The Braves viewed Dansby Swanson leave in totally free firm this winter months. They’ll get in the period with something of an enigma at shortstop for the very first time in 6 years because of this.
As points stand, shortstop resembles a two-man fight in between young infielder Vaughn Grissom as well as utilityman Orlando Arcia Grissom, 22, is relatively the company’s shortstop of the future. He has simply 41 MLB video games under his belt as well as includes some concerns concerning his capability to deal with the setting defensively, as several possibility critics have actually recommended he would certainly be a far better suitable for keystone or limbo. Arcia has a a lot longer MLB record however possesses a moderate.243/.295/.369 line in simply under 2200 occupation plate looks.
Veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus stays anonymous as well as would certainly appear a practical fit theoretically for a win-now Atlanta group in an affordable department. There’s no sign the Braves have actually discovered the opportunity of including a substitute shortstop, however. Atlanta has actually positioned a suitable quantity of count on their highly-touted young gamers in current periods, as well as head of state of baseball procedures Alex Anthopoulos shared positive outlook concerning the internal prospects over the weekend break.
Anthopoulos recognized that some have protective interest in Grissom however kept in mind that well-respected infield train Ron Washington has actually provided solid testimonials on his offseason job. “I can see how the scouting community might have questions about Vaughn. I had questions about Vaughn when I first saw him,” Anthopoulos stated (web link by means of Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). “And I’ve been wrong plenty of times. The difference is we have a guy in Ron Washington who’s unbelievable with this stuff. He wouldn’t just say something to say it. … And, look, we don’t know how Vaughn’s going to hit. He’s got to earn the job. Orlando Arcia can do it, too. But Wash really believes in Vaughn. We believe in Vaughn, too, but we’re going to go with who we think the expert in that area is, and I don’t know anybody better in the game than Ron.”
Certainly, the Braves would certainly enjoy for Grissom to take the setting out of eviction. The right-handed player excited throughout his initial fracture of big league activity, striking.291/.353/.440 with 5 crowning achievement over 156 plate looks. He revealed a hostile strategy however top quality bat-to-ball abilities. Grissom played mainly keystone with Ozzie Albies wounded last period, with public protective metrics repainting him a pair runs low-grade in 347 innings of job.
Albies will certainly be back at the keystone, while Austin Riley has actually 3rd base safeguarded. The just non-shortstop setting in the schedule that’s unclear is left area, where a collection of gamers led by Eddie Rosario seem completing for reps. Skipper Brian Snitker emphasized over the weekend break that Grissom would not factor right into the edge outfield throughout exhibit play, with the club seeing him only as an infielder (by means of David O’Brien of the Athletic).
The 28-year-old Arcia is a lower-upside professional alternative. He’s coming off the very best offending proving of his occupation in a part-time duty, striking.244/.316/.416 with 9 homers with 234 journeys to home plate. That was the initial above-average reduce line of his 7 major league periods. Arcia made difficult call at a career-high 42.5% clip to accumulate 18 extra-base hits over 68 video games. It was a great year for the 28-year-old to at the very least placed himself in the mix for the shortstop setting if Grissom fails, although his small occupation record at home plate questions concerning whether he can keep his 2022 manufacturing over a complete year of day-to-day shortstop reps.
