How’s That Going To Work?
Murphy’s going to catch most games this year because he’s the better defender. Tromp is a dependable backup who worked with the young pitchers at Gwinnett last year. As a DH this season, d’Arnaud is 9-18, but as a catcher, he’s only 2-15. It makes a lot of sense to keep Tromp and use d’Arnaud DH when he returns.
When Harris returns, White departs, and the Braves lineup would look like this.
- Acuna RF
- Olson 1B
- Riley 3B
- Murphy C
- Hilliard LF
- d’Arnaud / Rosario DH
- Harris II CF
- Grissom SS
- Alibies 2b
This lineup is deeper, and Tromp, Kevin Pillar, Ehire Adrianza, and the DH not starting on the day improve the look of the bench. Using d’Arnaud like this also adds utility-man type depth, as TDA can act as backup first baseman and emergency third baseman, as well as catching now and then.
That’s a Wrap
The Atlanta Braves are trying to win every day, and two unproductive bats in the lineup make that exponentially harder to accomplish. Hilliard’s earned an everyday job, at least while Rosario’s bat is still ice cold.
It’s time for the Braves to stop procrastinating and deal with the Ozuna problem. He needs to fix his swing, and AAA is the best place to do that. It’s going to happen sometime, so it might as well be now.