Braves: 3 teams who could trade for Ender Inciarte
By James Kunkle
The Atlanta Braves have no doubt been the most active team since the end of the season.
But the Atlanta Braves have yet to make a trade and perhaps that is soon to change.
While it’s been nice to see some signings already have taken place, the real offseason begins with the upcoming MLB Winter meetings.
For almost 96 straight hours, it will be nothing but non-stop rumors about signings, and more importantly, trades. And with that, I’m sure the Atlanta Braves will be a featured team.
It seems now that for two or three seasons, many fans have wondered if the Atlanta Braves should look to market Ender Inciarte?
Perhaps they should? It all depends on what you truly want out of your center fielder.
The positives are Ender is an excellent defender and has been recognized with three Gold Gloves to this point in his career.
Ender has also proved he can run the bases well. While he probably won’t steal north of 40 bases, he can steal some and turn some doubles into triples and obviously his plus speed allows him to make ground on fly balls.
One last positive for Inciarte is his contract. Simply put, the market for true center fielders in free agency this year is weak.
Corner outfielders can be had, but not one great center fielder is out there.
Even if there was, they would fetch more than the $16.4 million Ender is owed for the next two seasons.
Important to note though, that his contract has a $9M team option for 2022 and that also comes with a $1M buyout.
The detractors will state he is not consistent and he doesn’t hit for power. Mostly, it would be hard to argue with them, but again it simply boils down to whether you want his defense or a power bat roaming center field?
If nothing else, Ender will be a huge part of Atlanta Braves’ history due to his inclusion in the famous Shelby Miller trade and the fact he hit the first official home run in Suntrust Park history.
So let us look at three potential teams that could look to possibly trade for Ender Inciarte in the upcoming weeks.