Eddie Rosario joins the Atlanta Braves tonight for the first time since being acquired from the Cleveland Indians.
An abdominal strain had the 29-year-old slugging outfielder on the shelf for a while, but now — nearly a month after the trade — Eddie Rosario gets to wear the major league jersey of the Atlanta Braves.
He’s had a mixed 2021 season thus far, and part of that has been injury-related. In 78 games, he logged 306 plate appearances for the Tribe (or whatever they wish to be called now), batting .254 with 7 homers and 46 RBI… which is a fairly stout number under the circumstances.
During his rehab visit to Gwinnett, the hits took a while to come, resulting in a .196 overall average. But that’s misleading.
Once he started hitting, the hitting — mostly big hits — kept coming. 4 homers and 16 RBI, most of which happened in the last week-plus.
Of his 10 AAA hits, 6 were for extra bases… adding a pair of walks against 6 strikeouts (again: more of these came early in the assignment).
He’s ready.
To make room for Rosario, Abraham Almonte was designated for assignment… pretty much as expected. There’s a fair chance that he sticks around at Gwinnett, but it’s not a lock, either.
So the lefty-hitting Rosario will be ready to play this weekend in the Giants series and then again as the team hits the road next week with a full bench of strong bats.
That’s exactly what the plan was at the trade deadline, and now Brian Snitker will have his choice of options to match up with whatever starting arm opposes his team… figure Rosario and Pederson vs. right-handers while Duvall and Soler face the lefties… at least to start with.
Let’s go get ’em!