Some Braves trades hurt your heart more than others (2024)

June is right around the corner and before you know it rumors will be rampant as the trade deadline approaches - unless you are the Marlins, who decided the start of May was a good time to build toward next year six weeks into the season. After the injury suffered to Ronald Acuna, Jr., the Braves seems primed to once again be significant players in the market.

Atlanta has had good fortune over the years coming out of the positive in on both in-season and off-season trades. Whether it was Joc Peterson and Jorge Solar in 2021, Tim Hudson in the early-’00’s or Fred McGriff in the mid-’90s usually seeing a press release that begins with, “The Atlanta Braves have acquired ...” is usually more exciting has it is depressing when you see the players whom Atlanta sent packing.

But not always.

Through May 24, Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras was leading the National League in runs scored while having a monster offensive season where he was slashing .337/.412/.538 with a 170 OPS+ and a 169 wRC+ good for 2.7 fWAR. The 26-year-old former Atlanta Braves catcher has an inside track for a second All-Star game appearance. I think we can all agree we love seeing the success “Wild Bill” is having with the Brew Crew, but he’s quickly rising up the ranks of list of regrets that leave some of the fanbase deep in their emotions.

Here’s a look at a few of the players the Braves trades over the past four decades that might be leave you a little nostalgic, anger or looking to grow your bangs out and start an emo phase.

We’ll do this in a bit of a reverse chronological order, starting in the 1980s.

Brett Butler

After having a break-out season in 1983 as the Braves starting left fielder, Atlanta sent Butler and third-base prospect Brook Jacoby to Cleveland after the season to complete an August trade for pitcher Len Barker. Barker was a bust in Atlanta and Jacoby, who was blocked at the time by Bob Horner, would go on to be a two-time All-Star for the Indians over nine seasons with the team.

It was Butler’s inclusion that might make you want to listen to the Cure for a few hours/days/weeks. Although he only made the All-Star team one time, Butler spent 17 years in the big leagues. After leading the NL in triples during his final season in Atlanta, Butler would go on to lead his respective league in 11 positive offensive categories during the balance of his career.

After ending his career at age 40 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Butler had played in more than 2,200 games and racked up 2,375 hits, stole 558 bases and walked 1,129 times. He picked up MVP votes in six seasons, including finishing seventh in the NL vote in 1991.

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Steve Bedrosian

In December 1985, the Braves decided to address their catching issues by picking up All-Star catcher Ozzie Virgil from the Phillies - along with pitching prospect Pete Smith - for outfielder Milt Thompson and pitcher Steve Bedrosian.

This wasn’t so much about the trade not working out - Virgil spent three seasons as the Braves starting catcher and was an All-Star in 1987 while Smith was a back-end starter during the Braves early ‘90’s turnaround.

Thompson played 11 more seasons after his first two in Atlanta, picking up MVP votes in two seasons during a solid MLB career that included more than 200 career stolen bases.

The big sads come from the loss of “Bedrock”.

Bedrosian had spent five seasons with Atlanta - the first four of which he spent mainly as a reliever and part-time closer picking up 41 saves during the franchise’s early ‘80’s ascension. In 1985, the Braves opted to moved him into their rotation where he made 37 starts producing league-average results as a 27-year-old after being outstanding in a high-leverage role the season prior.

Then, Atlanta made the trade to send him to Philadelphia.

Philadelphia promptly moved Bedrosian back to the ‘pen in 1986 where he picked up 29 saves. In 1987, Bedrosian led the NL in saves with 40 and rode those results to the NL Cy Young Award, his only All-Star birth and a 16th place finish in the NL MVP vote. He spent several more seasons as a closer and high-leverage reliever for the Phillies and then the San Francisco Giants before ending up with the Minnesota Twins in 1991.

Bedrosian’s story with Atlanta did end on a happy note.

After missing the 1992 season due to injury, Bedrosian and his high socks returned to Atlanta for three seasons. He was outstanding in 1993 with a 248 ERA+ in 49 games out of the bullpen and quite good in 1994 before winding down his career in 1995.

