Braves Beat Writer Blasts Ronald Acuña Jr. Trade Proposal From MLB Network

Atlanta Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. made news across baseball on Wednesday by receiving enough votes to start in the 2025 MLB All-Star Game despite not debuting until May 23 this season. Acuña will make that All-Star start in front of the home crowd at Truist Park.

But Acuña has become a talking point across baseball for another very different reason this week.

On Wednesday, baseball insider Joel Sherman made a long argument on MLB Network that the Braves should entertain trade offers for Acuña before the 2025 MLB trade deadline. Fellow MLB Network analyst and former player Carlos Peña and host Brian Kenny were convinced through the argument that potentially trading Acuña would be the right move for the Braves.

It's safe to say, though, The Athletic's David O'Brien, who also previously covered the Braves for The AJC, was not convinced. In fact, he blasted the idea through social media on Thursday morning.

"Trading Acuña would be arguably the dumbest thing the Braves could do," O'Brien wrote. "Too wildly popular and entertaining. Too good. A large segment of the fan base would *never* forgive them if they did that.

"You don't trade Chipper, you don't trade Acuña."

Trading Acuña would be arguably the dumbest thing the #Braves could do. Too wildly popular and entertaining. Too good. A large segment of the fan base would *never* forgive them if they did that. You don’t trade Chipper, you don’t trade Acuña. https://t.co/Pj2CQBIjIn
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 3, 2025

O'Brien quote tweeted a video of Peña's argument for why the Braves should "entertain" Acuña trade talks. But it was Sherman who presented the idea.

To open the conversation, Sherman suggested he knew his idea of the Braves trading Acuña would catch fire on the aggregator farm, but he expressed concern about aggregators having "it wrong."

To make sure we don't have it wrong, here is Sherman's exact argument for why the Braves should trade Acuña.

"So I wonder if I can play a game here. Because I know what's going to happen is our aggregator friends out there are going to take what I'm about to say and have it wrong. Whenever I suggest something, all I ever want to do is say, would the people involved have a serious meeting about it if I presented it....

Should they trade Acuña right now? Right? Here would be my argument to the Atlanta Braves front office on why it would be valuable to do this right now.

Can you look at this team, which I think has almost zero chance to get to the playoffs now, down four key starting pitchers. Their offense, Albies has gone the wrong way, Harris has gone the wrong way. You have no idea the money you are spending on Profar, what you have. So this might be a lost year. Can you see a championship in the next few years? I don't.

Because Albies has gone the wrong way, Harris has gone the wrong way. Sale will be 37 next year. You don't have depth in your farm system. This has been a great period for us the Braves. Seven straight years in the playoffs, six division titles. One championship. Big deal.

By the way, we won that championship without Acuña. He got hurt. We played the last four months of last season without Acuña and made the playoffs again. By the way, we have a better record this year without Acuña at the beginning of the season than with Acuña. At some point, I would say, he's got three years at $51 million left. He's had serious knee injuries to both knees.

I feel like we have to talk seriously about, 'Hey, if we just trade Raisel Iglesias and [Marcell] Ozuna, the free agent guys at the end of the year, we're not getting anything back that changes our future. Do we want to try and take another seven year run along the way? I would say, let's have a serious meeting about is it time to do that because Acuña, in this market place, without offensive players, of this stature, you could make the Juan Soto trade."
Joel Sherman, MLB Network analyst

Peña added that he would consider trading Acuña if he were the Braves because the right fielder could be a difference maker for another team. That means he could yield a tremendous return on the trade market.

"I would definitely entertain that, if I were the Braves."@PenaCarlos23 shares his thoughts on whether Atlanta should consider trading Ronald Acuña Jr. https://t.co/uB5rbRz9WN pic.twitter.com/rEJ8NjZrdb
— MLB Now (@MLBNow) July 2, 2025

There's a lot to dissect from the long argument. My first reaction was it seems contradictory for the MLB Network analysts to both downplay Acuña's role with the Braves in 2021 and now and yet argue he would be a difference maker for another team.

Acuña also seems to have put the concern about his knees to rest with his All-Star nomination this year. He's not likely to steal as many bases in the future as he has in the past, but that's not a reason for the Braves, or any other team, not to want Acuña.

But for me, there's only one reason the Braves would "entertain" trading Acuña, and MLB Network didn't address it. The ONLY scenario where trading Acuña makes sense for the Braves is if the team has ZERO chance of signing him to another contract.

As Sherman explained, Acuña won't be a free agent until 2029. By then, who knows what the MLB free agent landscape will be like.

But Juan Soto just signed a 15-year, $765 million contract this past offseason. That's the going rate for superstars now.

In 2029, Acuña will be 31. Soto inked his massive deal at 26. So, Acuña isn't getting the same total amount or years as Soto. But if Acuña continues to produce and has better health in the coming years, he could be worth $50 million per season on a 6-8 year deal.

Are the Braves willing to pay Acuña that amount if the market demands it? If they already know the answer is no, then yes, the possibility of trading Acuña greatly increases.

If the Braves think signing Acuña to that kind of money is realistic and something they want to entertain, then no -- trading Acuña shouldn't be on the table in large part because of the reasons O'Brien explained.

Braves Country still isn't over first baseman Freddie Freeman leaving in free agency. If the team trades away the next generation's biggest star, it could be a public relations nightmare.

It wouldn't be the best baseball decision either.