]The Atlanta Braves once again are leading the NL East division in 2014 and heading into the summer the team could look to move struggling second baseman Dan Uggla for some more hitting, as they have a dearth of young pitchers and names like Mike Minor or Alex Wood could be options in deals with the Seattle Mariners, Dodgers, NY Yankees, Texas Rangers or Boston Red Sox.
Uggla has been playing terribly for two seasons now and he is hitting.177 this season with two home runs and those came many weeks ago and he has been losing playing time to players like Ramiro Pena and other rookies. Uggla has been a lost cause for some time and the Braves would be thrilled to find a team that is interested in him. A team like the Mariners could be interested with Corey Hart on the DL for another month, but Uggla has not been the offensive player he once was and that would be the main draw for Seattle in a trade.
The Braves have been disappointed with the way Uggla has ended up performing this season and he has been a complete mess at the plate. Uggla's defense is nothing to write home about and that could make it tough for the Braves if they want to trade him and even tougher if they want to keep him.
The Braves come into the week ranked 29th in the league in runs and despite that they are first in the National League east over the Mets and the Nationals. The team is ranked 26th in batting average and 29th in on base percentage and the team is also 18th in slugging percentage this season. The team has been able to stay in first place despite some offensive struggles and that could lead to a trade this summer since the Braves have a nice amount of young pitching. On top of that, the team is ranked first in the league in ERA and quality starts this season and they are also second in WHIP and fifth in BAA, meaning the pitching has been way better than the offense and the Braves could afford to give up some of that to get things going.
The team needs to find a way to get rid of Uggla, as he has been a complete loss for the Braves on offense over the past couple seasons. The Red Sox come into this next series with the team after losing their last 10 games and on Tuesday the game will have Jon Lester and Aaron Harang in the pitching matchup.
