Paul Blackburn, Oakland A’s, Atlanta Braves. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)
The Atlanta Braves trades with the Athletics under Alex Anthopoulos have been stellar, so which trade targets on the A’s in 2023 should the Braves be after?
On Memorial Day, the Atlanta Braves began a three-game set with the Oakland A’s, the bottom-dwellers of baseball on pace to shatter the MLB record for losses in a single season. Oddly enough, the Athletics got the better of the NL East leaders in the series-opener, but it’s been Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves who have been getting a leg up on the A’s in recent years, specifically in the trade market.
In consecutive offseasons, the Braves have fleeced the Athletics for first baseman Matt Olson, who was landed as a Freddie Freeman replacement, and catcher Sean Murphy, who has just been an upgrade to the position group overall. Both players have been All-Star worthy in the 2023 season and are key cogs in making Atlanta look like a contender.
But with the July MLB Trade Deadline fast approaching, there’s a world where the Braves and A’s could get back to doing business with the former expected to be buyers and the latter almost surely set to sell. So which Athletics players should be Braves trade targets ahead of the deadline? There are three options that would make a lot of sense.
Braves rumors: 3 trade targets Alex Anthopoulos can steal from the A’s again
3. Paul Blackburn is risky but his debut makes a Braves trade worth considering
Oakland getting the Game 1 win in the series against Atlanta also marked the season debut of right-handed starting pitcher Paul Blackburn while the Bravos were focused on the return of Michael Soroka in their own regard.
Blackburn had been on the IL since the start of the season due to a torn fingernail and subsequent issues with blisters. In his return to the mound, though, he was stellar as Oakland worked to keep his pitch count monitored, going 4.0 innings and giving up just four hits and two walks along with one earned run while striking out six Atlanta hitters in the outing.
Earlier in the season while Blackburn was on the IL, I wrote that Anthopoulos should steer clear of Blackburn. The impetus behind that thought process was that the 29-year-old was coming off his best and lone good season in the majors last year as he posted a 4.28 ERA and 1.26 WHIP over his 21 starts, but that could very well have been fool’s gold.
We only have a small sample size, but the debut from Blackburn is promising that he may just be a quality starting pitcher right now.
The question for the Braves now comes from if they want to upgrade starting pitching. Max Fried should be back in the coming weeks at some point, Soroka is back in the majors, and Jared Shuster has been finding his flow as of late. That seems to round out the rotation on the whole.
At the same time, though, if there are any setbacks with health or performance from those guys, that could leave Atlanta looking for more depth in order to avoid more bullpen games or a lack of confidence in Dylan Dodd. If that’s the case, Blackburn could be a nice pitcher who should be cost-effective on the trade market to bring into the back end of the rotation and keep things stable, assuming the Atlanta front office believes he will maintain this level of performance.