About a decade ago, the Braves kicked off their rebuild by trading major league talent for a haul of minor leaguers.
The first of which came in November of 2014, sending Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden to the Cardinals in exchange for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins.
Shortly after, the Braves swung another deal with fresh-faced GM AJ Preller of the Padres that exchanged several pieces but were headlined by Justin Upton and Max Fried.
Eventually, Austin Riley was drafted with a pick received and Miller was flipped in a deal that netted Dansby Swanson. They were building blocks of the rebuild, but in hindsight, the Upton trade netted the most desirable result — Max Fried throwing a gem in Game 6 of the World Series.
The Athletic revisited that trade and sees it the same way:
Justin Upton, Dec. 19, 2014
The deal: The Atlanta Braves trade Justin Upton to the San Diego Padres for Max Fried, Dustin Peterson, Jace Peterson and Mallex Smith.
The outcome:Â A big, big win for the Braves.
As a new general manager in 2014, A.J. Preller had no attachments to the farm system he inherited — and he eagerly used it to shake up his lackluster team. Fried, 20, had just undergone Tommy John surgery and was a fit for the Braves, who used outfielder Justin Upton in a long-range play for an ace.
Preller would deal for other big names — Matt Kemp, Craig Kimbrel, Wil Myers, B.J. Upton — but the Padres somehow finished three games worse than they had the year before, at 74-88. And several of their castoffs would make an impact elsewhere, including Zach Eflin, Yasmani Grandal and Trea Turner, who helped the Nationals win a championship in 2019.
The Braves would win theirs in 2021, with Fried twirling six shutout innings in the World Series clincher. He placed second for the National League Cy Young Award in 2022 and is 62-26 overall for Atlanta.
Upton had a good year for the Padres in 2015. Then, San Diego used the draft pick they received when he departed on Eric Lauer, who was a part of the trade that netted Trent Grisham in 2019.
Still, nobody is happier than the Braves in all of this, who ended up with arguably the best lefty on the planet today. In what could be Max Fried’s last year in Atlanta, it feels poetic to reminisce on the trade that brought him here in the first place.
—
You must log in to post a comment.