I’m genuinely not sure how this was ever thought as even remotely acceptable by anyone that let this article go live.
**The trade in question:
Braves get: CJ Abrams
Nationals get: Cam Caminiti, Didier Fuentes, Nacho Alvarez Jr.**
He isn’t worth either Cam or Didier on their own. Putting them both in just for CJ Abrams is one of the worst trade suggestions I’ve ever seen across any sport.
– The Braves could stand to improve their SS situation.
– The Braves have good depth on the pitching side of things in the system.
– CJ Abrams is now in arbitration, so this is about when you’d expect the Nationals to trade him.
We’ve now run out of reasons that this makes even the slightest amount of sense.
– Abrams is arguably a worse SS than Bo Bichette defensively. A player who basically no team, even his own, saw as a SS in free agency this winter.
– You’re not trading off bad defense for elite offense.
– You’re not trading off bad defense for even *a top 10 offensive shortstop*.
– He had a career year in 2025.
– He had a 107 wRC+, .257 BA, .433 SLG, .748 OPS, .310 WOBA
– He had a .245 xBA, .401 xSLG, .309 xWOBA, .350 xWOBACON
To suggest that’s worth our number 1 and 3 prospects(from most outlets, I rate Fuentes higher than most, not important) is nothing short of stupidity. While I generally disagree with most assessments of our farm system, especially on the pitching side, that isn’t even applicable here. Cam Caminiti is pretty universally regarded as a top 100 guy. Further still he’s usually closer to 50 than 100.
CJ Abrams isn’t worth a top 100 prospect in my opinion. He absolutely isn’t worth two top 100 prospects objectively speaking. Something Fuentes also has a claim to from a fair few outlets. Objectively he wouldn’t fall out of a top 125 list. Nacho isn’t a throw in guy, but he’s probably not a real upside prospect anymore either. He’s also not someone with no value to speak of either. He didn’t have an amazing debut season by any means with a 76 wRC+ in 208 plate appearances. He’s still going to spend the entire 2026 season as a 23 year old.
For me a CJ Abrams package should look more like this:
– Nacho Alvarez Jr.
– Blake Burkhalter, an older prospect who hasn’t flown through the system but has put a couple of nice years together.
– Drue Hackenberg, a guy we gave a 2 mil signing bonus to a few years ago in the draft coming off of a truly awful season that he entered as a top 6 or 7 guy in our system.
– Luis Guanipa, the “prize” of this more quantity over quality package. Once regarded as a top 5 guy in our system and just turned 20 years old. We signed him for 2.5 mil in IFA back in 2023, but he hasn’t managed to stay healthy for any consistent period of time. Amassing just 567 plate appearances since signing.
Whether that makes sense to the Braves, the Nationals, or anyone else in this sub is another matter entirely. I am curious as to what the thoughts on this are in the sub. This derailed my day entirely because it looked so out of place.
[Here’s the article in question.](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/47839105/mlb-2026-spring-training-trade-proposals-abreu-baty-paredes-abrams)
Edit: I believe I screwed up the link to the article itself. I’m not sure if I can fix that. Hopefully that doesn’t nuke the post.
Edit 2: Shouldn’t have added the emotional counter proposal. It’s a bad deal that pawns off guys we gave big bonuses too. I’d stand by it’s more realistic than the one in the article. It’s a bad one though.
16 comments
A consistent 3.5 WAR 24 year old all star shortstop is absolutely worth either of them on their own, that’s a ridiculous take.
Their proposal might be bad, but yours is arguably even worse
I don’t disagree that the hypothetical trade isn’t particularly good for the Braves but to say that CJ Abrams isn’t worth either Caminiti or Fuentes by themselves is cuckoo talk.
This isn’t as bad as the time someone offered me Alex Wood and Jose Peraza for Hector Olivera.
It’s not a deal I’d do but it’s nowhere close to the worst trade proposal of all time
Abrams is a young proven players with additional upside.
You have to pay for that.
None of the prospects listed in either trade are proven at the major league level and non-top 5 prospects are far from sure things (even top 5 guys arent locks for anything). It’s more likely none of the guy you listed will ever achieve the type of season Abrams has already achieved 3 times.
You’d have to think the Nats would hope for more than just a couple of fliers for years of a fringe all star. This deal is unbalanced from the Nats’ POV
You wrote an entire book and it was fiction
Tbh I don’t want CJ Abrams period. Dude seems fairly unmotivated at times and he’s not filling a gap that we need filled
If we get him I can just imagine him spending more time at the strip club or casino than he will on the field
James Wood is the only guy from the Nats who I’d want
I could see Fuentes and Nacho for Abrams as roughly a fair deal. Probably add 1 or 2 more in the realm of Butkhalter or Hackenberg.
Could be Ritchie or Murphy instead of Fuentes as well.
The only one I can’t see being included is Caminiti
CJ just isn’t a player I’d bet on.
I personally cannot watch CJ Abrams drop another ball or miss an easy grounder. Shits kinda painful.
I dunno Uggla was up there. I loved Omar so I may be a bit jaded.
OP: here take our shit prospects — thank you 😊
Abrams is a legit 4 tool player minus avg. But he was the 2nd worst SS in ‘25 according to Statcast in terms of Fielding Run Value (-9) and OAA (-11). He is absolutely not and should not be considered an option at short. But he could be a great replacement for Ozzie if he continues to regress.