Atlanta Braves top three players right now going into 2020
By Seth Carter
The Atlanta Braves are the second-favorite NL team to win the World Series in 2020. As one of the premier teams in baseball, the Braves landed three players on the MLB Network’s lists of Top Ten Players Right Now.
While the Atlanta Braves did place three players on MLB Network’s list of top ten players by position for the 2020 season, was that enough for a team with better odds of winning the World Series than the defending champions themselves?
Before we get into the players who were selected as top ten at their position right now, let’s take a look at some of the ‘snubs’ and which positions have yet to be released.
Snubbed
Mike Soroka finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting and sixth in the NL Cy Young voting in 2019, posting a 2.68 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP.
It’s always irritating to see your ace get left off the list, but Soroka did finish sixth in the National League and the list encompasses both the American and National Leagues. Soroka may be number one in our hearts, but he’s going to need another dominant season to have a shot at making the list next season.
Travis d’Arnaud has beaten adversity back with a baseball bat. He has overcome so many injuries it would take another article to list them all. Travis d’Arnaud may have been reaching the end of the line when he found himself with the Dodgers last season.
When Tampa Bay suffered injuries to their thin catching core, they reached out to L.A. and gave Andrew Friedman and company a mere $100,000 for d’Arnaud’s services.
d’Arnaud played like his career was on the line. Finally healthy enough to show people what he was capable of with a bat, he blasted 16 homers in just 327 at-bats. d’Arnaud slashed .263/.323/.459 for the Rays and served as a middle-of-the-order bat for a team pushing for a World Series.
On top of everything he brought with the bat, he’s known as a very good defensive catcher. Rays pitchers lamented the reports that he had signed a two-year pact with the Braves. After last season, d’Arnaud was certainly worthy of having his name mentioned on this list.
The following slides will list the players in an order decided by how they ranked (lowest to highest) at their respective positions.