The word is that John Coppolella is on the prowl again – searching for a suitable and productive bench bat. Let’s see what the options might be at this point.
The situation is not ideal, but after losing one apparently strong candidate in Dustin Peterson this week, the Atlanta Braves are trying to find a bench bat solution that will provide some needed offense deep in games.
The question is then this: what do they need exactly and who might be available?
Let’s start with the birds currently in their hand:
- Jace Peterson. Can play virtually anywhere on the field. Bats Left. Has had interesting success with runners on base – notably bases loaded situations (.355 with 28 RBI in 31 AB). But as a non-starter, he hits just .167 overall.
- Chase d’Arnaud. Can play virtually anywhere on the field. Bats right. Excellent speed. Light-hitting almost regardless of the situation, though .308 as a non-starter – which is going to be the case most of the time.
- Either of Tyler Flowers or Kurt Suzuki. One or the other might be available, but using up your backup catcher in a pinch-hitting situation is always risky. Both bat right.
So for defensive replacements, the Braves are more-or-less covered for limited-duration situations. Peterson and d’Arnaud are more infielders than outfielders, so getting an outfielder for the bench is probably a reasonable idea.
Lefty or righty? Since the above group leans slightly right, a left-handed hitter would be a better choice.
The lineup regulars line up in this way:
- LHH: Inciarte, Freeman, Markakis (3)
- RHH: Swanson, Phillips, Garcia, Kemp, Catcher du jour (5)
So yes: a lefty off the bench would probably be the right call.
Now let’s leaf through a few pages of player catalogs to find somebody.
Internal Options
While these seem to have been all but ruled out, you never know if the trade you want is the one you might be able to land, so this is still worth a quick check:
- Emilio Bonifacio. Switch hitter. Positional flexibility. Slap hitter with limited bat.
- Adam Brett Walker. RHH, OF. Big power; bigger strikeouts.
- Christian Walker. RHH, 1B. Decent AAA bat, but not nearly enough major league reps to say much – and he’s defensively limited.
- Rio Ruiz. LHH, but likely destined for AAA to avoid stunting his development right where it is.
- Micah Johnson. LHH Infielder with speed… and a very limited bat. Again, too few MLB numbers to say for sure, but club not likely to go here.
- Johan Camargo. Switch hitting. If it came down to him or Bonifacio, I believe Camargo wins, but he’s probably the “In case of emergency, break glass” guy to be stashed at AAA for either Swanson or Phillips if needed.
…and don’t even think about Ronald Acuna yet… even if he was close to the majors, a bench role is not his destiny – certainly not at this point.
A Few External Options
So that’s why Coppy is reportedly looking outside the organization. Here’s a look at some candidates (definitely not an exhaustive list):
- Steven Moya. LHH OF. Of Moya, MMLive.com said via MLBTR last night that “the Tigers are facing a tough decision with powerful outfielder Steven Moya and versatile infielder Dixon Machado“.
Moya has limited major league PA’s (133) but hit .255 with 5 homers (.500 slugging) in 100 of them last season. His K-rate, however, is 38%. While he would be an option, the only advantages he really has over Adam Walker is that he’s a Lefty hitter and has some major league experience.
- Brett Lawrie. RHH IF. Okay, yes – he’s the polar opposite of what the Braves need. But the White Sox are in the process of releasing him, and he’s still just 27 with solid experience and a fair bat (.248/.310/.413/.723 in 384 PA over 2016).
- Trayce Thompson. RHH OF. We’ve seen several suggestions to bring the nearly 26-year-old to Atlanta. In short: probably not.
In limited action last season, he hit 13 HR while batting just .226, though with a .748 OPS. His K-rate was at 25%, but he’s a backup option at all outfield positions for the Dodgers, which could make them reluctant to trade him.
Off the bench, though, there is a .296 average (/803 OPS) over his career… though that’s happened over only 28 plate appearances.
- Jay Bruce. LHH OF. Okay, this one is admittedly out-of-the-box thinking. He’s a starter, but the Mets don’t want him and I don’t believe he ever took to the New York, either. Still not quite 30 years old, his numbers have been up and down, though were poor in 2016.
The rub. Going through the trade route makes me believe that the Braves can’t really take on much more salary, so the Mets would require a pretty significant prospect to get them to pony up the vast majority of the $13 million due to Bruce this season.
Still, he hits .257/.329/.488/.817 over his career vs. RH pitching… and in limited PA’s (65) has hit well off the bench (.286/.369/.466/.816). Of course a lot of that came at the bandbox in Cincy, so your mileage may vary.
Overall, this is definitely a longshot.
Sure: would we prefer Brandon Nimmo or Michael Conforto? Absolutely. Would the Mets trade either one to the Braves? No.
Reading Between Lines
The Braves could choose to ‘settle’ for internal options. However, even if they truly liked the idea of having (Dustin) Peterson as the last man on the bench, it appears that they now are intending to execute some modest form of an upgrade here.
That’s a good message to send – to find better production even for the 25th man. That suggests Atlanta wants to insure they have every opportunity to truly be a competitive club this season, should all things fall into place well.
It will thus be interesting to see how Coppy resolves this quandary, but he has a history of making the quick strike whenever a trade partnership is found, so I expect we’ll have an answer soon.