The Braves swung their first trade of deadline season Tuesday, acquiring veteran right-hander Chris Martin from the Rangers.
Shortly after the trade became official, general manager Alex Anthopoulos spoke with reporters on a conference call. Here’s how he outlined the Braves’ thinking as the 4 p.m. Wednesday trade deadline draws near.
» On where the Braves stand:
“You’re never close until you have an agreement or an offer you’re ready to accept. It moves so fast. It’s just something that’s difficult to predict. All I think everybody would tell you is everybody’s having a lot of conversations right now. One phone call, one text and things can change. We’re looking to make the team better, like everyone else, and we’re going to continue to use all the time available to us to do it.”
» On searching for pitching and an outfielder:
“I’m stating the obvious here, but we could improve in so many areas. We could improve in our rotation. We could improve offensively. We could improve in the bullpen. I’m not trying to be cryptic or vague here, but because we could improve the club in so many ways, we’re not so specific in terms of position, whether that’s reliever or starter. If there’s a player out there we like, if the acquisition cost makes sense, we’ll pursue it. So that’s what you’re managing here. You’re balancing short-term and long-term. It’s not just dollars, it’s not free agency. We have to trade talent out of the organization with any transactions that we make. Any opportunity we feel is a good trade that makes sense for us, regardless of what area, we’ll look to do it. I know that sounds generic, but it’s pretty accurate. If we didn’t see value in the relief market, but we saw it in the position player market or starter market, we’d go down that path.”
» On this market possibly being unique compared with years past:
“It feels as though things are going later and later than past years. I don’t know why. If I had to guess, it doesn’t have anything to do with the deadline. There’s just so much parity, and there’s so many teams that are relatively in it. You look at the (National League), there are so many teams still in it. And people rightfully want to take as much time as they can before making the decision to take players off their team.”
» On Adam Duvall’s hot start affecting the team’s thinking:
“I know it’s a small sample. I can’t tell you we’re not going to weigh it. It’s more about what he did in (Triple-A) Gwinnett, his career, his past. He’s off to a nice start since he’s been back. He’s doing a nice job. If you look at his career, the outlier is 2018. So from that respect, it’s great. It’s a credit to him. He’s earned this opportunity. He’s playing well, and he’s been a big help to the team so far, especially after losing a guy like Nick (Markakis).”
