The reason that the Atlanta Braves might really need an outfield bat

If the season began today, left field would be dealt with as a platoon combination of Duvall and Markakis… but how would that work out?

Right now the focus of the Atlanta Braves is all about third base… and rightly so:  the lone true impact bat remaining on the free agent market belongs to Josh Donaldson, and he’s clearly enjoying this off-season’s feeding frenzy for his services.

But even if Donaldson opts to re-up with the Braves, that’s just one spot in the lineup… a big spot, no doubt, but there’s still the 5-through-8 positions to fill.

As things stand, those lineup slots would be filled by this Adam Duvall/Nick Markakis platoon, Travis d’Arnaud (and Tyler Flowers), Dansby Swanson, and Ender Inciarte… in some order.

That’s a good group, but it’s truthfully not a combination that would scare opposing pitching on most nights.

Inciarte and Swanson… at this point, both are going to be about what they are:  just above league-average hitters with most of their value (which isn’t to be ignored) coming from defensive contributions.

There’s hope that catcher d’Arnaud can repeat his useful year with Tampa Bay – a season in which he hit .263, OPS’d .782 and whacked 16 homers in 92 games (365 plate appearances).

That matched a career high in homers (but didn’t everybody do that in 2019?) and was his 2nd-highest OPS.  Generally speaking, though, he’s approximately a league-average hitter.

Tyler Flowers should probably be close to the same, though declined batting averages in 2018-19 suggest that he’s winding down.

The Braves therefore need Donaldson’s presence in the lineup – no doubt – but they also need one more bat to lengthen and strengthen an offense that ranked third in the NL in offensive output and second overall in fangraphs’ Wins Above Replacement.

But some additional help would be useful… so what about this Markakis/Duvall combination?