Atlanta Braves: William Contreras promoted – what this means for Shea Langeliers

This May Be a Test

We know that a big league team needs two competent catchers. Some teams, like the Atlanta Braves, like to basically split their catching duties down the middle.

And some teams prefer to have a primary catcher; though, even then, the backup catcher needs to be able to play at least 40-50 games.

Flowers and McCann aren’t going to be around forever, heck they might not be around in the next two years. McCann is signed for just this season and Flowers is signed through 2020.

It the Braves want to keep their catcher situation an in-house activity, then someone in the minors has to step up.

Alex Jackson showed promise this Spring, leading the team on offense for the first half of Spring Training. He’s definitely capable of holding down the position in the majors, though a .216 batting average in Triple-A isn’t ideal — he does have 12 home runs in Gwinnett this season.

And I’ve shown you Contreras’ stats in Florida: good but not great, with very little power at all. So right now the Braves have a power-type but not much contact, in Jackson; and they have more of contact hitter but less power, in Contreras.

I’m sure you’ve seen the kind of numbers Langeliers put up at Baylor. If you haven’t, our own Fred Owens provided a write-up on the Braves #9 selection in the draft a couple of days ago.

During the Draft, several MLB Network analysts went on-and-on about Langeliers’ defense and how he’s an offensive version of Austin Hedges, and even better on defense than the #1 pick in the draft, Adley Rutschman.

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There’s reason to believe Langeliers could skip Rookie-ball all together and start his year in Rome, play there for a bit and then go to … that team that Contreras just left!

There’s also the possibility that he starts off in the GCL and then at Danville — season starts in a few weeks (June 19) — a more traditional starting point for a recent draftee.

In the end, there could be nothing to see here. The decision to promote Contreras may be nothing out of the ordinary.

With no one in his way in Mississippi, as far as ranked catcher prospects, this could just be the front office showing interest in Contreras; you know, see how he handles a move up the ladder.

Without knowing for certain what’s going on, all we can do is speculate and use what we do know to try and answer some of these questions.

We know the Atlanta Braves drafted a catcher with their first pick of the draft, and we know that they’ve promoted William Contreras to Double-A two days later.

So, does any of this mean anything? Let us know what you think!