Recently there have been rumors of both the Las Angeles Angels and the Milwaukee Brewers showing interest in acquiring pitching from the Braves. Both of these teams might have pieces to help Atlanta this off season but the Angels can obviously offer a package that would better suit the Braves.

Two areas that Frank Wren is looking to upgrade the offense in is at first base and either of the corner outfielders. The Angels have two people that can fill these needs in Juan Rivera (OF) and Kendry Morales (1B). Kendry is obviously much better offensively (.306 AVG, 34 HR, 108 RBIs) but that would also make him harder to get. Juan Rivera is not as good offensively (.287 AVG, 25 HR, 88 RBIs) but he should be much easier to aquire.

The Angels are reportedly interested in Lowe if they are not able to re-sign their former ace, John Lackey. Hopefully it wouldn’t take much more than Derek Lowe to get Juan Rivera in Atlanta and i definitely think that is worth it. Rivera might not be a super slugger but he brings more homers than almost every player on the Braves team and is a fairly consistent hitter.

Morales would definitely provide a much bigger offensive boost but would giving up Javier Vazquez really be worth it? Especially with Freddie Freeman on the horizon…

The better option would be to trade Derek Lowe for Juan Rivera and either sign Adam Laroche two a short term deal, or give up Freeman and others and get Adrian Gonzalez.

As for the Brewers they are more interested in Javier Vazquez and really don’t have any trade pieces that would help us enough to let go of our ace pitcher.

 

*There were also rumors about the Braves and Dodgers talking trades but that rumor has been stated not true by Mark Bowman.

 

-Los