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3 reasons Atlanta Braves shouldn’t trade Ender Inciarte right now

By Jake Mastroianni

CHICAGO, IL - MAY 14: Ender Inciarte #11 of the Atlanta Braves makes a catch on Javier Baez #9 of the Chicago Cubs during the sixth inning while wearing the #42 to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day on May 14, 2018 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - MAY 14: Ender Inciarte #11 of the Atlanta Braves makes a catch on Javier Baez #9 of the Chicago Cubs during the sixth inning while wearing the #42 to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day on May 14, 2018 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images) /
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We look at three reasons why the Atlanta Braves shouldn’t trade Ender Inciarte right now and why they need him for the 2020 season.

It seems like people have been trying to trade Ender Inciarte off the Atlanta Braves since he arrived. And that talk has picked up again since the Braves signed Marcell Ozuna.

There are those who think they need to trade Ender simply to save money — he’s owed $7.7 million in 2020 and $8.7 million in 2022.

Others think Cristian Pache is just as good and ready to go.

But as we talked about on the most recent podcast we just recorded, there are several very good reasons why Atlanta needs to hang onto Inciarte.

His defense:

This is one is the most obvious. The three-time Gold Glove winner is considered by most to be one of the best — if not the best — defensive center fielder in all of baseball.

In 2018 he ranked fifth in DRS and 10th in UZR, according to FanGraphs.

To be fair, he noticeably took a step back defensively in 2019, but I’m hoping part of that was the injuries he was dealing with and trying to play through.

But there is no question he’s one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball. And despite what you think about his offense, he makes up for it plenty in the field and saves our pitchers a lot of runs and pitches.

And with Marcell Ozuna in left field — who is not a great defender — they need Ender more than ever to cover up Ozuna’s deficiencies out there.

RAJ needs to stay in right: 

Maybe my biggest reason for wanting the Braves to keep Ender is because I do not want to see them move Ronald Acuna Jr. out of right field. Put him in right field and let him start there every day for the rest of his career.

I honestly believe RAJ will win a Gold Glove out in right field one day. But he does not belong in center and has looked completely lost out there most of the time.

It’s a very small sample size, but RAJ had 5 DRS in right field last year in just 199.2 innings while he had 3 DRS in 333.1 innings in right field and only 1 DRS in 831 innings in center.

Not enough value

It’s not like I’m completely against trading Inciarte in the right deal, but he doesn’t have a lot of value right now.

He has much more value to Atlanta right now than any other team, so you’re not going to get much in return for him.

If they really did want to move him, they should at least wait until the trade deadline.

By then he’ll have hopefully proved he’s healthy and can be effective in the field and at the plate. And hopefully Pache will prove that he’s ready to make the jump at that point.

Next. Time to spend big. dark

I understand why a lot of people may think it’s wise to move Inciarte right now, but I’m not in that group. My ideal lineup for the Braves going into 2020 has Ender in center field and batting eighth.

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