Now that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is in the majors, Austin Riley is arguably the game’s best third base prospect, though the Braves have been experimenting with Riley as a left fielder at Triple-A Gwinnett, The Athletic’s David O’Brien writes (subscription required). Riley has been receiving two starts per week in left field, opening the door for another potential midseason route to Atlanta’s 25-man roster.
While Josh Donaldson can’t be considered a total impediment to Riley at third base given Donaldson’s multiple injuries over the last two seasons, the Braves are surely hoping Donaldson will continue to be healthy and productive throughout 2019 (his only year under contract with the team). That leaves Riley without an obvious position at the MLB level this year, and his development at the plate has indicated that he is ready for a quick promotion. Heading into today’s action, Riley had a whopping .309/.386/.691 slash line and 14 homers through his first 153 Triple-A plate appearances.
Riley played exclusively at third base during his first four pro seasons, though he saw some time in the outfield during Spring Training, and has played a handful of games as a left fielder and first baseman at Gwinnett this year. First base isn’t really an option in Atlanta either with Freddie Freeman entrenched at the position, and of course, the Braves also have a pretty great left field option in Ronald Acuna Jr.
O’Brien mentions the possibility that Riley could up at third base this season after all, should the Braves decide to trade Donaldson if they fall out of the pennant race. If the Braves remain in the NL East hunt, however, another possibility would be to use Riley in left field while shifting Acuna to center field in place of the struggling Ender Inciarte. It has been a rough start to the year for Inciarte, who is hitting only .218/.295/.323 through 139 PA. It has been a few years since Inciarte has been anything more than a league-average hitter, though even more troubling is his defensive dropoff — his usually outstanding center field glove has produced a -4.3 UZR/150 and zero Defensive Runs Saved through 290 innings.
Love the idea. With Ender Inciarte being a. offensive problem in general, Riley in left and Acuña in center could jolt the offense in down days.
Keep him down this isn’t about 2019 this is about 6 years from now. No need to start his service clock now.
Besides the Braves need pitching not hitting their offense and bench are fine.
Are you saying that the Braves should keep him down until next year? That is pretty silly, they are trying to compete this year and it would be really hard to justify keeping himd own for another 12 months with the way that he is hitting
I hope he is not
They just gave Albies $12/yr. I think they’ll be fine paying Riley in 6 years if he turns into a legitimate MLB third baseman.
Why worry about 6 years from now when you have no idea how anything will be, including the skill of Austin Riley? No one knows how good he will be. No one knows if the Braves will be in the race in 2025, No one even knows if Atlanta will still exist after the giant ant monsters take over Earth in 2024.
Seriously, did you ever consider they could promote him and trade someone from their existing roster for a pitcher?
bwahahaha well said!
If the Braves fall out of the race it would be nice to see a big trade for a super prospect. Maybe a package of Inciarte, Donaldson, Gausman, Teheran, McCann and Venters could pull it off. With the exception of Inciarte there’s a strong possibility that we lose all of those players after this year. They could still make a big impact on playoff teams this season though. Heck… You might as well throw O’Day in there too if he ever gets healthy. I wouldn’t mind seeing McCann back in a Braves uni next season though
No one makes trades like that
Right spare parts for a super prospect hmm..
Maybe trade donaldson acuna gausman oday albies swanson, for bellinger seager pedersen kershaw ryu and pollock.
@ Ironman… downvote
Who do you think has 6 spots on their 25 man roster to spare that’s in a pennant race??? And honestly, basically all of that is garbage except Donaldson, who’s a big injury risk, and maybe Inciarte but not unless he rebounds. Because if the salary, literally no one would take that package for free.
Haha! It would totally work dude. You know it would. We would probably have to thrown in Matt Joyce to sweeten the deal though. That would definitely push it over the top.
Haha! It would totally work dude. You know it would. We would probably have to thrown in Matt Joyce to sweeten the deal though. That would definitely push it over the top…
Ahh yes the ole 20 million or so salary swap. Trading the the usual playoff contender with a ton of open roster spots. A tale as old as time.
Joking aside. I agree with the sentiment. But trading inciarte won’t happen now. Packaging all those players together is hoping some team will pay a premium for negative value, which won’t happen.
No one would take a teams spare parts and junk and give up an Uber prospect. I wish people would realize a teams junk isn’t worth much. At best someone would do that deal to send the braves back junk and payroll.
Just curious, who is Uber’s top prospect?
