Atlanta Braves Have 3 Questions to Resolve this Off-season

Sep 20, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves second baseman Jace Peterson (8) catches a pop up hit by Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Jeff Francoeur (not pictured) during the seventh inning at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Second Base – Jace… or…?

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On June 21st, the Braves purchased Touki Toussaint from the Arizona Diamondbacks, along with Bronson Arroyo (remember him?) and a few other bits and pieces in moves that seemed heavily skewed towards the Braves.

One of of the details was that Philip Gosselin went to the Diamondbacks.  Recall that prior to this trade, Gosselin was used occasionally at second base to spell Jace Peterson.  In addition, Peterson had been sharing some time with Alberto Callaspo until he was traded on May 27th.

The final straw, though, was this:  the trade of Jose Peraza to the Dodgers on July 30.  This seemed to remove all doubt as to who would man the keystone position for the foreseeable future.  The path was clear:  Jace Peterson was the everyday second baseman.  It was over, done.

Maybe.

Since hitting at a .282 clip in May – and even with .263 in June – Peterson has faltered, and badly so.  In July, he hit at a .174 rate.  August came in at .238;  .222 for the rest of the year after that.  For the full year, that .239 doesn’t at all look like the promise that he showed in AA (.311) and AAA (.306).

At the same time, Jace, who is now 25-1/2, jumped through the Padres’ system very quickly.  Those AA/AAA stints came in just 86 games during 2014 as he zoomed through 3 levels in a single year.

Perhaps the Braves were having second thoughts about these moves themselves, for when Daniel Castro was called up (twice:  July 25th for 2 weeks and again on September 1st), he started getting some playing time at second base.

In fact, Castro played 99 innings – 11 full games – at the position through the end of the year.  Now while he popped a couple of fence-scraper home runs, he didn’t exactly set the world on fire with his bat, either (.240 overall).  But he impressed, nonetheless and started us thinking about whether a L/R platoon might be in the offing.

THE QUESTION:  Does Jace stick at second base or does he go to AAA for more seasoning?

THE OPTIONS (in order of likelihood):

• Stick with Jace – expect he grows out of the slump after seeing a year of ML pitching.
• Platoon.
• Send Jace to AAA, go with Daniel Castro; though he looks ideally suited as the new utility infielder.
• Hector Olivera to second… but he’s also the subject of the next question.

Next: What If Hector Can't Catch?