The Atlanta Braves have a choice to make at catcher come next season

Kurt Suzuki and Tyler Flowers are in what is basically a catcher rotation for playing time. Suzuki plays one day and the next is Flowers’ time to shine, but what about next year for the Atlanta Braves?

The Atlanta Braves have both Flowers and Suzuki becoming free agents come next year and it’s hard to say that we shouldn’t resign either. However, there may be a better option than signing them both back to contracts.

Both have their certain upside and attributes that make them who they are. Kurt Suzuki is 34, about to be 35 in October, he’s also batting .259 for the time being and has a OBP of .327 with 8 homers and 36 RBIs in 74 games this season.

Kurt is a very solid defensive catcher and also decent at framing pitches. Not the strongest arm but has the ability to throw runners out. Along with only 4 errors on the year.

Tyler Flowers is 32-going-on-33 and free agency is opening for him as well in 2019. Flowers is currently batting an abysmal .230 with 17 RBIs and 4 homers in 48 games so far this year.

Flowers has an excellent ability at framing and blocking pitches. His arm is about the same as Suzuki’s if not a tad bit better on some days.

His batting ability this year doesn’t coincide with previous years, though.  In 2017 in batted .281 with 12 homers and 49 RBIs, so this year seems to be just a down year (though he’s really struggled since Summer hit).

The Choice

The predicament for Atlanta is the fact that trying to sign bigger names and keep a guy having a career year like Nick Markakis may be a tad bit hard if you’re having to go into contract negotiations and pay both Suzuki and Flowers.

With guys like Alex Jackson and Jonathan Morales in the minors and little money to waste, the best idea might just be signing one of the two catchers and having a guy like Alex Jackson play here and there for the Braves behind one of them.

Now the question is… Which do we sign?

Kurt Suzuki is the answer. He may be a little bit more expensive than Flowers, but the production for a team trying to win games is apparent in Suzuki.

Alex Jackson is only 22 as of right now and was acquired by Atlanta in a trade with Seattle in 2016, considered a bust-ish type player after being drafted 6th overall in the first round back in 2014.

However, Jackson has some impressive power along with fielding ability behind the plate and can also play in the corner outfield spots. Alex Jackson is batting .250 for AAA Gwinnett right now and has 7 homers this year along with 35 RBIs combined this year in AA Mississippi and AAA Gwinnett.

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Maybe the Braves find someone in free agency or through trade in the offseason to solve the problem. However, re-signing Kurt Suzuki and calling up Alex Jackson to play behind him might be a very solid option.

A player like J.T Realmuto or maybe Yasmani Grandal would also be great additions and could most certainly help the Braves win games next season.  While it would more than likely hinder them from making many more moves than that, it could very well be the most effective in the short go of things.

The Braves – much like many MLB teams – have inquired about Realmuto and deservedly so. Realmuto is the only Marlins player with much value as of right now. He’s a very solid all around option with pop in the bat.

Speaking of pop in the bat, Yasmani Grandal is a very powerful hitter with ability to throw runners out with ease… and he will be a free agent at season’s end – unlike Realmuto.

All of these options are great, and would likely help the Braves succeed come 2019.  We will just have to wait and see what Alex Anthopoulos thinks is the best option.