Braves push for October leads to flurry of roster moves

The Atlanta Braves have struggled through much of the 2025 season's first two months. They sat at 23-30 on June 2nd, six games behind the Washington Nationals and were coming off back to back to back to back series losses against the Colorado Rockies and then division foes Miami Marlins, Washington Nationals and the New York Mets. Much like the start of the 2022 season, it appeared that this just wasn't going to be the Braves year. Freddie Freeman has struggled mightily, Ozzie Albies has not been the same since his concussion late in the 2024 season, Gabriel Moreno was hitting right around the mendoza line and the team didn't have an answer at shortstop defensively. General Manager Zac Berwick was looking to shake things up a bit and was able to when the St. Louis Cardinals came calling. Out were two key bats, Austin Meadows and Carlos Correa, and in came an eight game winning streak. Baseball is a funny game.

Re-tooling with St. Louis

Out: Austin Meadows, Carlos Correa

In: Gus Uribe, Kevin Dunn, Willie Rosado, Juan Mejia, Giovanni Paschini

The Cardinals came calling in the early hours asking about Austin Meadows. Talks centered around Gus Uribe and involved a number of other names. Discussions went back and forth for a decent amount of time, but it was never in question that a deal would get done. Things were progressing fluently when Carlos Correa's name came up as part of a package deal. More names were exchanged and a package was eventually agreed upon.

Correa's leadership will be sorely missed in then Atlanta clubhouse. He was off to a hot start this season and should be an absolute bargain at 2/30M for his aged 31 and 32 seasons in St. Louis. Meadows has struggled early in 2025, but it is mostly due to bad luck. His BABIP on the early parts of this season was 100 points lower than that of his career.

Berwick landed a prospect package that was desperately needed in Atlanta, landing a top 100 prospect in Gus Uribe and a couple of power arms in Rosado and Mejia. Kevin Dunn was the first round selection of the Cardinals in the 2023 draft and comes with the ability to play a strong center field and good mixture of power and speed. Paschinni was a part of the St. Louis International Complex and should report to the Gulf Coast League upon arrival.

Adding the big piece

Out: Cionel Perez, Caleb Tuzzio, Giomar Diaz, Ismael Mena, Max Carlson

In: MacKenzie Gore, Raul Ledesma

The discussions to acquire MacKenzie Gore started close to two weeks ago. Not knowing if he had enough top end talent to acquire another ace, Berwick made it known early on that there was no name that he would not part with in a deal as long as the total package made sense. It seemed like a long shot early on, but things started to gain traction over the last few days. It was made known that Caleb Tuzzio would need to be included early on. The 2024 first round selection has progressed across three minor league levels already this season, fast tracking towards the Majors.

Various names were discussed in this deal, from bullpen arms like Edwin Diaz and Hansel Rodriguez to young stars Jack Leiter and Jose Escorche, but the center focus was always on Gore. Talks stalled at times for various reasons, most recently because of the play of the Braves, but the win streak that propelled them back into the race was the deciding factor in Berwick pulling the trigger. Funnily enough, if Gore had been on the move just 48 hours earlier, the Braves likely would have been out of the bidding.

Instead Berwick gets his second ace to pair with reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Mike Soroka. Gore is under team control through 2026 and, given the money cleared from trading Meadows and Correa, should see a healthy extension offer from Atlanta to remain here.

Late night deal with Houston

Out: Antoni Flores, Chris Acevedo, Mike Collins, Ramon Huerta, Min-jun Kim

In: JD Martinez, Oliver Drake

The win streak and the Gore trade signaled that the Braves were gunning for their fifth straight NL East title and seventh in the past eight years. Berwick didn't stop his busy day at MacKenzie Gore. The Braves then acquired DH JD Martinez and right handed reliever Oliver Drake from the Astros for a five player package. Martinez figures to platoon at the DH spot with Joc Pederson for the remainder of the season. Drake will provide a quality right handed arm that rolls ground balls over the middle innings, lengthening the Atlanta pen.

Several names were discussed with Houston General Manager Ray in this deal. The Braves opted to send quantity in the deal, moving five guys, rather than top names that were discussed such as former first round pick Ian Privett.

Other roster notes

- With the departure of Carlos Correa, the Braves will now turn over the shortstop position full time to Jelfry Marte for the next month before the deadline to see if he can run with it.

- Drew Pomeranz was activated from his rehab assignment at AAA Gwinnett and will be featured in the Atlanta bullpen starting tonight in Milwaukee.

- Gore is expected to join the team when they return home from their road trip to make his Braves debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks in front of the Atlanta faithful.

- Luisangel Acuna has been called up from Gwinnett and will fill the utility role on the Atlanta bench for the time being. He is the younger brother of Ronald Acuna Jr.

- JD Martinez and Oliver Drake figure to be in Atlanta for their series against the Padres, whom MacKenzie Gore figures to draw a start against in his second start in a Braves uniform.