Atlanta Braves’ Puzzling Pattern for the Bench
Ryan Howard is now a member of the Braves organization. I have no idea how this might work, but I do get an idea of how many others have been passed over as we arrive at this point.
The good news is that Ryan Howard represents a risk for the Atlanta Braves that approaches zero.
The bad news is that the time spent to see what Howard still can do might be a distraction that might be better spent on additional options…
…unless John Coppolella has already made the decision that we’re already at the end of the better options, that is.
This would be an odd conclusion for an organization that has made a play to sign virtually every serviceable pitching arm available early on in the past two seasons. Likewise, that has been the case for position players as well.
Remember Reid Brignac? Drew Stubbs? Brandon Snyder? Gordon Beckham? Daniel Castro? Blake Lalli?
Yes: none of these worked out that well, but they were all tried. That’s the puzzling thing about this season: it’s the apparent lack of bodies to choose from. And it’s not like this bench issue just cropped up this week – this has been known about and supposedly been worked on for several weeks now.
Give Me the Names
Over that period of time, there are a host of cast-off position players that could have been selected for auditions on the Braves bench. Here’s a short list of those that have been available without a trade being involved:
- Kelly Johnson
- Jeff Francoeur
- Angel Pagan – probably for cost reasons
- Nick Franklin
- Ryan Raburn
- Daniel Nava
- Colby Rasmus – signed for $5 million with the Rays.
- Brett Lawrie
- Austin Jackson
- Melvin Upton
- Peter Bourjos – acquired by Rays via a minor trade
- Rickie Weeks… or maybe Jemile Weeks… or both
In case you think he was a viable option: Ty Kelly was also cut loose from the Mets right after the Braves left New York, though Howard had already been inked by then. He’s been claimed by the Blue Jays, so quite a lot of clubs passed on him. Could be a decent gap hitter with third base and outfield experience. We might have truly missed one here.
Okay, few of these jump up and scream ‘sign me!’… most teams haven’t felt the need to go after them. But how many are better bat options than Bonifacio? d’Arnaud?
A Few Others of Note
Pedro Alvarez.
Just over 30 years old, Alvarez played at 3rd base and DH while thumping 22 homers in 2016 for the Orioles with a .249 average in just 376 plate appearances.
The knock on him? Poor defense, though his K-rate (26%) was probably acceptable for a bench role (nearly 10% walk rate as well). Heck, we signed Howard.
Alvarez made $5.75m in 2017 but is still without a team. This honestly grades out better than Ryan Howard, though it would probably require around $4 million to ink him. But on balance, this lack of a signing smacks of a team that has run up against a budget restriction.
Billy Butler
Unsigned. Butler did have a negative WAR (-0.4) in 2016 and plays poorish defense. His power has been down since peaking in 2012 with 29 homers (5 in 2016 over 274 PAs). Finished a contract paying $10 million last year, so he (or his agent) might not have waked up enough to smell the aroma of a $1 million cup of coffee.
Marlon Byrd, Justin Morneau
Never mind. Let’s move on.
Nolan Reimold
Less of just about everything… homers especially. Hit just .247 and .222 in the last pair of seasons, but also hit 6 homers each year in limited PAs (just over 400 total) while striking out about 26% of the time and walking close to 11%.
But… he’s got to be considered to be cheap: $1.3 million in 2016. Signed up with an Indy ball team last week.
James Loney
The Tigers just inked Loney to a minor league deal. He’s mostly been an infielder (as in ‘first base’), but puts the ball in play (11-12% K-Rate) while also hitting for a respectable average. He’s not the best defensively, and while there’s some power to his swing (9 homers in 366 PA in 2016), he’s probably ‘Ryan Howard light’.
Mallex Smith
Another debate could be had about whether the loss of Mallex Smith could have gone down differently… or at all.
One of these days, we’ll have to sit back and wonder what the Rays might have asked the Atlanta Braves for over the Winter in order to get Chris Archer, but certainly Mallex would have been on that list, seeing as he was a Mariner for all of roughly 90 minutes before our trade with Seattle (technically) turned into a 3-way deal involving Tampa Bay.
But ignoring that, Smith’s debut with the Rays went well and certainly represents a missing element that the Braves could be taking advantage of… never mind Shae Simmons. Hopefully Luiz Gohara will eventually make me forget about this temporary inconvenience.
The Point of All This
More from Tomahawk Take
- Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 1-5
- Braves News: Braves acquire Diaz, moves around the division, more
- Atlanta Braves 2012 Top Prospects Review: J.R. Graham
- Atlanta Braves Acquire Lewin Diaz from the Orioles
- Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 6-10
There are eighteen names of players listed above (aside from Mallex). All were readily available to the Braves to fill bench positions. Some are in fact still available.
Any/All can probably be had for under $5 million annually; some for $1 million and less.
Does Ryan Howard represent the best possible option? That’s debatable… and will remain so until/unless he either (a) shows up at SunTrust; or (b) gets cut.
Even if not the best of the lot, you have be looking at this list of names and thinking “a lot of these are better than what we’ve got now.”
At the same time, Coppy is said to be continuing to pursue multiple options to improve their depth:
There's no guarantee Howard will ever be added to Atlanta's roster, but the Braves are looking for numerous ways to improve their bench
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 6, 2017
Apparently (aside from Howard) a simple ‘sign this guy’ approach isn’t one of those ways right now.
Trade options are always hard to quantify, but it doesn’t have to work like that. Is Coppy waiting for Micah Johnson to return? Is he taking the long approach for Howard or others?
Regardless, we still have Emilio Bonifacio, Chase d’Arnaud, and Anthony Recker as the bench options behind Jace Peterson and The Catcher Not Catching (Suzuki or Flowers).
You would think that somebody else would have been brought in by now.