A Ronald Acuña Jr. Trade Is the Reset Desperate Braves Need—Which Teams Match Up?

Remember when the Atlanta Braves won the World Series in 2021? Remember when they won 100-plus games in each of the next two seasons? Oh, and remember how these were merely three parts of a seven-year run as a playoff team?

That we're even asking these questions is indicative of how wrong things have gone for the Braves. And it isn't even all about their 39-51 season in 2025. Last year was also a slog, with the team winning 89 games in the regular season before getting swept out of October.

The other thing those questions do is help explain why there's suddenly discourse about the Braves trading superstar right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. before MLB's July 31 trade deadline.

They have "zero interest" in moving the 2023 National League MVP, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. And yet, Joel Sherman of The New York Post wasn't out of line in raising the concept on MLB Network last Wednesday:

It's commendable that Sherman went there, and not just because it is diamond-encrusted gold from a content standpoint. The truth is that an Acuña trade isn't merely a good idea for the Braves. It's the best idea for how to salvage something from the rut they're in.

We Thought the Braves Had It Figured Out. They Don't.

With respect to the championship the Braves won in 2021, the 2023 season felt like the true pinnacle for the modern iteration of the franchise.

The 2023 Braves might be the best team the organization has ever put on the field. Their 104 wins tied for the second-most in club history, and the offense gave even the 1927 New York Yankees a run for their money.

Off the field, meanwhile, the Braves had these contract extensions in place before the 2023 campaign had even begun:

• RF Ronald Acuña Jr.: 8 years, $100 million
• 2B Ozzie Albies: 7 years, $35 million
• 1B Matt Olson: 8 years, $168 million
• 3B Austin Riley: 10 years, $212 million
• CF Michael Harris II: 8 years, $72 million
• RHP Spencer Strider: 6 years, $75 million
• C Sean Murphy: 6 years, $73 million

Why not, right? This was clearly a winning core, so why not lock it up for the foreseeable future? For that matter, why not do so for the low-low price of $735 million?

However, every contract extension is a gamble. And as much as it felt like Atlanta was buying low at the time, this run of extensions is not aging especially well.

After down years in 2024, Albies (71 OPS+) and Harris (54 OPS+) are now among the worst everyday hitters in MLB. Riley has a modest 110 OPS+ in his own right, while neither Olson (138 OPS+) nor Murphy (117 OPS+) is living up to their career-best seasons in 2023. For his part, Strider doesn't look like the same pitcher after his second major elbow surgery in five years.

The 2025 Braves simply aren't built to withstand flaws in this foundation. And especially given how much their pitching depth has been decimated by injuries to Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver and Reynaldo López, it is no surprise that it hasn't.

FanGraphs already has the Braves' playoff odds down from 92.5 percent on Opening Day to just 3.8 percent today, and their immediate future is as bleak as it's looked in years.

Everyone mentioned above will be a year older in 2026, and there isn't much in the way of imminent help in the minors. Per his most recent rankings, B/R's Joel Reuter ranks Atlanta's farm system at No. 24 in the league.

A Ronald Acuña Jr. Trade Is the Best Card for the Braves to Play

If there is an exception to the rule of the Braves' major extensions not aging well, it is arguably Acuña.

Yes, he has suffered two ACL tears since he signed his nine-figure deal hot off winning the NL Rookie of the Year in 2018. And as Sherman alluded to, it is hard to ignore how the Braves won the 2021 World Series without him, much less how they are 15-25 since his return from a second ACL tear on May 23.

And yet, this is a 27-year-old with a .909 OPS, 174 home runs and 200 stolen bases to show for 762 career games. And his bat is as effective as ever, as he's hitting .331/.450/.561 with a solid walk-to-strikeout ratio and elite batted ball metrics.

Less optimal, of course, is the reality that Acuña's bat is really the only thing the Braves can bank on going forward.

His knees are now an ever-present concern, and his need to be careful with them has already diminished a once-potent element of his game. Though his sprint speed is about the same now as it was when he swiped 73 bags in 2023, he only has four steals in 40 games this year.

Though the Braves can enjoy three more years of Acuña for just $51 million after 2025, his trade value can only go lower. It is quite high for now, with Baseball Trade Values estimating his surplus value at a hefty $92 million.

That is about $20 million more than the next-most valuable Brave, and even that is probably being too generous about where Strider's value is right now. It also might be a conservative estimate given the circumstances, as the summer trade market doesn't feature any hitters who are even remotely in Acuña's arena.

In other words: The time to sell high is now.

But Which Teams Can Possibly Afford Acuña?

Sherman floated the Juan Soto trade as a comparison for what the Braves could get for Acuña, which is fair but also likely underselling it.

At the time he was traded in 2022, Soto had two-and-a-half years standing between him and free agency. That ticker is at three-and-a-half years for Acuña, so the Braves would have every right to try to beat the combination of controllable major leaguers (i.e., MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams) and prospects (i.e., James Wood and Robert Hassell III) that the Washington Nationals scored for Soto.

As such, ideal suitors for Acuña need to check three boxes as A) being in win-now mode, B) needing an impact bat and C) being rich in talent.

This rules out a good chunk of MLB, including some of this year's foremost contenders. The San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays lack the talent depth and/or positional need to make a play. It also feels safe to rule out Atlanta's NL East competitors, namely the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.

The best bets are at the top end of the farm system scale, where the Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers lead Reuter's rankings. All five are contenders, but the Dodgers need arms more than bats and the Rays typically don't buy stars in blockbuster trades.

This leaves the Mariners, Brewers and Tigers, and all three could use Acuña in right field. Seattle is most desperate by way of a .636 OPS at that spot, but Milwaukee generally needs home run power, and another star would go a long way toward getting Detroit back to the Fall Classic.

So, let's get down to brass tacks. Here are three trade proposals rated by Baseball Trade Values as "major" overpays, meaning Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos would have no choice but to listen:

• From the Mariners: RHP George Kirby, RHP Matt Brash, SS Colt Emerson (Mariners No. 1), OF Lazaro Montes (Mariners No. 2)
• From the Brewers: RHP Freddy Peralta, RF Sal Frelick, SS Jesús Made (Brewers No. 1), 1B/OF Tyler Black (Brewers No. 9)
• From the Tigers: RF/DH Kerry Carpenter, RHP Casey Mize, SS Kevin McGonigle (Tigers No. 1), OF Max Clark (Tigers No. 2)

As Emerson and Montes are likely looking at 2026 arrivals, the Seattle offer hits the right notes as far as instant and near-future impact for the Braves. But still, all three are ultimately satisfactory in this regard.

For the teams on the other side, there would be real sticker shock to overcome with any of these proposals. But to this end, an effective mantra for getting over it would be this: It's literally Ronald Acuña Jr.

Granted, none of this is likely to ascend above the genre of fan fiction. For good or ill, the Braves seem committed to the bit of sticking with what they have. Heck, they haven't even fired Brian Snitker yet.

Yet in a year when a Rafael Devers trade came out of nowhere, a trade of Ronald Acuña Jr. should be counted out no earlier than August 1.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.