The rumor mill is swirling around Major League Baseball as Opening Day is now under a month away. The Atlanta Braves continue to be linked to starting pitching, but with the Twins recently getting tough news about Pablo Lopez being out for the season, Joe Ryan has become the subject of trade rumors once again.
Joe Ryan is dealing with a slight back injury that will keep him out of the WBC, but is he still a top trade candidate? FanSided.com seems to think so, as they floated another trade package for the Braves to make a deal with the Minnesota Twins for Joe Ryan. This time, however, it includes one of the Braves’ top pitching prospects in JR Ritchie.
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Braves Predicted to Offload JR Ritchie, Didier Fuentes for Joe Ryan
The Atlanta Braves were dealt a brutal injury blow.
Don’t shoot the messenger here, Braves fans. JR Ritchie has gained a lot of buzz this spring training for his electric stuff. Paired with his minor league success, he might be in the Braves’ rotation come August or September.
However, FanSided’s Mark Powell believes the Braves could pull off a blockbuster trade for Joe Ryan, but it would cost Atlanta giving up prospects Didier Fuentes and JR Ritchie:
“If the Braves traded Ritchie, they’d have just one top-100 prospect remaining in left-hander Cam Caminiti. That’s not great considering much of Atlanta’s core is aging, especially its pitching staff. If the Braves believe in Ritchie, they might as well give him a realistic chance to make the rotation either out of spring training, or early this season.”
Ryan is a proven starter at the big-league level, and his two years of team control is reason for another added layer of attractiveness on the trade market.
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Joe Ryan’s Fit with Atlanta
It’s important to note that Joe Ryan is fresh off the best season of his MLB career, earning an All-Star appearance and posting a 3.42 ERA over 170+ innings, and falling just shy of the 200-strikeout plateau.
He proved that he can be a frontline starter last season, and Atlanta just happens to need another frontline starter with the injury to Spencer Schwellenbach.
The Braves have several internal options as starters, but too many are unproven or undependable, and if the Braves sustain any more injuries to the starting staff, things could get bleak quickly.
The only thing I would tweak about this trade package by FanSided is removing JR Ritchie and including another prospect, but of the hitting variety, and maybe including a player like Nacho Alvarez Jr. instead of JR Ritchie.
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