Jeff Passan Throws Cold Water on Braves Fans Wanting a Pitching Savior at the Deadline

The Atlanta Braves got smoked 14-3 by the New York Mets on Tuesday. That kind of loss stings, but it’s not exactly panic time in the NL East. The Braves still have a comfortable lead over the Phillies, mostly because Philadelphia has been stumbling out of the All-Star break themselves. Still, the clock is ticking toward the August 3 trade deadline, and Braves fans are getting restless.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan weighed in on what the Braves might actually do, and his take isn’t exactly what the more anxious corners of Braves Twitter want to hear. Passan posted on Threads that while adding a bat is obviously on the table — and maybe even the priority — the real problem is that there’s only so much time and so many players available. If Plan A falls through, he says, Plan B or C or D could shift toward starting pitching. But then he dropped the real gut punch.

“Hurston Waldrep’s injury illustrates the folly in hoping guys coming back from arm troubles will be saviors,” Passan wrote.

That line matters because the Braves have been absolutely wrecked by pitching injuries. Waldrep was supposed to be working his way back, but he hit a setback in the minors and now his return timeline is unclear again. Spencer Strider is out. Spencer Schwellenbach is out. The rotation behind Chris Sale has started to fall apart after a surprisingly solid start to the season. Sale has been great, but one guy can’t carry a whole staff through a playoff race.

So what do the Braves actually do? The front office has been quiet, and that’s frustrating fans who want to see a big swing before the deadline. But Passan’s point is pretty straightforward: you can’t count on injured arms to save you, and there aren’t a ton of impact pitchers available on the market right now. Teams asking for top prospects in exchange for rentals, and the Braves have already dealt some of their better farm pieces in recent years.

Atlanta’s next game is Wednesday, a doubleheader against the Mets in New York. That’s a lot of baseball in one day for a team that just got blown out and has a rotation that looks like it’s running on fumes. The Braves are still in good shape in the division standings, but the margin for error is shrinking. And if the front office waits too long, the phone lines might go dead.