Keep an eye on Vaughn Grissom's name
The name everyone is circling this offseason is that of young Vaughn Grissom. When he was forced into action due to Arica’s wrist injury early in the year, Grissom took quite a few lumps at shortstop. In just 23 games on the year Grissom was worth a -5.8 defensive fWAR via Fangraphs, it was unplayable type bad.
The Braves realized that quickly and allowed Grissom to work on his game all year with Triple-A Gwinnett. Grissom more than proved he has graduated past minor league pitching competition at this point. In 102 games with Gwinnett he slashed .330/.419/.501 although he still had 10 errors across those games. Atlanta believes in Grissom’s bat, that’s why he was on the NLDS roster.
The problem is they don’t have a place to put him in the field. The most logical solution seems to be to test his outfield glove and stick him left field. However, Anthopoulos came out and said they view Grissom as an infielder. That’s fine, but looking around the horn between Riley, Arcia, Albies, and Olson there isn’t a spot for Grissom to break through.
So where does Atlanta go next? The next logical place we go is using Grissom as a trade piece. Now Anthopoulos isn’t going to come out and say they’re actively shopping Vaughn, but that has to be in the cards. We have touched on the need for controllable starting pitching for Atlanta. Perhaps centering a deal with a 22 year-old plus hitting middle infielder could nab a starter for the Braves in return.
It’s not certain which teams would matchup with the Braves in a deal, but when it’s all said and done Vaughn Grissom could be THE key name to watch for the Atlanta Braves 2023 offseason.