Day one of MLB’s annual winter meetings was a snoozer for Atlanta Braves fans. Day two however saw the Tomahawk pop up in several interesting rumors.
Earlier today Alan passed along a rumor from Rays beat writer Marc Topkin that had the Atlanta Braves interested in Chris Archer; duh! Of course they are and so are 19 other teams.
The same can be said about the this tidbit from Marlins beat writer Joe Frisaro.
Not clear yet if #Marlins are actually open to moving Christian Yelich, but at least 10 clubs are inquiring. #Braves #Dbacks #STLCards among them.
— Joe Frisaro (@JoeFrisaro) December 12, 2017
Atlanta Braves ask about another outfielder
Let me start by declaring my appreciation of this player; Christian Yelich is a stud and in my view the pick of the Miami outfield crew. He hits for average, hits for power, runs well and plays solid defense
Taken by the Fish in the first round of the 2010 draft (25th overall). He signed an above slot $1.7M deal at the signing deadline and appeared in 12 games split evenly between rookie and low A ball. That look was enough to make him the Marlins #3 prospect going into 2011.
Atlanta Braves
Yelich had his way with pitchers in low A ball in 2011, finishing with a .312/.388/.414/.871 line, 15 homers, 32 doubles and a triple in 122 games. Fangraphs calculates his season as worth .393 wOBA with 140 wRC+.
Those numbers propelled him to #41 on Baseball America’s top 100 list, #35 on MLB’s list and #33 on Baseball Prospectus’ list. That made him number one on the Marlin’s list going into 2012.
The 2012 season was more of the same – .330/.404/.519/.922 final line – and 2013 started that way. He made his debut in July of 2013, and hasn’t looked back.
On the record
As a major leaguer Yelich compiled a .290/.369/.432/.800 line, 59 homers, 146 doubles, 14 triples. He’s also stolen 72 bases in 90 attempts (80%), all of that boils down to a .349 wOBA and 121 wRC+. Over the last four years he posted fWARs of 4.5, 2.4, 4.5 and 4.5
Yelich suffered a lower back strain in 2014, it recurred in 2015 and 2016 so some believe it limits his value.He also miss time with a badly bruised knee, hamstring strain and a strained right hip flexor. His total lost time comes to about 55 days in four and a half seasons.
Defensively DRS and UZR like him as a left fielder which works well for us. . . and a lot of others.