The Atlanta Braves brought Nick Markakis back for the 2019 season rather than invest in a free agent or make a trade for an outfielder and planned to rest him; how’s that going?
Veteran right fielder Nick Markakis had a torrid start to 2018 for the Atlanta Braves, but his production declined rapidly after June 30. Asked about that decline, GM Alex Anthopoulos demurred.
He said that Markakis had to come back “at the right number”, then went on to downplay the decline:
"“Nick was still hitting the ball extremely hard . . . really what we’re talking about is the last six weeks. All the other underlying factors point to someone who was still playing well."
The last six weeks were pretty bad. Fangraphs splits tool shows a .219/.310/.256/.566 line with 54 wRC+.
The bit about hitting the ball hard is accurate, but his 48% ground ball rate swallowed most of those hard-hit balls. The GM told Gabe Burns of the AJC how they would offset that trend.
Markakis will be an everyday player, but he won’t log all 162 games this time around… or at least not all of the innings of all 162 games. The franchise feels more rest will help him maintain his performance through the year.
The Atlanta Braves are 80 games into the season with a 47-33 record, and Markakis leads MLB in games played with 80: 73 games started in right field, 1 as a DH, and 5 pinch-hit appearances.
What happened to the plan?
Markakis’ everyday play brought so many questions from the Twitter-critters that The Athletics’ David O’Brien got tired of hearing them and asked manager Brian Snitker.
During Tuesday’s game with the Cubs, O’Brien tweeted the manager’s response. I broke out the spin-translator to simplify his answers.
"“I know we talked about it. We (sic) just not built like that, for me. I’ve given Nick two or three days. You’re not going to get a total day off here. The starting pitcher’s got to go eight innings, we’ve got to score, like, 10 runs to stay away from a guy. So they’re going to get in a game at some point, even when you don’t start them.”"
Translation: Our bench isn’t good enough to give regulars a full day off. I’ve tried, but I can’t count on starters to give me innings, and our bullpen leaks runs like a sieve. I need my best bats to win.
"“I like putting those guys out there. We don’t have platoon options and anything like that. These guys, they’re programmed to play . . ."
Translation: I know playing the bench is the only way to keep them sharp and involved, but our starters don’t want to sit, and frankly, I need them every day to win . . .
"I think the second half might be a little different, where we look at that. But knock on wood, as long as they stay healthy they’re gonna be out there."
Translation: If the GM gives me more and better tools, I’ll try to make it work. If he doesn’t, I’ve got to ride these horses until I can’t. They are all I have.