Other than winning a World Series in 2021, I think what the Braves front office wants the most is for Austin Riley to prove he’s their everyday third baseman going forward.
They passed up on moving in some potentially big trades and let Josh Donaldson go to the Minnesota Twins in their belief that Riely can be that guy.
With just over 500 plate appearances in the big leagues now, we haven’t seen that happen yet.
He’s slashing .232/.288/.448 with 26 home runs and a K% of 31.2 over the past two seasons in Atlanta.
His ZiPS projections for 2021 have him slashing .239/.297/.461 with 26 home runs and a K% of 30.2.
I’m not expecting Riley to be the number three, or even number four, hitter that many thought he could. I’ve always thought there was too much swing-and-miss in his game for him to be that elite type of hitter.
But even if he just hits .250 with 30 home runs that will be enough for him to provide plenty of production in the lineup from the fifth for sixth spot in the order.
He needs to cut down on the strikeouts — even just reducing that K% to around 25-28 where it was in the minors — would make a huge difference.
And as mentioned earlier, he needs to get that OBP closer to .320.