The Atlanta Braves have been carried by their starting pitching for much of the 2024 season, a shocking statement given the injury to ace Spencer Strider.
Chris Sale, Max Fried and Reynaldo López have all been superb. However, the last two spots are a little more murky, due to the struggles of 40-year-old Charlie Morton and the inexperience of rookie Spencer Schwellenbach.
If the Braves do look for starting pitching help on the trade market, there are several struggling teams trending toward becoming sellers. And perhaps no team has more to trade than the Toronto Blue Jays, who have plummeted to last place in the American League East.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported Saturday that if the Blue Jays become sellers, impending free-agent pitcher Yusei Kikuchi would be one of the first names on the list to be traded. And if Kikuchi is available, the Braves should be one of the first teams picking up the phone.
Kikuchi, 33, has had an up-and-down season. His ERA has risen to 4.18 after allowing four-plus runs in each of his last three starts. But he threw the ball well for most of his outing Friday, striking out nine of the first nine batters he faced.
Overall, Kikuchi has 93 strikeouts in 88.1 innings this season, putting him in the 67th percentile for strikeout rate among all pitchers. He’s durable as well, having made 49 starts since the start of 2023.
Though he might not have a guaranteed spot in the postseason rotation, Kikuchi is almost exactly what the Braves need at this moment. He’s a durable innings-eater who could save the rest of the rotation for the postseason, even allowing a six-man rotation during the dog days of summer.
Then, come October, Kikuchi could shift to the bullpen, where his 95.6 mile-per-hour average fastball velocity could tick up even further. Plus, if any of the Braves’ injury-prone starters end up on the shelf, Kikuchi could be the savior Atlanta needs.
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Author(s)
Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey, where he is a broadcast associate for the MLB Network.
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