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The Braves have been extremely active on the trade market. After acquiring Jonny Venters and Brad Brach in exchange for international slot money, the team then moved some spare parts to acquire Adam Duvall from the Reds.
While these deals won’t move the needle a ton for the team, they are roster improvements. However, the team was looking to go big at the deadline and were almost able to acquire Chris Archer from Tampa Bay. However, the Pittsburgh Pirates came out of basically nowhere and were able to close the deal to acquire the controllable young pitcher.
The Braves were quick to pivot and instead appear poised to grab Kevin Gausman from the Orioles.
#orioles are on verge of completing trade to send Gausman to #braves, as @JonHeyman reported
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) July 31, 2018
Multiple reports have said that the Braves and Orioles are very close to finalizing a deal for RHP Kevin Gausman. While Gausman hasn’t been as good as Archer has been, he does have the benefit of being under team control through 2020 via arbitration. Gausman has posted a 4.43 ERA and 4.58 FIP while accumulating 2.3 rWAR in 2018. Hopefully a change of scenery away from Camden Yards will prove to make him even more productive for Atlanta.
No word yet on the return for the Orioles, so once that is known, we will post the details here.