The Braves have signed shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria to a one-year contract worth $1MM, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link). The club has officially announced the deal.
Hechavarria returns to Atlanta after first joining the team on a free agent deal midway through August 2019. Acquired to help fill holes in an injury-plagued Braves infield, the usually light-hitting Hechavarria went on perhaps the biggest offensive tear of his career, hitting .328/.400/.639 with four homers over 70 regular-season plate appearances.
It’s probably safe to assume that unexpected power surge won’t continue, and that Hechavarria will go back to being a glove-first backup to starting shortstop Dansby Swanson, though Hechavarria has increasingly been deployed at second and third base over the last two seasons. Last year marked the first time since 2014 that Hechavarria’s shortstop defense garnered negative grades from both the UZR/150 (-7.2) and Defensive Runs Saved (-2) metrics, though that was from a sample of size of only 182 innings at shortstop, as Hechavarria actually spent more time as a second baseman in 2019.
A veteran of eight Major League seasons, Hechavarria has a .253/.290/.352 career slash line over 3225 PA with seven different teams, playing mostly with the Marlins as their everyday shortstop from 2013-17.
woohoo take that Donaldson!
N.L. Least is back!
The Least! Anthony Rendon and Josh Donaldson are gone! N.L. Least!
Least!
Least!
Least!
Least!
Least!
National League LEAST
Get out much?
Lmao got emmmmm
The AL Central is far worse than the NL East.
You mean WS Champion NL Least?
NL East is one of the better divisions. Take the Marlins out and they get less respect because the other four clubs just beat on each other.
Lol no, don’t take the Marlins out. It’s hilarious watching them beat up on the Phillies
The Phillies and Eagles alike, play down to bad teams. But they can also beat the best
I agreed at first but then the Braves, Nationals and Mets all improved their bullpens with pitchers outside the division. Gregorious was also brought in which could be quite a boon as well.
Is that tommy lasorda ? I hate tommy lasorda
Still laugh at that scene.
Do you have a towel? My car hit a water buffalo
Traffic was murder, you know one of those manure spreaders jackknifed on the Santa Ana. God awful mess. You should see my shoes.
Didn’t want to have to pull rank here, but I’m with the mattress police. These mattresses don’t have tags. I’m afraid you need to come with me.
Nice!
Well deserved and solid pick up…. hope he can produce much like he did last year for us. Still doesn’t fix the JD nightmare
Small sample size…..
“It’s probably safe to assume that unexpected power surge won’t continue”
It’s pretty simple actually: Juiced balls or no juiced balls? That is the question..
Careful! You know how riled the Commissioner gets when anyone suggests the baseballs are juiced!
Small sample size? Idk, he’s been a good defender for years and hits well enough for $1 million
We still need/want Bryant please
Not happening. The Least is back. John Middleton is just spinning in place at .500 waiting for his turn. That’s how they do it in the N.L. Least. All four teams wait for their turn.
Phillies are in the queue.
Did I mention the thing about being WS Champion?
Your love for Middleton is disturbing. Maybe get a room. I bet he could tap your mom for .500. Just kidding, her bat skills arent anything to write home about. Your NLLeast thing stopped being funny weeks ago. Your find one record and play it to death. Find a different drum bro.
So you posted your NL Least joke down here again because their were to many reasonable responses to the FIRST time you posted it?
Don’t feed the troll lol
Do not need Bryant, do not want Bryant.
Dont want, but def need!
Love this move, Depth
Very solid pickup. Great OPS for short period with braves
Small sample size…..
Eh, while the eye test showed him to be much better defensively at SS in ATL than those numbers suggest, I wouldn’t bet any money on him coming anywhere near the same universe to that OPS over a season
At the very least we got a bat flip
“Your starting braves 3rd baseman jos…. adeiny hechavarria*”
Shouldve signed Brock holt
They want a defensive shortstop on the bench as insurance to Swanson
Welcome back
*overused Donaldson joke*
*pipe dream Bryant proposal*
*completely off topic garbage can ramblings*
*Another Wil Myers for David Price proposal*
“[Team] is written all over this”
“If *insert team* doesn’t get *insert player*, their season is over”
Pipe dream: the Mets DON’T hire a cheating manager..and DON’T choke at the last of the season.
