Atlanta Braves’ new priorities: scouting, defense,… and winning.

Defense

This is a case of GM speak and there are thick lines to read between here.

Let’s look quickly at Defensive Runs Saved (DRS)… it’s a stat that still has some… curiosity… around it, but it’s a good way to distinguish how good one player is relative to others in fielding their positions.

It is pretty simple:  a positive value suggests that opponents do not score as often against that defender; a negative value suggests a player worse than average and is giving runs away.

A 162 game full-time player plays 1458 innings; more for extra innings.

Matt Kemp played 851.2.  He had the 3rd-worst DRS in all of baseball.  The only worse players – taking the innings played into account – were Denard Span and Jose Reyes.

But… he was injured a lot!  Bad hammies…. bad hips.

Okay…  In 2016 he was 14th worst (-12).  Counting only the 465.2 innings played in Atlanta.  -18 for the full year (1293 innings).  He’s been posting negative DRS numbers for the last 8 seasons straight.

Those aren’t the only bad numbers on defense for the Braves, but Kemp’s stands out like a sore thumb.  Tyler Flowers sported a -9 was tied for second worst in the majors among catchers (-9) in 745 innings.  Notably, Brian McCann was worst overall at -12.

Now Flowers was re-upped because of his offensive production numbers as he and stable-mate Kurt Suzuki formed a formidable tandem at the plate.  Kemp…has a big contract.

So what does AA have in mind here?

It’s unclear whether the catching situation should or could be changed easily.  But should no deal be possible to move Kemp to the American League, it sounds to me like the stroke of a pen might be made to make the defense instantly better – despite a nearly $40 million write-off.