{"id":801658,"date":"2026-09-10T18:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/801658\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:30:14","slug":"braves-discussed-trading-spencer-strider-at-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/801658\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Discussed Trading Spencer Strider At Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob deGrom<\/a> made trade speculation a moot point when the Rangers ace invoked his no-trade clause<\/a> at this year\u2019s deadline, though it wasn\u2019t clear if deGrom blocked a specific deal on the table.\u00a0 The Braves were linked to deGrom\u2019s market, and according to MLB.com\u2019s Mark Bowman<\/a> and Mark Feinsand<\/a>, Atlanta floated moving Spencer Strider<\/a> as a way of balancing out the salaries involved in a deGrom swap.\u00a0 (Bowman\u2019s report came on deadline day itself, so it was somewhat lost in the shuffle of a hectic news day.)<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t clear if discussions got very far, as Bowman writes that \u201cthe Rangers didn\u2019t show initial interest, possibly because of the uncertainty surrounding Strider\u2019s arm.\u201d\u00a0 Strider has been on the injured list since June 17 due to elbow inflammation and his season is thought to be over<\/a>, though he did at least start a throwing progression about a month ago.\u00a0 Still, this elbow issue comes on the heels of two other major UCL procedures \u2014 a Tommy John surgery in 2019, and an internal brace procedure that cost Strider almost all of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

deGrom is earning the remainder of his $38MM salary in 2026, $37MM in 2027, and the Rangers hold a club option on his services for at least $20MM (the number jumps to $30MM if deGrom is a top-five finisher in Cy Young voting in 2026 or 2027, or totals 625 innings pitched over the course of the 2023-27 seasons).\u00a0 Strider is owed the remainder of his $20MM salary for 2026, $22MM in each of the 2027-28 seasons, and Atlanta holds a $22MM club option for 2029 that contains a $5MM buyout.<\/p>\n

Unless other players or salaries were involved in the deal, a deGrom-for-Strider swap would\u2019ve seen the Rangers take on some extra guaranteed money, but they\u2019d get a younger and longer-term asset in Strider.\u00a0 Of course, Strider\u2019s age is somewhat offset by the significant amount of wear-and-tear on his arm, not to mention a couple of other strains (hamstring and oblique) that have caused the right-hander to miss time in the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

Strider\u2019s inclusion in trade talks shouldn\u2019t necessarily be viewed as a sign that the Braves will be openly shopping Strider this offseason.\u00a0 Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is known for creative trade proposals, and teams in general will at least hypothetically discuss any number of players simply out of due diligence.\u00a0 The fact that Strider was being offered for a frontline pitcher like deGrom indicates that it wasn\u2019t just a salary dump on Atlanta\u2019s part, nor are the Braves willing to move Strider for just anyone.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, it is fair to say that after three underwhelming years, Strider is no longer viewed as a rotation cornerstone.\u00a0 Strider\u2019s huge 2022 rookie season earned him that six-year, $75MM extension in October of that year, and he followed up with an impressive 2023 campaign that saw the righty finish fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting.\u00a0 Over the past three years, however, Strider has a 4.78 ERA, 25.3% strikeout rate, and 10.2% walk rate across only 173 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

Since Strider doesn\u2019t turn 28 until October, he may very well have several great years ahead of him if he can just stay healthy.\u00a0 If Strider didn\u2019t already pitch for the Braves, he is actually the type of bounce-back candidate Anthopoulos has routinely tried to acquire, often with successful results.\u00a0 Strider\u2019s elbow concerns could preclude a trade from happening anyway, or maybe Atlanta could see what a hopefully healthy Strider can deliver in 2027, with a rebound either boosting his trade value or re-establishing him as part of the Braves\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacob deGrom made trade speculation a moot point when the Rangers ace invoked his no-trade clause at this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,403,4,773],"class_list":["post-801658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-jacob-degrom","tag-mlb","tag-spencer-strider"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117248171931915832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}