One of the biggest stories of the MLB trade deadline was the Atlanta Braves' inability to add impact starting pitching. It eventually came out that the Braves tried to acquire all three of Jacob DeGrom, Logan Webb, and Tarik Skubal, but weren’t able to get any of those deals across the finish line.
DeGrom invoked his no-trade clause after the Rangers and Braves agreed on terms, and it recently came out that the Braves were “genuinely stunned” he did so.
Atlanta acquired Tyler Mahle from the San Francisco Giants, but that was pretty underwhelming for many Atlanta fans who wanted a real difference-maker to add to the rotation.
However, the Braves rotation, made up of Chris Sale, Martin Perez, Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes, and Tyler Mahle, has been stellar since the trade deadline. Since August 4, Atlanta’s starting rotation earned run average is 2.12. Martin Perez has a 1.08 ERA in 25 innings; Chris Sale has a 2.1 in the same 25 innings; Grant Holmes, in 26 ⅔ innings, has a three ERA; Bryce Elder stands with a 3.7 in 29 innings, giving the Braves some longevity. The newly acquired Tyler Mahle has a .7 ERA in his two starts with the Atlanta Braves.
Matt Chernoff of Chuck and Chernoff on 680 The Fan says that much of the fanbase is calling Atlanta Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos either stupid or cheap for how he handled the deadline. Chernoff said calling him stupid is what you say when you don’t have an argument, and calling him cheap is a surface-level understanding of the situation.
However, the rotation he settled for with the addition of Mahle is making him look very good. Yes, it’s less than two weeks after the deadline, and the sample size is still rather small, with each having under 30 innings since the trade deadline.
This could all unravel in October as playoff baseball rolls around, as Chernoff pointed out. But for now, the result that Anthopolous got out of the deadline is working. You also have to give him credit for having some sort of backup plan for when the Skubal/DeGrom/Webb sweepstakes fell through, and getting a veteran arm in Tyler Mahle was a good move in spite of the fact that he wasn’t having the season he wanted to have when he was traded.
But the change of scenery and new meaning behind the 2026 season now that he’s playing for a contender has seemingly flipped a switch, as he has thrown the ball very well in an Atlanta uniform.