Once the calendar turns over to June, talks toward the MLB trade deadline start to heat up. Who will be buyers? Sellers? Who are the ones right on the cusp, the in-betweeners? For the Atlanta Braves, they look to be in line to be buyers again.
Normally, this is the time of year when the Braves start to take a commanding lead over their division foes. But that’s not the case for the 2024 season thus far. The Braves are actually behind the Philadelphia Phillies, who have the second-best record in all of baseball with a 49-25 record, seven games better than Atlanta, who sits at 41-31.
The good news for the Braves is that they still have the fourth-best record in the National League and hold a 5.5-game lead in the Wild Card standings. In fact, the National League has been so bad this season that the Braves are the last team that has a .500 record or better.
Still, this hasn’t been the way that Atlanta has wanted to start their season. For the first time since May of 2022, they fell under .500 in a month and lost five games in a row for the first time since September of 2017. But games aren’t the only thing the Braves have lost. They’ve continued to be riddled with injuries going back to the very first game of the season.
Just recently did catcher Sean Murphy make his long-awaited return after suffering an oblique injury in the first game. Others, like Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies, have been put on the injured list, while the team still awaits relief pitchers AJ Minter and Tyler Matzek’s returns. They now have centerfielder Michael Harris II out with a hamstring injury.
But at least the Braves get those guys back at some point. The same can’t be said for two of their best players, albeit at two very important positions. Cy Young hopeful Spencer Strider went down back in April with a season-ending elbow injury, and then the icing on the cake was Ronald Acuña Jr. suffering his second ACL tear, though in a different knee, in the last four seasons.
Throughout all that, though, the Braves have held on, while currently boasting a .500 record of 8-8 in June so far. But it goes without saying that this may be one of the more important MLB trade deadlines in recent memory for Atlanta, who may be much needier than they’ve been in the past.
Even though the National League has been down, the Braves still need to make some additions to sustain, at the very least, their Wild Card position. Here’s how they can do that:
