Report: AJ Smith-Shawver is “all but untouchable” via trade.

Confirming what we all pretty much knew, beat writer David O’Brien of The Athletic reported ($) late on Friday that prospect pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver is “all but untouchable” in trade talks.

In the article, which was about the need to add multiple starting pitchers this offseason, O’Brien was discussing potential trade acquisitions by Atlanta and highlighted both the lack of elite trade chips in the system and the unwillingness to deal Smith-Shawver in any deal.

The Braves don’t have many elite prospects in their minor-league system and made clear to teams last summer that Smith-Shawver was all but untouchable. But it’s possible they could do a trade package featuring another pitching prospect and position prospect along with infielder Vaughn Grissom, who has excellent bat-to-ball skills but doesn’t have a place to play in Atlanta’s lineup unless they convert him to left field by next season.

O’Brien’s reporting confirms what we said about Smith-Shawver’s status – when discussing potential trade pieces, we made it clear that AJSS and Hurston Waldrep, our top two Braves prospects in our farm system rankings, shouldn’t be on the table in a trade for a starting pitcher:

Atlanta’s pitching-heavy drafts of the last few years means that the Braves have plenty of not-yet Rule 5 eligible arms to package in a deal, as well. There will be plenty of arms available if Atlanta wants to refuse to trade AJ Smith-Shawver and2023draftee Hurston Waldrep (which is the correct move – I wouldn’t move either one, honestly).