Just 10 games into the 2025 season, Brian Snitker and the Atlanta Braves have decided now is the best time to start a competition for the full-time shortstop role. Nick Allen and Orlando Arcia have both started five games with Arcia getting his fifth start after four straight Allen starts.
While Braves fans might hope that Nick Allen getting the bulk of the action at the position is a sign the team might be moving away from Arcia as a starter, it's important to remember that Allen would likely be a lateral move, at best.
Why Nick Allen shouldn't be the Braves answer at shortstop
It isn't a secret that the Braves haven't been getting enough production out of their shortstop over the last season-and-a-half. Since after the 2023 All-Star break, where Orlando Arcia was one of seven Braves to represent the club in Seattle, the Braves have gotten just 1.4 fWAR out of the position, fifth-worst in MLB.
Orlando Arcia has the worst fWAR of qualified shortstops in that span, with 1.4, and has a 76 wRC+ and .222/.277/.369 slash line. While his defense has been solid, worth 7 OAA since the start of 2023, the bat has simply not been worth the defense.
The Braves didn't make a big splash this offseason at the position, but did make a under-the-radar trade to acquire Nick Allen. Allen had played 100 games in both 2022 and 2023 for the Athletics, but struggled in 2024 and was optioned to the minors, playing just 41 games with the big league squad.
Allen made the big league roster out of camp and started the second game of the year at short. After three straight Arcia starts, Allen got the next four. While Allen's start to the season is notably better than Arcia (by 103 points, according to wRC+), his "hot start" might be a little deceptive.
His .278 AVG ranks first on the Braves going into Tuesday's game against the Phillies. This feels like a welcomed sight for a squad that has struggled to put the bat on the ball. However, Allen has also struggled to put the bat on the ball, striking out 31.6% of his plate appearances.
His batting average is inflated due to a higher than expected batting average on balls in play. Additionally, evenb with leading the club in average, his 84 wRC+ is still markedly below average. His lack of pop along with his low walk rate means that he's only OPSing .649.
This isn't something that fans should expect to improve. If the season where to end today, this mark would actually be the highest of his career by nearly .100. It's only 24 points higher than Arcia's 2024 OPS, a season where he had a 72 wRC+, which was the second-worst in MLB among qualified hitters.
Prior to this season, Allen's career-best wRC+ is 59. His career-best batting average was .221, which he managed in 2023.
Allen has added glasses to help fight astigmatism at the plate – something Kiké Hernandez did with great success last season – but the 26-year-old likely won't show much more from the plate.
While he's shown he can walk in the minors, he's never had a walk-rate above 5.8% in the bigs. He's won't give the Braves much pop either, as his 84.5 MPH average exit velocity rates as the 12th-worst in baseball since his debut in 2022.
The Braves need more production from short, and Allen might be a slight upgrade in the short run over Arcia. But he's certainly not the team's long term answer, and the Braves might need to search outside of the organization before season's end to find it.