There’s a kid down the block who drives like a champ for Lyft. All he needs is a chance with the big boys.
He takes great routes and the MPGs he puts up has scouts giving him rave reviews
And hey if it gets declined just hit the force trade through button! Problem solved!
Best. Button. Ever.
Take all my crap for your big prospect. This isn’t a video game.
I would trade Donaldson, AA made a mistake on him. We should have signed Kimbrel and another reliever and let Camarago handle third till Riley was ready. I’m not saying Donaldson is worthless, he just Has not helped the club as two relievers would have. I was excited when we first signed him but I also thought we would do more, but after watching him, we made a big midtake
Kimbrel isn’t signed because he wants multiple years. Money isn’t the problem it’s the years and the draft pick. Donaldson was a great signing and he has played well. Camargo should be playing more and Markskis needs more days off. Heck even take some of Enders abs.
AA rarely signs draft picks. Atlanta’s the perfect team to sign Kimbrel. And Kuechel.
So he lets all 30 picks walk?
40
Kimbrel isn’t signed because of the first round draft pick associated with signing him.
Yes. The first round pick AA probably won’t sign. He has a track record.
But it’s not a first round pick for everyone. It’s the third highest pick. For most it would be a 2nd or 3rd round pick, but I think it would be a 5th round pick for Milwaukee. Most 5th round picks won’t even get past AA. I really don’t understand why you would choose to keep that pick over a Craig Kimbrel.
I really don’t think you can say it was a mistake on May 13th. So much can change, hell, he can go on a tear in June and carry the team into first place. This is something you evaluate in October/November, not May.
Get over Kimbrel, he blew his market and his ego won’t let him accept a 1 year deal at what he should be paid. Some with DK.
The Braves need to offer Camargo a 6-7 year deal worth 32$ Million. NEXT Plan on keeping Donaldson
Bring up riley immediately and find a spot for the kid in LF or 3rd base and make him part of the everyday batting line up and getting creative on the field. At least he provides scary power depth for the bench and worse case scenario Riley gets optioned…..highly doubtful.
If Camargo is going to be a super utility man you already control for 4 seasons beyond this one I’m certainly not giving him a 32 MM extension. He won’t make anywhere close to that figure in arbitration unless he becomes a productive everyday starter again. I find it unlikely that camargo breaks out any further. He’s already exceeded expectations. I probably wouldn’t guarantee him 32 million bucks. After how much (little) they gave albies I don’t know how you could justify giving 32 to Camargo.
Starting Pitching still needs an ace and a proven number 4 Pitcher. Easy to cover 9th if kimbrel drops his rental price….6th 7th and 8th or long reliever need to be streched out MLB ready starting prospects. Unfortunately the braves would hate to start all those arbitration clocks a year earlier
then why did they callup Bryse Wilson last year?
It appears that (Inning-)Ender has two options left…I wonder if AA has considered using one of them to get him back on track in Gwinnett?
Ender has 5 years of service time. You can’t send him down without his permission.
Thank you…that is something I did not know. Just checked and he actually started the year at 4.127 years of service. So, I would guess optioning him is still an option.
maybe, maybe not. 172 days is considered a year for service time.
so ender only needed 45 days on the roster entering this year to hit 5 years on the dot. if today isn’t 45 days, sometime in the next few days will be
If I counted right, today is day 45.
He was actually at 4.157, not 4.127.
Ender has always been more of a second-half guy anyway.
That’s fine when you’re not winning. But when you’re winning, it’s not ok. He was always a stud on defense the whole year, this year, not so much.
Pache time!
If the Braves fall out of the pennant race before the trade deadline at lot more needs to happen than worrying about calling up Riley. Complete waste of a year and the players talent just because we are ‘a year too early’ or ‘we’re worrying about the next 6 years’..gimme a break smh
Sorry, not a waste of a year if nothing else than F-I-N-A-L-L-Y seeing any of our top arms take significant steps forward (Soroka, Fried) – albeit in a small sample size. We have gotten almost nothing from Folty, Gausman (nice last start) & Newcomb (situational RP) when they gave us quality IP at various points last season. It’s still early but if we can get something from them and continue finding stoppers in the pen, we still have a shot.
I get seeing some of these pitching prospects finally poking they’re heads out of the sand…but I’d bet anything if you ask Freddie right now if he’s ok with another ‘developmental’ year I’m sure he’d say h*** no! If nothing else let’s compete for him while he’s in his prime and he’s suffered thru the rebuild and cheapness of the front office long enough
Why can’t you develop and compete in the same year? That’s what we’re expecting to do when you have “waves of talent”. No one’s writing this year off 7 weeks into the season, in 2nd place (in a tough division), 3 games out of 1st.
