3 Key Additions for 2017 Atlanta Braves

For whatever reason, there’s always talk about 3 areas of need for teams at this time of the year (likely due to a slow news time throughout the MLB), and the Braves are no exception.

In MLBTradeRumors latest piece on the Atlanta Braves, they listed the team’s needs as 3rd Base, Catcher, and the Bullpen. And while I agree on all somewhat, I don’t think that all have to be addressed via Free Agency.

In today’s piece I’ll discuss what I think are 3 key pieces to make the Braves a serious competitor, 2 of which come internally, and the last coming via free agency.

As we know it, the Braves seem to have a loose plan in place to use Sean Rodriguez at both 2nd base and 3rd base in semi-platoons with  Adonis Garcia and Jace Peterson making Sean nearly an everyday player.

That sounds nice as Sean had a good year last year, Jace was solid after being recalled from Gwinnett, and Adonis likewise after he was called back from Gwinnett (where he was sent down to learn to play left field of which he didn’t play upon the callup).

However, the plan seriously falters should 1 of these guys really struggle, and gets blown up by a bazooka should 2 struggle. Furthermore, having Jace or Adonis in the everyday lineup weakens a bench that would likely end up having to carry fringe players that would be forced to be used in pinch-hitting situations.

This happened way too often in the past few years and the Braves have really missed the days of Omar Infante and Martin Prado who provided a beautiful problem of good bench players forcing the manager’s hand to find them playing time. In my opinion, that should be the roles of Adonis and Jace.

With the following moves, the team could be set up so deep and interchangeable that, if performing, Snitker could have a tough decision to make on a daily basis: Who starts? Who sits?

That is a good problem, ladies and gents. It’s the problem that faced Joe Maddon nearly every day in 2016 with the Cubs.

Let’s get to the moves.