Report: Braves refused to include Didier Fuentes in trade for Tarik Skubal

The Braves’ failure to add a real game-changing starter at the trade deadline was one of the hottest storylines of the entire season.

They were reportedly in on Tarik Skubal, but per Ken Rosenthal, they never got close before he was shipped to the Dodgers — the very team that would go on to end Atlanta’s season. Now we know a little more about why those talks stalled: the Braves refused to put Didier Fuentes on the table.

“One of the youngsters apparently not on the table was Didier Fuentes, as the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham reports that the Braves ‘wouldn’t part with’ the right-hander as part of the negotiations with Detroit,” Mark Polishuk writes for MLB Trade Rumors. “While it isn’t known what exactly the Tigers wanted from the Braves in terms of an overall trade package, Atlanta’s desire to keep Fuentes speaks to how quickly the righty has risen to prominence in the team’s future plans.”

In the end, this could go down as one of those trades the Braves are thrilled they never made. Pitching wasn’t the reason Atlanta failed to get past the NLDS, and the arm they did acquire at the deadline — Tyler Mahle — actually outperformed Skubal and cost them nothing. Had the Braves dealt Fuentes for Skubal and still come up short, they’d be absolutely sick about it right now.

Fuentes is one of the most talented young arms in the game. He was a weapon out of the bullpen, posting a 2.04 ERA over his final 56 relief appearances. His role going forward is still a bit of an open question — Atlanta would likely love to stretch him back out as a starter and see if the success carries over — but either way, five more years of control is infinitely more valuable than two months of a rental, no matter how dominant that rental has been over his career.

There was never a world in which the Braves should have moved Fuentes for a few months of Skubal, and if that’s what it took just to get the conversation going, Anthopoulos was right to walk away. As I say all the time: sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make. This is a perfect example.

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