Based on those numbers he looks like a solid backup utility infielder.
Camargo or Riley at 3rd Hechavarria to back up Swanson and Albies. Not terrible. Braves do need to find another bat though, Ozuna or maybe Puig. Doubt they spend on Castellanos.
Puig is clubhouse poison. No thanks
Braves will trade for Marte. Just my opinion.
yes to “another bat”,big no to Puig..
Bench pretty much set. Culberson, Flowers, Camargo, Hechavarria and 1 more. Probably Matt Joyce, probably a few in spring fighting for that 1 spot. Where’s Gattis?
Not one more… must carry 13 pitchers, so 9 starters plus the 4 man bench equals 26
I’m pretty sure they can carry less then 13 pitchers…just not more then 13!
One of those 9 starters is a pitcher.
Only 8 positions other than pitcher, so 8 starters plus 5 man bench plus 13 pitchers.
There was only one shot that got the chandelier, so that’s one plus two plus ONE plus one.
What ” 9 ” starters???? 8 position players on the field, not counting the pitcher. Normally a team carries 5-starting pitchers and 8-relievers= 13. Then you have the 8 position players = 21. That leaves 4 bench players =25 Now you can carry 1 more player, which +26 Pretty simple math.,
Cashing checks.
Nats gave donaldson the finger 2 weeks ago and went and made some VERY solid depth moves, Braves are now picking up the pieces trying to emulate. Just calling it as I see it:
1. reg season: braves>nats
2. postseason: braves<NATS
3. Every offseason: AA<Rizzo
The Braves already have great depth. Their bench was already really good. They already revamped the bullpen and they already have a fall back plan with Camargo/Riley so they could afford to camp at 3B.
The Braves are not hurting. The Braves have something a lot of clubs don’t have, a lot of YOUTH. Hopefully, that translates into better players over the next few years, like it did last year. Look how much better Acuna, Soroka, and Fried, for example, were, from 2018 to 2019. The Braves have a few players like that still and a few that may take a little longer to get there, plus Acuna, Soroka and Fried can get better. The Brave’s future looks bright, even great without spending big money and trading away that future.
I wouldn’t of minded him on the Blue Jays bench this season. Oh well, let’s try the Espinal experiment and see if that has any legs.
Agreed. I think he would have been a good mentor defensively to the younger players. Have to imagine Espinal is going to Buffalo for regular at bats and Valera is slated to be the backup to begin 2020.
Ozuna will be a Brave by the weekend
I would rather Castellanos but something tells me AA won’t go with his defense
Gonna day 4 yrs $70 million
I think “defense” is code for they don’t want to spend any more money. They’ll have some concern about everyone, unless they come cheap. If NC would sign for a million, his glove would magically be good enough for SS
On ozuna, Castellanos, Bryant, or arenado ever sporting an A on their hat:
Ill believe dat when me sheet turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet
She said okejoobe, shes okedookie!
Braves aren’t going to give him 70 mil. Why pay him that when you can trade for Marte who makes 11.5 and is the much better player. Ozuna’s defense is absolutely suspect. They’d be better off signing Castellanos is the bat was all they were worried about.
We can only hope Ozuna will not be a Braves anytime. Castellanos, maybe, it’s not like Ozuna plays defense much better, plus he can play 3rd. I think the Braves are fine like they are now. I guess it would be great to see Arenado on 3rd. and batting 4th., but not at the expense of our future. Meaning a lot of prospects and not enough money to pay the Soroka’s and Fried’s and others. Kinda would kill the point, if we couldn’t sign Freddy back because we have Arenado. I really think Riley will be fine on 3rd., hrs. will be Arenado like, probably more, maybe not the average.
$91mm cheaper, I gotta peg that as a better value deal than JD’s.
