Atlanta Braves Jose Bautista to join the team during this road trip?!
By Jeff Schafer
Braves could call up Bautista soon? WOW
The Atlanta Braves signed veteran outfielder/infielder Jose Bautista on Wednesday of last week. The hope was that he would play in the Braves extended Spring Training for a few games, then join a minor league team and play as many games as needed and then possibly join the big league organization at some point this season. Well, that could be sooner rather than later.
The 37-year-old played in two games with the Braves extended Spring Training team on Thursday and Friday. He went 3-9 with a home run, double and single. I was actually pretty surprised as to what the Braves did next.
He was then assigned to the High Single-A Florida Fire Frogs on Saturday. He played two games with the Fire Frogs going 2-7 at the plate with a double, a run scored and two walks.
Moving Bautista that quickly, means something…the Braves front office and Alex Anthopoulos really want this. This wasn’t just another signing — don’t compare this to the Ryan Howard signing in 2017.
Okay, so he’s going to stay in High Single-A for a little while, right? NOPE!
Bautista will join the TRIPLE-A GWINNETT STRIPERS on MONDAY! Holy moly!
Gwinnett has a doubleheader on Monday and Bautista will play third base in the first game and then DH in the second game. First game starts at 5:05pm ET.
Jose Bautista playing at high-A again today, then will go play doubleheader with Triple-A Gwinnett at Rochester tomorrow.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) April 22, 2018
Gwinnett stays in Rochester through Wednesday, but does Bautista? Hell, the way the Braves are moving this guy up the organization, he could be on the flight out of Rochester on Monday night. It’s a short flight from Rochester, New York to Cincinnati, no?
Why do I say this? Because check out Braves beat writer Mark Bowman’s latest tweet…
Snit says Bautista will play in Gwinnett’s doubleheader tomorrow. The reports have been good. There’s a chance he could join the Braves during this road trip
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 22, 2018
Sure, “this road trip” spans over three cities…Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and ending in New York on May 3rd. So those three words could mean anywhere in the next 10 days. But they could mean as early as Tuesday’s game.
The Braves signed Bautista to play third base. This isn’t because the Braves necessarily have a hole there…Ryan Flaherty has been playing extremely well at the hot corner. But we can’t count on a 31-year-old player who’s never really excelled at the major league level before this.
Flaherty is currently batting .362 with one homer, five doubles, eight RBIs and nine runs scored. He’s been very impressive and has definitely helped the Braves get to their 12-8 record.
But Bautista can bring so much more to the Braves lineup. He’s got something to prove. He seems like the type of guy to prove everyone wrong. So many teams passed on him this offseason. He’s on a mission.
Bautista brings protection to Freddie Freeman…meaning Freeman would be seeing better pitches and not be walked as much because the pitcher knows who’s behind him. He’ll also bring an extra power stick to our lineup.
Next: Braves Jose Ramirez injury & unanswered questions
This is just me getting really excited, but what if the Braves bring up Bautista, and Ronald Acúna Jr AND Tyler Flowers all on the same day! Yeah, I’m not sure we could handle that.