Atlanta Braves: What to do with a suddenly crowded outfield
With the Atlanta Braves signing Marcell Ozuna Tuesday evening, there are now five outfielders on the roster, with two top prospects on the horizon. What should the team do with the surplus?
After failing to resign Josh Donaldson, the Atlanta Braves switched their focus to the outfield in order to fill the cleanup spot in the batting order.
Marcell Ozuna agreed to a 1-year, $18 million deal with the Braves creating a logjam in the outfield and plenty of questions that need to be answered before Opening Day.
Also, the Braves payroll currently stands at $150 million or just slightly above (according to Sportrac), so if they wanted to make any more additions, it would be wise to assume they would have to move one of the current outfielders not named Ronald Acuna Jr.
By moving one of them, that could either be a trade of, most likely, Ender Inciarte or not tendering a contract to Adam Duvall. Nick Markakis seems to be safe regardless of whatever the Braves choose to do.
Of course, depth has always been valued by Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos, so maybe he just decides to keep all three and have the deepest team in the National League and perhaps the deepest team in the entire NL.
There are so many options with the outfield after the Ozuna signing and there are also ramifications down the road with this signing, with two of the Braves top prospects being outfielders.
Let’s take a look at those options more in-depth, with a final prediction as to how the outfield will shake out come March 26 in Arizona.
Who to move?
The most obvious way to address the excess outfielder “issue” is to either trade Ender Inciarte or non-tender Adam Duvall.
Inciarte is coming off an injury-plagued season where he played in just 65 games and had 199 at-bats.
In those 65 games, Inciarte hit just .246 with 18 extra-base hits. Even his defense was not quite up to par as he had a WAR of 0, compared to a WAR of 2.1 in 2018.
It seems unlikely that a team would be willing to trade for Inciarte considering his 2019 season.
Even though he has a team-friendly contract, where he is owed $16.4 million over the next two seasons, with a $9 million option in 2022, teams would want to see if the 2018 Inciarte can return, where he hit .265 with 43 extra-base hits and 28 stolen bases.
At some point, the Braves are going to have to trade Inciarte (more on the reason why later), but they certainly could expedite the process now, even though they might be selling low in the process.
The better option might be to non-tender Adam Duvall, who agreed on a $2.875 million dollar deal in arbitration.
If the starting outfield consists of Ozuna, Inciarte, and Acuna, then Nick Markakis goes to the bench with Charlie Culberson, Adeiny Hechavarria and perhaps Yangervis Solarte.
That leaves no room for Duvall.
Unless…
Maybe it’s in the Braves’ best interest to just keep everybody and give Brian Snitker more depth than he has ever had?
What about the prospects?
Before we get too far into why it makes sense for the Braves to not trade Inciarte or non-tender Duvall, there are some ramifications in doing just that.
And their names are Cristian Pache and Drew Waters.
According to Baseball America (subscription required), Pache is the Braves top prospect, while Waters is the second-best prospect and both are knocking on the door of the big leagues.
After being promoted to Triple-A last summer, Pache hit .274 in 95 at-bats, but it’s his defense that will get him to Atlanta sooner rather than later.
Waters hit .271 in 107 at-bats, but what puts him slightly behind Pache’s timetable is the strikeouts—he had 43 of them at Triple-A.
Obviously injuries and poor production can and will happen, but let’s say the Braves choose to keep the roster the way it is and Pache tears it up in Spring Training and then at Triple-A?
Do you keep him in Gwinnett all year and then trade Inciarte in the offseason?
What if Waters does something similar?
Now, these would be great, albeit unlikely problems to have. But they at least need to be considered.
With that being said, I say go for it. Keep them all.
Let’s give Snitker Dodger-esque roster flexibility that the Braves have not had in the longest time.
Move the prospects for a big in-season trade if needed.
Next. 3 takeaways from Ozuna signing. dark
More talent is never a bad thing, especially when it has been nearly 20 years since the last postseason series win.