2020 projections for Atlanta Braves new backstop, Travis d’Arnaud

The Atlanta Braves are expecting big things from Travis d’Arnaud this year as he looks to replace the absence left by Brian McCann.

A lot of fans were clamoring in the offseason for the Atlanta Braves front office to sign Yasmani Grandal. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and they were forced to search for a different option.

Eventually, their answer was found in the free-agent acquisition, Travis d’Arnaud.

Braves fans may remember him most from his days with the New York Mets and being Chase d’Arnaud‘s brother. However, he didn’t really make a huge name for himself until last season with the Tampa Bay Rays.

d’Arnaud found himself on the Rays after being designated for assignment by the Mets after appearing in 10 games. He was then picked up by the Dodgers and traded to the Rays shortly after that — aving only played in 1 game for the Dodgers at that point.

He was acquired by the Rays after Mike Zunino suffered an injury. This was apparently a great fit for d’Arnaud as he put up pretty decent numbers across 92 games played.

He slashed .263/.323/.459 with a .745 OPS including 16 home runs, 16 doubles, and 67 RBI while playing for the Rays.

That was his best season since 2015 with the Mets where he slashed .268/.340/.485 with a .825 OPS, 12 home runs, 14 doubles, and 41 RBI. However, that was accomplished across only 67 games.

If there’s any knock against d’Arnaud it’s that he has had trouble staying healthy. The most he has played in a season is 112 games and that was back in 2017. Only 103 total games were played by Travis in 2019.

So there’s definitely a risk in signing him, but it’s a risk the Braves had to take. He’s got a decent bat and will help the team so long as he stays healthy.

Projecting d’Arnaud’s 2020 performance

It’s hard to say what fans can expect from the Atlanta Braves catcher since he has been up and down his entire career offensively and has struggled to stay healthy.

However, the Braves have an excellent medical staff and I have faith that they will ensure that d’Arnaud is able to play as many games as possible.

They were able to keep Josh Donaldson healthy in 2019 after he struggled to stay healthy for 2 seasons, so I’m sure they can do it again.

I believe we will get at least 120 games out of d’Arnaud in 2020 and that’s a number I think most fans should be happy with for a guy that has struggled to play a majority of a season his entire career.

Tyler Flowers is more than capable of handling 42 games throughout the season. Atlanta is lucky to have one of the better backup catching options in baseball.

I’m going to say he will bat around .260 in 2020 with 15 home runs, 18 doubles, and 65 RBI.

Fangraphs ZiPS projection has d’Arnaud batting .255/.313/.414 with a .728 OPS including 13 home runs, 16 doubles, and 45 RBI.

I think the slash line is fairly accurate but I think he’ll have more RBI than they’re projecting. But the rest of the numbers make a lot of sense.

Defensively, I think we are going to have a pretty good backstop for our pitchers. His defensive metrics have declined a bit in recent years but he handled the Rays staff pretty well in 2019.

In the past, d’Arnaud has been known to be one of the best pitch framers in baseball, so hopefully, he can continue that trend for the Braves.

If he stays healthy and performs similarly to his 2019 season with Tampa Bay, I believe Travis could end up with a 2.0 WAR, which would place him in the top 10 across all of Major League Baseball.

I know that d’Arnaud will give everything he has to ensure he helps this team in every way that he is able to.

He has a lot of heart and is willing to put in the work. We can only hope that he’s able to stay healthy and help get this team to the next level come the postseason.