5 reasons the Atlanta Braves won the NL East in 2019

#4. Stronger bench

Remember the 2018 season and the lack of thump off the bench for the Atlanta Braves? It was even more apparent in last year’s NLDS versus the LA Dodgers.

There just wasn’t enough spark once the Braves turned to anyone outside of the regular nine.

I looked at all individual player-seasons of all Braves hitters with 250 plate appearances or fewer since 2017, then sorted by OPS. By far, this season has seen the best part-time performances over the last three seasons.

Eight of the top-15 player-seasons by a Braves’ part-time player have come this season, while three came in 2018 and four in 2017.

Here are the top-5 Braves’ part-timers so far in 2019 (via OPS):

• Francisco Cervelli (1.297),
• Matthew Joyce (.873),
• Adam Duvall (.862),
• Adeiny Hechavarria (.853) and
• Ender Inciarte (.740).  [Yes: oddly enough, he qualifies for this ‘part time’ list]
• Overall: .925 OPS

If you’re worried about sample-size, don’t worry, 2019 has still been the Braves best season as far as bench-player performances.

Here are the top Braves’ bench-players sorted by PA (in order of Plate Appearances):

• Johan Camargo (248 PA)
• Ender Inciarte (230 PA)
• Matt Joyce (218 PA)
• Charlie Culberson (144 PA)
• Adam Duvall (105 PA)

Those five above have been good for a .773 OPS.

Granted, Inciarte’s situation is a little different in that he’s been injured, plus he’s not really a part-time player. So if we substitute him with the next player under .250 PA we get outfielder Rafael Ortega. Ortega’s drops that overall OPS down to .735 — still much better than the last few seasons.

Here’s the last two seasons’ most-used bench players plus their OPS:

2018

• Ryan Flaherty (182 PA / .590 OPS)
• Preston Tucker (142 PA / .714 OPS)
• Adam Duvall (57 PA / .344 OPS)
• Peter Bourjos: (47 PA / 603 OPS)
• Jose Bautista: (40 PA / .593 OPS)
• Total: .568 OPS

2017

• Ozzie Albies: (244 PA / .810 OPS)
• Jace Peterson: (215 PA / .635 OPS)
• Adonis Garcia: (183 PA / .620 OPS)
• Rio Ruiz: (173 PA / .590 OPS)
• Danny Santana: (152 PA / 602 OPS)
• Total: .651 OPS

But you probably didn’t need numbers to see this. It has been rather obvious.

Matt Joyce has been a blessing as he’s filled in when needed. Johan Camargo has had a tough year but seemed to possibly be turning things around until he got hurt.

Charlie Culberson is Charlie Culberson… seemingly always able to give a solid at-bat and play strong defense.

And then there’s Adam Duvall, who brought his power-bat from Gwinnett and slugged five home runs in his first six games once called up to the Atlanta Braves in late July. He’s still doing just fine.

The Braves should feel much better about their chances heading into this year’s postseason. The added depth will give manager Brian Snitker a few more options and, more importantly, keep the team flowing in the event that there’s an injury.

This season’s strong bench should most definitely go down as one of the more important contributing factors to the team’s success.