It is difficult to find a weakness in this Atlanta Braves team that is already 20 games above .500. The Braves are top five in MLB in both team ERA and runs scored per game and own a solid 4.5-game cushion at the NL East throne.

The club looks set for the future too, signing most of its big-name stars to long contract extensions over the last year, keeping the Braves' core together until the late 2020s. The only issue for the Braves is the club's lack of trade pieces.

Adding before the trade deadline will be difficult for the Braves as Atlanta has the worst-ranked farm system in Major League Baseball and does not have a top-100 prospect. The strength in the Braves' minor system right now is pitching. Eight of the team's top 10 prospects are pitchers, with six of them being right-handers, and a few of them could be moved before the MLB trade deadline to strengthen this already formidable ballclub.

Braves: 3 players who must be on trade block ahead of 2023 deadline

Orlando Arcia (SS/2B)

How many experts predicted that at this point in the season, Orlando Arcia would be leading the Atlanta Braves in batting average? Arcia is hitting .341 and his OPS is a career-best .890. The bad news for Orlando is that he is hitting an unsustainable .404 on balls in play while his expected batting average is .273.

Atlanta must capitalize on Arcia's current form and sell high. The Venezuelan's hot hitting in 2023 has kept top prospect Vaughn Grissom at Triple-A for much of the season, so there is no real drop-off if Orlando Arcia is traded away.

AJ Smith-Shawver (RHP)

Both Jared Shuster and AJ Smith-Shawver have performed admirably during their early-season call-ups with the Braves. Injuries to starting pitchers Kyle Wright and Max Fried afforded these opportunities to the youngsters.

Shuster has made eight starts and has not allowed more than four runs in any of his eight appearances yet. The lefty uses his nasty slider to subdue opposing batters, holding lefties to a .188 batting average. Meanwhile, 20-year-old Smith-Shawver has a 2.03 ERA in 13 innings pitched. The young righty reached the majors after just 28 minor league appearances thanks to a rising four-seam fastball that sits in the mid-90s.

If there is an immediate need in this Braves team, it is starting pitching. But Shuster and Smith-Shawver have pitched well early on and Wright and Fried will both be back at some point this season. The dilemma for the Braves becomes this: trade the younger but more promising Smith-Shawver since the team has an abundance of right-handed pitching coming up, or deal Shuster, the older of the two but a rarer lefty.

AJ Smith-Shawver holds more value but is more replaceable given the franchise's organizational depth, so the Braves could look to trade the young righty for a more concrete, veteran starting pitcher.

Owen Murphy (RHP)

The third-ranked prospect in the Braves farm system, Murphy is still learning to control his pitches at the professional level. He is walking nearly five batters per nine innings at the Single-A level, and this year he has allowed six home runs in 10 starts.

But the swing-and-miss stuff is there for the 19-year-old righthander. Murphy logged 11 strikeouts over his first 7.1 innings pitched this season before running into trouble more recently. The young starter still has plenty of development ahead of him, but MLB teams will love Murphy's fastball-curveball combo that could lead him to the majors someday.