Atlanta Braves: Is the starting shortstop debate over now?

Hech-Hech-Hechavarria?

Adeiny Hechavarria is an overall light hitter, a fast guy, and he’s been considered a plus defender sabermetrics-wise many times since 2015.

On the flip side, Hechy has also been considered to be a below-average and declining asset looking at regular and advanced statistics.

Plainly, over the past few seasons, he’s been relegated to bench duty. This season, he even spent 25 games in Triple-A, the first time he’s been in the minors for something other than injury rehab since 2012.

Hechavarria- 2014-2016 w/Marlins (AVG/HR/RBI/3B)

• .276-1-34 (2014)
• .281 5-48 (2015)
• .236-3-38 (2016)

Hechavarria- 2017-present, various clubs

• .261-8-30 (2017)
• .247-6-31 (2018)
• .228-7-30 (2019, including Atlanta Braves stats)

So your first impressions of Hechavarria should have been…  he was kind of good a few years ago, but since, not so much.

We must have just gotten another depth piece. I mean, that’s what we did. Actually, we really needed a guy that we could plug in immediately that wouldn’t hurt us and could start if needed.

Then Adeiny goes and messes up everyone’s world and hits .291 with two homers and 12 RBI since we picked him up on August 16.

Swanson was injured, now he’s back, and it’s just the perfect storm, right? Seems like it to me.

Hechavarria isn’t going to hurt the Atlanta Braves anymore than a slumping Dansby Swanson. In the time he’s played, he’s played well, he has been refreshed, but can it last?

With the loss of Charlie Culberson, both Swanson and Hechavarria are that much more important- whether or not they start or come off the bench. Additionally, if they both aren’t hitting, they are both average to above-average defenders.

The verdict?

Brian Snitker kind of took the guesswork out of this one by stating before the game on Friday night that Dansby would be the starting shortstop for the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS.

But you have to wonder if Snitker actually thought that before Dansby picked up 7 hits in his last two games.

If Swanson continues to hit the last three games of the season, it’s hard to bench him. Because if he’s right, he’s point-blank better than Hechavarria. But if he reverts back prior to his four-hit game, maybe you play the match-ups and go from there.

If I’m Snit and I’m deciding today, I’m going with a match-up based system. If Swanson hits over the weekend, it’s Swanson, and Hechavarria steps into a less-versatile version of Charlie Culberson’s spot on the roster.

All told, both Swanson and Hechavarria are valuable pieces when playing the way they can. Both can be helpful to the Atlanta Braves in the postseason.