Atlanta Braves: Five Moves to Make Before the Deadline

1. Move any and all Bench Value

The Braves have acquired a much better bench then in seasons past. They added a versatile Sean Rodriguez to the bench and are expected to make further moves to improve their pinch hitting and back-up options.

Bench players in baseball are very expendable. They are the one position in baseball that consistently can be found on the free agent market and be acquired with little expense. Compared to an elite set-up man or an average starter they are much easier to find and add to a roster. Because of that the Braves should view any and all bench players on the team as trade chips this season.  If the Braves are not able to compete as expected trading a valuable bench player to a contending team at the break will help continue to build their farm.

The interesting thing about trading bench bats is the perception that they can give to competing teams because of limited stats.  Bench players who benefit greatly through being platooned properly throughout the first half of the season often enjoy bloated stats that can give them more value then they will have by next season or even the end of the current season.

Trade value: See either Kelly Johnson deal that the Braves have pulled off over the course of the last two years to get an idea of what type of return the Braves could expect.