The Atlanta Braves have a rotation held together with duct tape and prayer, and they are trying to fix it before the Aug. 3 deadline. Target one, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, is Boston Red Sox right-hander Sonny Gray.
Gray, 36, is having the best season by any Braves target on the market. He is 10-1 with a 2.61 ERA. He should be an All-Star. He is exactly the kind of veteran arm a contending team wants to trot out in October if it gets there.
The problem is Boston has not decided whether it is selling. The Red Sox have won five in a row and 10 of their last 12. They sit at 42-48, three games out of a Wild Card spot in a weak American League field. If they keep this up another two weeks, they are buyers, not sellers, and Gray is off the market entirely.
For Atlanta the case is straightforward. The Braves have hung around the NL East despite losing Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Joey Wentz, and Martin Perez to injury. They have gotten this far on grit and their offense. They will not get to a deep October run without another starter capable of pitching six innings against a real lineup.
Gray also has geography working in his favor. He is a Nashville resident. He has a full no-trade clause. He has said in the past that proximity to home matters to him when he picks landing spots. Atlanta fits that description better than any other contender likely to bid.
The financial piece works too. Gray is owed $31 million this season, but the Cardinals are paying $20 million of that as part of the deal that sent him to Boston. The Red Sox are only on the hook for $11 million and the $10 million buyout on a mutual option that neither side will pick up. Any acquiring team gets a rental at a reasonable rate.
What Atlanta cannot control is the competition. The Astros, Mets, and Dodgers are all looking for rotation help. If Gray does hit the market, expect a bidding war that could push the price into significant prospect territory. The Braves’ farm system is not what it was, and general manager Alex Anthopoulos does not typically part with top pieces for a two-month rental.
The Red Sox might solve everyone’s problem by playing themselves into contention. If they cannot, Boston has some hard decisions to make on Gray, on Alex Bregman, on Aroldis Chapman, and on the whole veteran group they signed to bridge to the next contending window.
For the Braves, the message is clear. They are in on Gray. Whether they get him depends less on Atlanta and more on how the Red Sox play the next three weeks.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
