The Atlanta Braves face a pressing shortage of reliable starting pitching as the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline approaches, prompting speculation that the club could pursue Detroit Tigers right-hander Casey Mize.
CBS Sports analyst Mike Axisa recently projected that Atlanta will land Mize in a deal designed to strengthen its rotation.
“If the Tigers trade Skubal, something that seems increasingly likely , they might as well trade Casey Mize too. He’s another rental. The Braves really need another starter to buttress a rotation that is counting a little too much on Bryce Elder and Martín Pérez these days,” Axisa wrote.
“Mize’s ongoing groin issue (he’s currently on the injured list for the third time this season with it) is the X-factor here. For our purposes, we’ll assume the Braves or whichever team trades for him are comfortable with the medicals. Mize has been terrific when healthy this year and might be a better bang for the buck than Skubal, given the potential asking prices.”
Mize, selected first overall by Detroit in the 2018 draft, posted All-Star numbers a year ago and has gone 4-6 with a 2.70 ERA across 16 starts this season when available.
Because he is scheduled to enter free agency after the campaign, any package required to obtain him would likely prove more modest than those sought for longer-term arms.
The Tigers sit outside playoff contention, raising the possibility that Mize could be moved in the coming days. He is lined up to pitch Friday and acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding his immediate future with the organization.
“I’m certainly thinking about it more now,” Mize said on Wednesday. “There is a lot of unknown about what the next five or six days are going to bring and I am just as curious as anybody. It’s coming up more. It’s all around us. But we’ll see. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Friday could be my last one.”
Detroit drafted Mize at the top of the 2018 class, and the pitcher has made clear that winning remains his primary objective amid the rumors.
“I want to win,” he said. “I want to play somewhere I am comfortable, a place that wants me. Those are my priorities. I really want to win. That’s why we play. Whether that’s Monday comes and goes and I’m still here or if I’m elsewhere, I’m going to continue to want to win. There’s just so many scenarios that I try not to get sucked into that. But I know it’s a possibility.”
Mize has appeared in two postseason games during his career, both occurring last October.Atlanta, currently 62-44, is widely expected to operate as a buyer before the deadline passes.
MLB.com Braves reporter Mark Bowman identified pitching depth—both in the rotation and the bullpen—as the club’s most urgent requirement.
“López, Holmes and Perez aren’t starters you can rely upon to give you six-plus innings on a consistent basis,” Bowman wrote. “That’s not necessarily a problem in the playoffs, because off-days create ample rest for bullpens. But the Braves’ bullpen has been heavily, taxed while the team’s starters have completed six-plus innings just five times in the past 34 games. There’s no doubt the Braves need a playoff-caliber starter. But getting to the playoffs is going to become a greater challenge if they continue to put a heavy tax the ‘pen over the season’s final two months.”
A healthy Mize would give Atlanta another capable arm capable of lengthening starts and easing the workload on an overworked relief corps.
His pending free-agent status further positions him as a pragmatic short-term option for a team seeking to stabilize its staff down the stretch and into October.
