Braves Get More Criticism for MLB Trade Deadline Inactivity

It's been almost a week since the non-waiver 2025 MLB trade deadline. But pundits have continued filing their early grades for each team around the league.

With that, the Atlanta Braves have kept receiving criticism for their lack of inactivity at the deadline.

Atlanta traded relief pitcher Rafael Montero. However, the team kept players on expiring contracts such as designated hitter Marcell Ozuna and relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias.

Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer summarized the Braves 2025 trade deadline in one word -- stagnant.

"The Braves have long since faded from the National League playoff race, so they should have at least dealt pending free agents like Marcell Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias. And yet, they just...didn't," wrote Rymer.

"Put this together with Ronald Acuña Jr.'s ongoing injury troubles and the falls from grace of Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II and Austin Riley, and it becomes that much harder to determine how, exactly, Atlanta is going to reverse its trend of diminishing returns over the last two years."

That criticism isn't really new. Rymer is one of several pundits who were left confused from Atlanta's inactivity.

The Braves aren't going to the playoffs this fall. So, it made little sense to keep Ozuna or Iglesias. Both are unlikely to re-sign in Atlanta for the 2026 season.

After the trade deadline, Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos tried to explain that things just didn't really materialize for the organization to trade either Ozuna or Iglesias.

“I can't force a trade,” Anthopoulos said on July 31, via MLB.com's Mark Bowman. “So I understand that people may think we should trade so and so and we should get this guy back, or that guy back. Unfortunately, out of respect to all parties, I can't divulge [specifics].”

Ozuna had 10-5 rights, which meant he had the ability to veto any trade to another team. But Anthopoulos said that wasn't the issue. The problem was the team didn't receive an offer they liked for Ozuna.

“We were not interested in just dumping players and trying to shed some money on a contract,” added Anthopoulos.

The Athletic's Jim Bowman gave the Braves a D grade for their trade deadline. Other pundits used words such as "snoozer" to describe the team's deadline inactivity.