{"id":334365,"date":"2025-12-08T06:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334365\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T06:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:32:09","slug":"braves-notes-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334365\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Notes: – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos spoke to reporters today, including David O\u2019Brien of The Athletic<\/a>, covering a variety of topics. The head man in Atlanta offered details on the club\u2019s plans at DH, along with some health updates on a couple of pitchers.<\/p>\n

While Anthopoulos didn\u2019t rule out bringing back Marcell Ozuna<\/a>, he said the team prefers to leave DH open and split the role among multiple players. Ozuna has been Atlanta\u2019s primary DH since the 2023 season. He\u2019s made just two appearances in the field the past three years.<\/p>\n

Ozuna lost his stranglehold on the position midway through last season, with the Braves looking to get both Sean Murphy<\/a> and Drake Baldwin<\/a> in the lineup. The downturn in playing time, along with Ozuna\u2019s pending free agency, led to frequent trade rumors in July. He ultimately remained with the team through the trade deadline. He socked five home runs in the first two weeks of August, but hit just one more the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Ozuna has spent the last six seasons with the Braves. He led the National League in home runs and RBI in the shortened 2020 season. Ozuna struggled with injuries and poor performance over the next two campaigns. He bounced back to deliver some of the best results of his career in 2023 and 2024, totaling 79 home runs with 100+ RBI in each year.<\/p>\n

Baldwin, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, will be a fixture in the middle of the lineup next season. Murphy struggled to hit for average last year, but provided solid power numbers and strong defensive stats. He\u2019ll likely earn the majority of the work behind the plate.<\/p>\n

On the pitching side, Anthopoulos said Grant Holmes<\/a> hasn\u2019t had any setbacks in his recovery from a partial UCL tear and will be treated like a healthy pitcher this offseason. That update likely puts Holmes on track for the start of the 2026 season. The right-hander went down with right elbow inflammation in late July and was ominously placed directly on the 60-day IL. He went the rest-and-recovery route with the elbow injury and seems to have ducked surgery, given his progression thus far.<\/p>\n

Holmes will be on the periphery of the starting rotation to open the season, but he\u2019s likely the next man up if anyone goes down, which is exactly what happened last year. Spencer Strider<\/a> hit the IL shortly before the season began, thrusting Holmes into a starting role. He came through with decent production at the back of the rotation, posting a 3.99 ERA over 22 appearances (21 starts). Holmes struck out more than a batter per inning, though his walk rate ballooned to 11%. Free passes hadn\u2019t been much of an issue for Holmes, including in his swingman role in 2024, so perhaps the elbow injury played a role there.<\/p>\n

Atlanta\u2019s rotation will be headlined by Chris Sale<\/a>, Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a>, and Strider. Hurston Waldrep<\/a> impressed late last season with a revamped arsenal, so he\u2019ll likely retain a spot. Reynaldo Lopez<\/a> missed nearly all of 2025 with a shoulder injury, though he should be back to begin next season. The Braves have given extra off days to their starters in recent seasons, particularly for Sale, so Holmes could find his way to starts even with everyone healthy.<\/p>\n

The health update wasn\u2019t as positive for Joe Jimenez<\/a>. The reliever missed all of last season after undergoing knee surgery in March. Anthopoulos said Jimenez recently had a \u201ccleanup\u201d procedure on the knee. Anthopoulos added that the club isn\u2019t counting on Jimenez until he ramps up throwing and proves he\u2019s healthy.<\/p>\n

Atlanta acquired Jimenez in a December 2022 trade that sent Justyn-Henry Malloy<\/a> and Jake Higginbotham<\/a> to the Tigers. He was a crucial part of the late-inning mix in 2024, racking up 27 holds and three saves. Jimenez cleaned up the walk issues that plagued him at times in Detroit, while maintaining substantial strikeout numbers.<\/p>\n

The Braves have already been active on the free agent reliever market, re-signing<\/a> Raisel Iglesias<\/a> and Joel Payamps<\/a>. Jimenez\u2019s troublesome knee could lead to another addition, specifically from the right side. The club\u2019s other high-leverage arms, Dylan Lee<\/a> and Aaron Bummer<\/a>, are both left-handed.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Brad Mills<\/a>, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos spoke to reporters today, including David O\u2019Brien of The Athletic, covering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,34111,170127,10542,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-334365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-grant-holmes","11":"tag-joe-jimenez","12":"tag-marcell-ozuna","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}