Former GM Frank Wren wasn’t cheap, but signed so many terrible FA deals that Coppy/AA haven’t been afforded the luxury of doing.
The Braves aren’t going anywhere this year. Why not trade Donaldson in June to open up 3rd? Recoup some minor league depth and let him play his natural position.
$23MM for ~6-7 weeks worth of work. You’re a generous person with someone else’s money.
Not sure what you mean? If Donaldson were theoretically traded the Braves would be responsible for the pro-rated portion of the salary. The team he is traded to would be responsible for the remainder, unless they also send cash to improve the return. They don’t cut guys checks for the full balance of their deal when signed. .
I understand, but you’re presuming that a team would take on the rest of the deal just I like I am presuming they won’t. Sure, prospects would help, but I can’t imagine a team investing that much in prospects/payroll to take Donaldson on and clear a roster spot for Riley. If they hold onto Donaldson, they can at least offer him a QO a recoup a prospect – barring an injury/collapse that wouldn’t warrant the risk of a QO.
Only prblem with Ender is you never know what half he will show up.. This year it looks like the 2nd half. Riley has been ready to be called up but didnt want to start his service clock. its always about the money with the braves. Love donaldson and wish it would have worked out but it didnt. Bring up riley and lets get some experience under his belt. Its less stress for a player on a .500 team compared to in the playoff race. Braves have gave all the young guns some experience this year with starts on the mound. Braves are doing exactly what they are suppose to be doing. We still got that one problem from last year and thats the bullpen. Bring up riley, waters and pache and call it a building and growing season.
As long as the Braves are around .500 at the end of July, they won’t be sellers. They saved some funds to use around the trade deadline (at least they claim) and you can definitely make the playoffs while being a .500 team with two months left in the season. Talk of them being sellers at this point is crazy.
that’s the other thing I don’t get…what’s the big contract we’re taking back in a trade we saved all those funds for?! Zack Greinke or Madbum maybe but what other big contracts will be available for trades that we’ll need all these funds for, I’m sure theres plenty more but who? Unless we do a bunch more salary dump trades like O’day or Kemp which ultimately I bet what happens to save prospects
Justin Upton?
lol nice, where’s he gonna play?!
All they have to do is fix their bullpen. They’re clearly a better team than the Phillies if they add 3 arms they can trust.
Kimbrel should be the first after the draft. And it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to trade for at least one if not two with all the prospects they have.
Problem is the Braves are cheap, both with the money they have and the prospects they have. Braves have every opportunity to be good, whether or not they choose to be is another story.
Riley in RF?
RF is trickier defensively at SunTrust. And Markakis is swinging a much better bat than Inciarte.
Riley is the emergency option, not on the 40 man, which by the way is full – nothing to see here, moving along……
Wonder if trading Ender is a consideration and if so, what’s his value. He shown he can hit enough to be extremely valuable, especially with that glove. But last year and this years bat is brutal… his contract is nice if he regains some hitting, but got to think his value is still high enough to get a decent return. Like a solid bullpen piece or maybe a prospect or two. Idk. Maybe he’s good enough to be a bench bat
Not this year – if he’s shown anything is that he’s incredibly streaky offensively and not worth a top-3 batting order spot, even when hot. He’s soon getting to be a glove-only CF. At this point, we have too many options — presently (Acuna) and in the near-term (Pache, Waters) — to warrant taking the risk of a continued slump, especially if his glove isn’t up to par.
If CLE gets back into it, they could be interested. But Inciarte will need to improve.
I think I agree. I think most teams would take a chance on him any day, age and contract, historical hitting and that glove seem to be enough to go get him.
That said, I don’t see a decent return for him and like you said, he has a lot of guys knocking on the door behind him.
Right now, I’m thinking a Kelly Johnson like return if we go the prospect route. Maybe a pitcher knocking on the door projected to be a reliever. Idk
Jbigz…..if camargo tears it up as he can and will…..to offer him 8 years 32 million is a bargain……you may meed to go look at recent arbitration salaries based on one years comphensation from the year before…..holler at me when you have the cold hard facts on display!
For a team that prides themselves for pitching, only Soroka has taken the title as a legit piece (but not a #1). Other than Fried, everyone else has been a fail and will wind up as a bunch of average pitchers..if even.