Braves’ Best Bet Lies With Bethancourt
May 6, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher Christian Bethancourt (27) throws to first base for an out in the sixth inning of their game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Turner Field. The Braves won 7-5. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Well this is certainly more fun than I imagined…
The Atlanta Braves are just 2.5 games back on June 2nd. Notice I said June 2nd, not July.
It’s still a bit too early to tell if the Braves are going to be buyers at this year’s deadline (although given the state of the team and the farm overhaul this past offseason, I’m not even sure who the Braves would be comfortable giving up to acquire impact pieces, whatever those may be), but some certainly believe they will be.
But if we want to start talking about upgrading the current Braves team, which spot would you look to reinforce first? A lot of you might point to the shaky bullpen, and you’d be pretty spot on. The Braves bullpen has been very, very bad. In fact, the Braves rank dead last in bullpen WAR, with a -0.5 fWAR, behind other colossal failures such as the Red Sox and Padres (who saw that coming once one of the best bullpens in baseball added the best closer in the game?).
But as we look for other spots of weakness, the first one you should arrive at is the catching tandem of A.J Pierzynski and Christian Bethancourt. Atlanta ranks 24th out of 30 teams in catching WAR, breaking even at a 0. They are only ahead of teams dealing with injuries, like the Brewers with Jonathan Lucroy (and no, the Braves won’t be trading for him, give up), or ones who are just as bad, but didn’t have quite the April that AJP had. And also weirdly enough, 3 teams who have employed former top Braves prospects as their starting catcher (the Marlins and Diamondbacks with Jarrod Saltalamacchia and the White Sox with Tyler Flowers).
While upgrading would certainly not be an idea I’d be opposed to, I argue we haven’t seen the full potential value out of the position just yet.
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