Atlanta Braves to Platoon Adonis Garcia in Left

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Apr 25, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (15) throws wide to first against the slide by Atlanta Braves right fielder Nick Markakis (22) during the sixth inning at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports /

This isn’t what we planned so. . .

Olivera’s spring training was good, he was squaring up pitches and hitting the ball all around the park but once the season started that stopped. By the time he was put on administrative leave for off the field issues, he was slashing .211/.238/.263/.501 with one double and two RBI. The Braves have no idea when Olivera will be back and the question of what they’ll do with him when he does return.

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Garcia however started the season hot and is still raking. Entering tonight’s game his .317/.394/.381/.775 line was second only to Nick Markakis .303/.410/.438/.850 and he home run is one of only three the team has hit all year.

His bat demands that he be in the lineup and now that Olivera’s future is cloudy Gonzalez can shift him back to the outfield and play a better defender at third.

Why would Garcia be better in left than at third? Because he’s been an outfielder the great majority of the time since he left Cuba.

In that time he’s played 2219 1/3 innings in the outfield in 237 games plus another 84 games in Venezuela for which we don’t have an innings count. That includes:

686 1/3 innings and 38 games without known innings in center field
694 1/3 innings and 10 games without known innings in right field
838 2/3 innings and 9 games without known innings in left field

At this point it seems right to point out that his fielding percentage in the outfield drifts around the .950s. However in left field with Mallex Smith, Drew Stubs or Ender Inciarte to flank him in center the potential for him to cost us a game with poor defense drops exponentially.

That’s A Wrap

As long as pitchers continue to ignore the data and pitch to his strengths Garcia will continue to hit and his bat will continue to be essential to a lineup scandalously short of power. The new plan from Gonzalez is to play Garcia in left against RHP and shift him back to third against LHP in order to get Jeff Francoeur in the game.

That platoon makes sense as the new third baseman will probably be Kelly Johnson and giving him regular at bats might wake his drowsy bat up as well. When Inciarte returns next month the decision about whether to keep a struggling Smith up and hope he figures it out will affect whether Garcia stays in this platoon or is forced back to a position he’s clearly uncomfortable playing.

Next: Trade who?

The only thing wrong with this plan is that he took too long to figure it out but now that he has it’s time to put it into operation. Jeff Francoeur’s success against Rick Porcello made playing Frenchy in left tonight understandable but The Braves face Steven Wright tomorrow and the next LHP up will be David Price on Thursday so why Gonzalez plans to wait until the Braves play the Cubs on Friday is still a bit of a mystery.

Gonzalez is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic but at least this arrangement makes some sense.

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