Atlanta Braves podcast S2E8: suddenly, a lot of bench options

Through one week of games, the Atlanta Braves are building a list of versatile players who can fill multiple roles in a pinch.

The news from Atlanta Braves training camp is good thus far.  While pitching results have been mixed, the pitching that truly matters (i.e., the presumptive major league pitchers) has been good thus far.

There was one minor setback in the quarantining of Max Fried early in the week, though reports are that he is now ready to resume normal baseball activities:

The podcast team talked about this in the absence of this update, but considered the best-case possibilities involved for Fried and his readiness for Opening Day.

There’s also reactions to Brian Snitker‘s new contract extension, but the biggest part of this week’s short session involves the bench.

The Atlanta Braves are giving themselves multiple options.

Take a gander at the depth options that the Braves have now assembled… with the possibility to stash some at the 2021 version of the “Alternate Training Site”:

• Johan Camargo (any infield plus LF)
• Jake Lamb (1B, 3B)
• Jason Kipnis (2B)
• Ehire Adrianza (virtually any position except catcher; 2B/SS/3B mostly)
• Pablo Sandoval (1B, 3B)
• Ryan Goins (2B, SS, 3B)
• Travis Snider (corner OF)
• Guillermo Heredia (any OF position)
• Travis Demeritte (corner outfield)
• Terrance Gore (corner outfield)

There’s a number of reasons for having this many players in camp, but the biggest reason is that the Braves are clearly trying (finally) to ensure that they have the kind of quality depth pieces we’ve been concerned about needing for a full 162-game season.

There’s another aspect, too:  with this list, there’s good reason to believe that no one — Camargo specifically included — has any guarantee of a major league role at seasons’ start.

All this is part of the discussion in this podcast, which you can listen to via your own regular subscription services, this direct download link, or from this player below:

Of course, all of the above assumes — for the moment — that Austin Riley is anchored at third base and that both Cristian Pache and Ender Inciarte end up on the OD roster.  Hard to call even these positions a complete lock yet, though.

Thanks for listening — we’ll start to see next week how trends are going and whether these bench battles are starting to take shape.