It was Austin Riley’s bat that forced its way into the majors. It may be Inciarte’s bat that costs him playing time.
After experiencing back stiffness in Tuesday night’s game against the Cardinals, Ender Inciarte was put on the Injured List, which leaves his future in the Atlanta Braves’ lineup in doubt.
Let’s be honest, we all knew this time was coming.
When the Braves decided to start Austin Riley in the outfield over the past week in Gwinnett, the writing on the wall for Ender Inciarte began.
The 2017 All-Star is off to his typically slow start this season at the plate, hitting .218, with an on-base percentage of .300.
Even though it is still early, Inciarte’s defense has been marginal so far as he is in a tie for 38th place in Defensive Runs Saved (with 0) among the 71 qualified outfielders according to Fangraphs.
As a comparison point, despite a couple of spectacular near-misses in the outfield, Ronald Acuna is credited with 6 DRS already… and Nick Markakis has 3.
Couple that with Riley’s torrid stretch in Triple-A, where he’s hit 15 homers in 37 games and it seems like Inciarte’s playing time may take a significant hit.
Let’s just suggest now that this unfortunate, though well-timed back injury could take a while to heal fully.
Options
Let’s assume Riley plays adequately both offensively and defensively during Inciarte’s absence.
What do the Braves do?
The first option would be to put Inciarte on the bench and have him be a late-inning defensive replacement.
But that does two things:
- 1. Matt Joyce would assuredly be designated for assignment, because Johan Camargo, Charlie Culberson and one of the catchers are not going anywhere.
Joyce has been a solid power bat off the bench from the left side, as he has hit two home runs, while batting .276.
Would Joyce’s bat or Inciarte’s defense be more valuable? To me, that’s a tough call.
- 2. Inciarte would be an expensive bench piece. He currently makes 5.7 million dollars, which is nearly double what the rest of the bench makes combined.
For a team that is valuing “financial flexibility”, having a nearly six million-dollar player on the bench seems counter-productive.
A second option would be to trade Inciarte, which seems easier said than done because he does not have a ton of value right now.
The risk would be to sell low on Inciarte not get a fair market return.
Truthfully, the Braves missed a chance to capitalize on Inciarte’s value perhaps last year, but certainly two years ago… when he was signed to a 5-year extension that appeared to be a good deal at the time.
The third option would be to platoon Inciarte and Riley, but it seems counter-productive to call up Riley if he is not going to play everyday.
If there were going to be a platoon, it would have to have included Adam Duvall… and that would have created its own roster issues.
Obviously this is all based on Riley being productive, but there could be quite the quandary coming to Atlanta soon.
Overall: this is a good problem to have for the Atlanta Braves and it will be fascinating to see how it all plays out.