Dale Murphy

Admittedly, the inclusion Dale Murphy could be a little controversial. By 1990, Murphy was in a severe decline and 34-years old. But Murphy was the icon for Atlanta Braves baseball in the 1980’s and one of the best position players in all of baseball during that decade.

One season before the Braves went worst-to-first, they were mired in the “worst” part of that journey and opted to open up a spot in the outfield for eventual 1990 NL Rookie of the Year winner David Justice by trading Murphy to the Phillies.

The return for Murphy was light, but he was not the same player he was when he was the back-to-back NL MVP as knee issues - the severity of which were not known until decades later - brought an end to his career after 26 games with the Colorado Rockies in 1993.

Still, seeing a franchise heavy weight be dealt away one season before the Braves became of the toast of baseball brings a wee bit of heartache.

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Deion Sanders

If Murphy’s inclusion in this list was more about what he had done in the past, Sanders makes it for what he might have been able to do if he wasn’t a Hall of Famer player in a totally different sport. And also, because there have been few Braves players with the fame level of Sanders.

Now the head football coach for the Colorado Buffalos, Sanders became a Pro Bowl football player for the Atlanta Falcons when the Braves brought him in in 1991. A superstar off the field, Sanders was a role player with the Braves but ran afoul of the front office in 1992 after choosing to play in an NFL game the same day as a playoff game. After a 1993 season that saw him perform above average in a part-time role, Sanders became the team’s full-time starter in centerfield in 1994 until the team opted to trade him to the Cincinatti Reds for free-agent-to-be Roberto Kelly.

After the 1995 season, Sanders would only play two more season in MLB - in 1997 and 2001 - as he focused on his NFL career. “Primetime” would leave the Falcons as well, leaving Atlanta to watch his Hall of Fame NFL career blossom elsewhere.

While Sanders’ contributions to baseball were limited, seeing him leave Atlanta is still something to rue thirty years after the fact. Sometimes the most emotional trades aren’t the ones involving the best players on the field.

As I wrote 30 years ago on a scratch pad: “Deion Sanders traded to Reds for Roberto Kelly. Why?”

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David Justice

In eight seasons with Atlanta, David Justice was a Rookie of the Year, a two-time All-Star, a Silver Slugger and provider of one of the most iconic moments in Atlanta Braves history when he belted a homerun in the deciding Game 6 of the 1995 World Series.

Just before Opening Day in 1997, the Braves stunningly traded Justice and Marquis Grissom to Cleveland for reliever Alan Embree and All-Star centerfielder Kenny Lofton.

Justice would go on to have one of the best seasons of his career in 1997 while Lofton, a free agent after the season, missed 40 games and promptly returned to Cleveland in 1998.

Justice would continue to slug in the American League, winning a second World Series with the New York Yankees in a career that saw him top 300 career home runs while slashing .279/.378/.500.

Justice was the Braves biggest offensive star during his run with the Braves bridging the time between Murphy and Chipper Jones.

Adam Wainwright

After the Atlanta Braves became THE Atlanta Braves, they turned prospect capitol into meaningful big-league contributors regularly. In most cases, this worked out for the Braves as prospects like Melvin Neives, Kelly Mann, Jose Capellan, Andy Marte and Mike Kelly didn’t end up having notable MLB careers.

However, that’s not to say that the Braves didn’t trade away a few players that history showed they may have been better off holding on to based on the outcome of their careers. Whether it be Jason Schmidt, Jermaine Dye or Adam LaRoche, the Braves lost a handful of players early in their careers who ended up having above average careers.

But nothing tops the loss of Adam Wainwright, the top pitching prospected included in the trade that saw the Braves bring in outfielder J.D. Drew as a replacement for Gary Sheffield for the 2004 season. Drew had one of the best all-around seasons of any Braves player in the last twenty years in 2004, but he departed via free agency following the conclusion of the season.

Meanwhile, Wainwright - who retired at the end of the 2023 season - went on to pitch in 18 seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals and winning 200 games. The three-time All-Star selection finished second in the NL Cy Young voting twice and third two additional times. While he isn’t likely to be a Hall of Famer, he was one of the better starting pitchers in baseball for more than a decade, making 411 career starts.

