Atlanta Braves Trim Spring Roster, Ponder Camp Battles

Pull up a pew

Growing the roster by one to 26 was supposed to give managers more options, it’s given the Atlanta Braves another headache. Most expect the team to carry the maximum allowable 13 pitchers, whoever they finally decide upon to fill those slots

The remaining 13 position-player slots are almost gone. The team will carry:

• Travis d’Arnaud and Tyler Flowers
• Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, and the winner of the third base contest, for now, let’s go with Camargo.
• Marcell Ozuna (despite his awful spring), Ender Inciarte (he has better numbers than Ozuna, give me strength), and Ronald Acuna Jr.
• Adam Duvall, Nick Markakis, and Adeiny Hechavarria and
• ??

Writers misstating facts?

Many fans and media believe that the job is Charlie Culberson’s to lose; I have no idea why.

Culberson’s 2019 was awful and reflected his hitting in the years before 2018. David O’Brien said in The Athletic that Culberson had a rep for strong defense at short. I looked all the way back to Culberson’s draft, and find nothing to support that assertion.

Atlanta Braves

The Braves signed Hechavarria because they didn’t consider him a solid backup, so they don’t consider him a strong defender there either. He’s a streaky player who’s never hit consistently and has nothing to recommend him over players already on the roster, other than he looks like Swanson’s older brother.

Last week Mark Bowman called Yonder Alonso a slugger – no, seriously he wrote that. The ‘slugger’ lost his power bat after 2017 and is batting .045/.160/.045/.205 this spring. Soon he’ll leave the Braves camp for somewhere way out yonder.

David O’Brien asked Snitker if he’d like Peter O’Brien on his club.

"“Yeah, if he doesn’t make our club. I mean, I don’t know how many times we talk over the course of the year about getting that right-handed bat w/ some power. And he definitely provides that.”"

Snitker didn’t forget Duvall; he was just saying nice things about a player. But like all of these non-roster invitees, to get a job in Atlanta, someone has to lose one.