Rain Delay: What if Atlanta Braves miss out on a star 3B?

What if the Atlanta Braves do not land a star third basemen? Indexing Tomahawk Take’s 3B coverage, a look at average exit-velocities, and a potential solution to this worst-case scenario.

With the bidding intensifying on former Atlanta Braves slugger, Josh Donaldson, it feels like an announcement could be made at any moment.

The Nationals have reportedly offered him four years, $90 million.

Hopefully, the Braves will counter that with four years, $90,000,001.

What if Donaldson signs with the Nats!?!

The Braves have been linked to Kris Bryant trade rumors, but there’s a lot of reason to believe that the deal will not happen. As Tomahawk Take’s own Fred Owens points out here, the grievance is not likely to be over any time soon.

Here’s Fred’s projection as to a potential timeline:

"“I’d say we can have a resolution by the time he retires.”"

On top of the grievance, the Nats are reportedly not too interested in pressing further with the Cubs due to the asking price.

So let’s say the Braves miss out on Donaldson and Bryant. Take shelter for the sky is falling.

We have the in-house options of Austin Riley and Johan Camargo. These are better options than the Nationals’ fallback options, but they have very iffy track records.

Riley was atrocious after June and slashed .161/.211/.276 after the All-Star break.

Camargo was so bad as a fill-in for the injured Dansby Swanson, the Braves signed Adeiny Hechavaria (hitting .204 at the time) and sent Camargo down to the minors in corresponding moves. 

I know we’ve looked at the third base market from nearly every angle. “Nearly” isn’t nearly good enough.

First of all, here’s (next slide) an index of various Tomahawk Take articles covering the Braves non-Donaldson third base options. Get your fix!