Atlanta Braves looking for a bat after the rain left town
By Fred Owens
The Atlanta Braves failed to bring their third-baseman back into the fold, leaving a gaping hole the lineup. What they do now will tell fans whether the team is serious about winning.
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know Josh Donaldson sign with the Twins and left the Atlanta Braves twiddling their thumbs.
After moving to the four-hole in the lineup last season, Donaldson batted .256/.379/.523/.900 with a .377 wOBA and 132 wRC+. How good was that?
Fourteen players had 300+ PA batting fourth: Donaldson’s wOBA ranked third in MLB, and his 132 wRC+ ranked fourth. Donaldson walked a lot because pitchers didn’t fear the batters behind him. His 14.9% walk rank ranked third in MLB, but he did strike out 22.7% of the time, making him ninth of those 14 players.
In elevated leverage situations, Donaldson batted .246/.380/.457/.837, hit 12 homers, and eight doubles producing a .361 wOBA and 121 wRC+. That’s what the Atlanta Braves must replace.
The general consensus points to a right-handed hitting outfielder or one of three third-basemen as potential answers. It seems beneficial to look at the players mentioned most often and see how they fit.
Your contenders are
The names most mentioned as potential targets are in alphabetical order:
- Nolan Arenado – trade candidate,
- Kris Bryant – trade candidate, $18.6M in 2020, probably two yrs of control
- Nicholas Castellanos – free agent, no Qualifying Offer
- Trey Mancini – trade candidate
- Starling Marte – trade candidate
- Marcell Ozuna – free agent, QO attached
- Kyle Seager – trade candidate
Where a player calls home significantly affects their counting stats, while weighted stats level the playing field, so that’s where how I decided to evaluate their seasons.
To keep individual bias out of this, I’ve sorted the players on player ID.