Atlanta Braves Have A Couple of Choices for Bench Bats
With the last Florida Grapefruit League game in the books for 2017, the Braves still have not chosen to name their full roster. So there’s still a chance.
Today is the day that several teams made their last significant roster cuts. This is the day that the Atlanta Braves have been waiting for to see exactly who might be available to them.
We’ve already taken a look at a couple of final bench candidates that we thought could be claimed from the waiver wire, but now we have the real answers from their current clubs.
Szczur
Mercifully enough for my typing, Matt Szczur is not going to be one of the options that John Coppolella has.
The Cubs have named him to their 25-man roster along with Braves’ alumnus Tommy La Stella. This is a bit surprising, but it might also be temporary for one of this pair as their bench still looks to be a bit crowded.
Moya
The 25-year-old Steven Moya was one outfield bat that we mentioned back in early March. He’s now available from the Tigers for a couple of reasons:
- He’s out of minor league options (and thus must clear waivers to be assigned there)
- He was pretty terrible this Spring, sporting a .192 batting average with a robust 11 strikeouts against 1 walk.
He did hit 1 homer and a pair of doubles, but it’s certainly true that the Braves might want a bit better consistency from their bench than he looks to supply.
Moya’s .250 career major league average with .745 OPS is a better argument for him, and thus might not be a bad option for a do-or-die AB late in a game.
You could certainly argue that he’s a better threat that either Chase d’Arnaud or Emilio Bonifacio (the latter having already being named to the club).
Because he’s out of options (and this is the case for all such candidates discussed today), the Braves would have to either carry Moya on their 25-man roster or try and sneak him through waivers to the minors themselves.
Moya does have a history of minor league power, clubbing 35 homers at AA in 2014 and 20 more at AAA in each of the succeeding years. His K rate is also high, and thus the 6-6/220 slugger comes off as similar to Adam Walker… though in his case, Walker has already been cleared to AAA.
Tavarez
During the last Rule 5 draft, the Orioles selected outfielder Aneury Tavarez from the Red Sox. He has been played on outright waivers, which means that there’s a good chance he’ll have to be offered back to the Red Sox.
Tavarez has no major league experience and only 11 games above the AA level. He’ll be 25 next month and hits lefty.
At AA in 2016, he did a nice job, hitting .335 with 7 homers and 47 RBI with a dozen-and-a-half steals to boot. Speed is a factor, it seems, for he also recorded 13 triples last season in 106 AA contests.
He actually hit well this Spring in major league games, though (a) “it’s just Spring”, and (b) many of those ABs were likely against lesser pitching competition (comparatively).
Still, he went .292/.382/.396/.778 overall with a homer and just 8 K against 6 walks in 48 major league game ABs… and thus seems to make a lot more contact at the plate than does Mr. Moya.
Hughes
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Not a hitter, but in the Pirates’ Jared Hughes, a reliable bullpen right-hander that could be stashed at AAA while he gets his act back together.
Over the last two seasons, Hughes has compiled a nice set of lines: 2.28 and 3.03 ERAs out of the Buc’s bullpen.
Unfortunately, he has played himself completely out of a job right now with a horrific 11.57 ERA this Spring. He went from a nice arbitration payday to… release waivers.
Hughes can thus be picked up for a song, and if he manages to straighten out whatever ails him, then he could be called upon this Summer, perhaps, to bolster the Braves’ bullpen.
Whatever the result here – from nothing to perhaps a small bench/bullpen improvement – we know that John Coppolella doesn’t rest, so let’s see what happens to this trio of players on the move.
Hat tip to senior staff writer Fred Owens who’s off keyboard, but still watching the wires for us tonight.