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The Braves are in first place thanks in part to timely contributions up and down their lineup and having one of the better bullpens in the entire league. While the losses of Ronald Acuna Jr., Nick Markakis, and Ozzie Albies for extended periods of time didn’t help matters, the offense was, for the most part, a strength for the team.
The same cannot be said for their rotation.
With the loss of young star Mike Soroka to a torn Achilles’ tendon as well as Cole Hamels, Mike Foltynewicz, and Felix Hernandez all out of rotation that the Braves planned on having when the season started, they have been leaning on Cy Young candidate Max Fried, hoping that Ian Anderson’s recent debut is a sign of things to come, and a whole lot of smoke and mirrors to get through the last few weeks.
It looks like they have a guy who can throw strikes and eat some innings coming into the fold.
Source confirms: Braves finalizing acquisition of Tommy Milone from Orioles. First: @mlbbowman.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 30, 2020
Milone isn’t a crazy, game-changing arm, but he is a guy that should be able to get later into games than some of the guys the Braves keep running out there, throws strikes, and has one of the better changeups in the game. There is definitely some upside for the Braves here.
As for the Orioles end of the trade, the current reporting is that it is for two players to be named, so it isn’t likely we will know exactly how positive the return was for Baltimore. We can infer that since they are two PTBNL, that means that neither player is in the Braves’ current player pool which eliminates names from the speculation at the very least.