one of the most shocking trades in recent memory.
The Braves weren’t an obvious suitor, though. Austin Riley is fully entrenched at third base after signing the richest contract in franchise history. Perhaps the club would ask Riley to switch positions, like left field, but that feels unlikely. Designated hitter is much more plausible, but even still, Marcell Ozuna occupies that role currently. However, it’s not like trading Ozuna would be hard. There would’ve been plenty of interested teams.
Even further, though, the Braves agreeing to a blockbuster Rafael Devers trade seems unlikely because of his contract. The Giants will cover the remainder of Devers’ deal, which runs through 2033 and will pay him more than $250 million. That’s a lot of money for a DH, and it doesn’t seem like the Braves’ M.O. to do that.
More than anything, it just seems like the Braves’ President of Baseball Operations saw one of the sport’s best hitters come available and showed momentary interest. The offense has spun its wheels for going on a season and a half now, so it’s only natural for Anthopoulos to be inquisitive about potentially upgrading it. Although I imagine talks never picked up much steam.
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