Atlanta Braves’ Season Might Be Waning Before Starting
An off-season that began with high-spirits and higher expectations seems to have thrown out an anchor here in the dog-days of March. Will the Atlanta Braves be able to salvage their last roster slots in the next two weeks?
For quite a while, we were thinking that the 2017 Atlanta Braves would feature both a useful bench plus a full slate of strong relievers.
Some of this – the bullpen – is coming together, though not quite as expected. The rest of this – the bench – is clearly struggling.
The issues are piling up as we are in the last two weeks of Grapefruit League play:
- Micah Johnson. Broken wrist. Surgery. Out for multiple months.
- Sean Rodriguez. Car accident. Surgery. Out for probably the entire year.
- Jace Peterson. Hitting .196
- Emilio Bonifacio (yes, he’s in the mix). Hitting .268
- Chase d’Arnaud. Hitting .130
- Johan Camargo. A fistful of errors (6). Nobody else has more than 3… oh, that’s Peterson and d’Arnaud.
So sure – the Braves have a couple of able-bodied defensive replacements to fill holes with, but hardly anyone to use as a late-inning pinch hitter.
Heck, Julio Teheran is hitting .500 (okay, it’s 1 for 2, but still…).
For the Record
Last season, the Braves had a bunch of players who got to the plate less than 300 times*:
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Jeff Francoeur (276 PA, .249)
* Leaving out Matt Kemp and Dansby Swanson and a couple of call-ups.
Sure: we expect the starting lineup to be durable and healthy and productive. But things almost never work out as hoped or expected. And those plate appearances above represent a lot of action – the equivalent of two full player-years worth for a “regular”.
Right now the Braves truly don’t have a lot to work with in taking up that slack… and that’s saying quite a bit, given the lack of production present in that list above.
At the moment, we can count three – Jace Peterson, d’Arnaud, and Bonifacio – that might fill out the bench. 3 players… not the thirteen listed above.
How Did We Get Here?
Injuries, mostly – namely to Johnson and Rodriguez… though with Sean Rod, Brandon Phillips was brought in as a directly replacement.
The other reason seems to be that the Braves may have over-extended themselves to acquire pitching during this off-season.
With the highest Opening Day payroll in club history, Atlanta seems to have run out of funds to finish their bench – offering only minor league deals to Eric O’Flaherty and Blaine Boyer (who both now seem poised to make the club), Jeff Francoeur (unclear if that offer even remains at this point, Kelly Johnson (recently), Angel Pagan (this rumor has quieted) , and others.
Such tactics have protected the team in some instances – the release of John Danks yesterday is an example – but have served to be barriers in other cases (Pagan).
So Now What?
There are always late cuts during the last week of Spring Training, and it seems that John Coppolella will be focused heavily here.
There will be players that teams will have to decide to keep or option to the minors. There will be some that are out of options that teams may face the choice of trading or losing.
There are “opt out” clauses that teams will be forced to reconcile within the next week. There will be both 40-man roster considerations and 25-man roster considerations that Coppy will try to exploit.
There are currently 39 names on the Braves 40-man roster. I would not be surprised to see a trade involving a pair of 40-man names (a 1-for-1 swap; Chaz Roe could be a candidate). I would not be surprised to see a trade of a non-40 player to receive a 40-man player back.
But for sure – something needs to give, for as good as the regular lineup seems to line up, somebody needs to have their back, and suddenly positional depth is a concern.