Atlanta Braves: How will Adam Duvall, postseason hero, do in 2020?
By Josh Mathews
When the Atlanta Braves acquired Adam Duvall in 2018, they were picking up an All-Star slugger on a bit of a down note. The organization was patient with him, it paid postseason dividends, and could pay out ever further in 2020.
Atlanta Braves outfielder Adam Duvall has always been more of the ‘all-or-nothing’ type of hitter. He’s always had good power, played good defense and is a seriously underrated athlete in my opinion.
As a press box lackey for a few years for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, I got to see a full season of Duvall in 2013, where he hit 17 home runs playing half his games in one of the worst hitters parks ever, The Diamond, and the other half in the equally as stingy Eastern League.
I love the The Diamond. Growing up there and watching the Richmond Braves was a treat – as bad as they were most of the time – but that’s not what this article is about.
Adam Duvall had barely gotten his feet wet in the major leagues with the San Francisco Giants and spent some time at AAA Fresno before he was dealt at the 2015 trading deadline to the Cincinnati Reds along with Keury Mella for Mike Leake. After winning championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014, the Giants were getting pitching for the postseason push.
In 2016, Duvall blossomed into the outfielder and hitter that the Giants may wish they would have kept. He was an All-Star for the Reds, and finished the year with 33 home runs and 101 RBI.
In 2017, he followed up that effort with 31 more home runs and 99 RBI. Duvall hit .241 and .249 in those seasons respectively with his share of strikeouts… all 334 of them.
It was in 2018 where he kind of lost himself, hitting just .205 and whiffing 100 times in just 331 at-bats that concerned the Reds, so they packaged him in a deal to the Atlanta Braves where we gave up Matt Wisler, Lucas Sims and Preston Tucker – the latter who we later re-acquired that September.
With the Atlanta Braves, Duvall had a miserable time, looking lost at the plate. He hit .132, striking out 17 times in 53 at-bats and failing to hit a home run.
Then, that offseason, the Atlanta Braves tendered him a contract for 2019, much to the chagrin of many fans.
We were paying 2.9 million dollars for that quality of a player. Yes, yes we were.