The Georgia native never played in a game in the majors for Atlanta to the ire of many in the fanbase who still begrudge the Braves for making the trade twenty years ago.

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Martin Prado

Martin Prado was one of the most likable Atlanta Braves players in the last two decades. To this day, when people talk about their favorite Braves, Prado’s name comes up with regularity. The utilityman sent parts of seven season in Atlanta - including an All-Star season in 2010.

Prior to the start of Spring Training in 2013, the Braves traded Prado and four prospects that included long-time major leaguers Nick Ahmed and Brandon Drury to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Justin Upton and Chris Johnson. Upton looked like a future superstar early in his career with Arizona. He spent a couple of seasons in Atlanta and was a long-time starter, but never better than he was in the early days of his career.

The trade - which was one of the first that I recall getting via a smartphone notification - didn’t work out as Atlanta had hoped. Prado would play for seven more season and put together a solid career with more than 1,500 hits and 100 home runs. Upton would be shipped off to San Diego after the 2014 season in a deal that returned several prospects to Atlanta, one of which is current Braves ace Max Fried.

When Chipper Jones called Martin Prado one of his favorite teammates during his jersey number retirement speech, it was a reminder of how special of a player Prado was beyond his statistics. But, if you look at the ultimate return for Prado being Fried, it doesn’t feel quite as bad.

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Andrelton Simmons and Craig Kimbrel

One of the worst years in recent Atlanta Braves fandom was 2015. The team pulled the plug on the early ‘10s version of the team and went into their first true rebuild in more than 25 years. As if suffering through the worst regular season since 1990 wasn’t enough, the year began when the team stunningly traded all-galaxy closer Craig Kimbrel to the San Diego Padres to rid themselves of B.J. Upton’s salary and pick up a pitching prospect in Matt Wisler and a competitive balance round A pick as well as veterans Cameron Maybin and Carlos Quentin. Quentin would not play in Atlanta and Maybin would spend a single season in the Braves outfield.

That draft pick turned into Braves All-Star third baseman Austin Riley, so a decade later, the trade has yielded the intended results. But at the time, the loss of the closer who had saved 186 games in his five seasons in Atlanta was shocking despite the understanding that losing teams don’t need an elite closer.

After the season, Atlanta made what could be considered an even bigger surprise when they traded defensive savant Andrelton Simmons to the Angels in a five-player deal. Simmons had signed an extension with Atlanta and was only 25 years old. Although injuries derailed one of the best defensive shortstops of his generation’s career - one that was effectively over by 2021 - Simmons seemed to be a building block through the rebuild, at the time.

The marque return for “Simba” was left-hander Sean Newcomb who had his moments but didn’t live up to his prospect status.

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William Contreras

When the Braves traded for Oakland catcher Sean Murphy, it was William Contreras who was the biggest name to leave Atlanta as he headed to Milwaukee in the three-team deal. It was mildly surprising at the time that the Braves would move on from Contreras given his youth and offensive prowess.

The Braves had concerns about the then 24-year-old’s ability to handle the defensive end of his catching duties. For Contreras, he likely could not have asked for a better landing spot with the Brewers. In 2023, Contreras put up the first positive defensive number of his short career while putting up 5.7 fWAR.

Contreras picked-up where he left off last season with a 165 wRC+ through his first 52 games while providing positive results behind the plate. His Baseball Savant batting graphs is full of dark red (that’s a good thing) as the 26-year-old ascends into the conversation of the best catcher in baseball.

The Braves extended Murphy upon his arrival in Atlanta, although he missed most of the first 50 games of the Braves 2024 season, the 29-year-old Murphy continue to himself be in the best-catcher-in-baseball conversation.

That’s a win-win for both players and teams, but at the same time, why make the trade if Atlanta already a cheaper, younger catcher in-house?

What about you?

Being a fan can be a roller-coaster with team success, player injuries and trades all impacting one’s rooting interest. Over time, some trades fade away, but others still sting with remorse.

Who were some of the players whose trade hurt you the most?