Cheaper is often lesser, such is the case here. I’ll never understand why some fans worry so much about value, and some billionaire’s bank account.
The Braves don’t have a billionaire’s bank account. Their budget is limited to whatever the Braves franchise makes since they are an independent operation from Liberty Media.
I wish somebody would do an article on how the Braves situation with ownership is. Especially so Brave fans can understand and stop posting how cheap Liberty Media is. It is so annoying.
If there indeed is a fixed figure, than I assume Anthopolous knows it. So this failure is on him then for spending on a 3rd closer, and not our clean up hitter. It’s just hard to look at any move right now and be excited when the probable 4-5 in the order is some combo of Markakis, Duvall, Flowers and D’Arnaud. To improve it, you’re probably giving up Pache or Waters. So the Braves either have cheap owners, or a bad GM. I don’t know which, but it’s frustrating.
I wish people would LET IT GO about what the deal is. Stop thinking they know everything. Fans really don’t care. The fans see the owner of the Braves being worth 20-30 billion, maybe more and not spending money on the team. It really doesn’t matter why. LET IT GO, STOP BEING A KNOW-IT-ALL
I’m not so sure I would want the Braves to be like the Yankee’s, buying their World Series titles, by buying the most expensive or maybe you could say best players somewhat. Some have worked out, some have not worked out. The Braves build there’s through the farm system mostly. Will an MLB team ever win 14 straight division titles again?
I’m happy Hech is back. He’s a good bench piece. The batting order is still garbage after Freeman, though. Unless Freddie hits about 141 homeruns, 4th place it is! Thanks once again for leaving a gaping hole on the team, Alex! Last season the ‘pen, this season the line up.
YOU so-called fan thinks the batting order is garbage after Freeman and YOU like that Hech is back. It makes no sense what so ever. I bet YOU thought the Braves would be in 4th.place last year.
@ Appalachian_Outlaw, the Braves will win the east again just like I said they would in 2018 and 2019. When Camargo got regular playing time after the Bautista experience his average improved a lot, he had the best average on the team with risp and had the highest ops on the team the second half of the season. He’s very capable of hitting 25 homers if he’s playing regularly. Camargo is a better played when playing regularly than Dansby Swanson is. Swanson got off to that great start last year but his hitting had started dropping way off again during the last 2 weeks before his injury.
I’d like to see the Braves sign Castellanos if they are set on signing another bat. I think that kinda over-crowds the OF though. I don’t particularly like the platooning thing a lot. You already have Ender, Acuna, Markakis, Duval, but Castellanos can play 3rd. base. That would help if Riley has some trouble, but I think he will be fine. Camargo is the one I’d be worried about, he looked like he gave-up the last part of the season. Going to be an interesting spring for the pitchers for sure and a few position players. I think Newk pitches his way back to a starter. I think Duval might just get the most playing time in front of Nick. I think Wilson could be a future closer, mostly because we have too many starters.
Nice depth signing for the Braves. Always good to have a solid player up the middle as a reserve on your bench. Braves fans may disagree, but I actually think they’ve had one of the best offseasons of all 30 clubs.
Pen was good enough to plug and play and make minor moves at the deadline if needed, it’s still soroka and then pray as far as a very meaningful series goes, lost our freeman protector and defense on the left side.
Still time to draw up a nice trade for another front line starter and sign a power bat though. Kakes is nothing but a premium bench bat, spot starter at this point in his career.
Duvall, camargo, Riley, Swanson, ender, flowers; who knows what you’re going to get other than heart year to year.
Don’t know why everyone is down so much on Markakis? You know what you are going to get from him, he hit .300 for most of 2018, he was hurt a good bit last year. I guess he could drop-off just anytime now that he is one year older, that may happen this year it may not. I just think Duvall can have a good year also, don’t know about the platooning thing though. I think it will help Nick because he is older, but the Braves will probably face more righties than lefties, so that cuts into Duvall’s time. I think that is Snit’s biggest problem managing mostly, not giving players time-off, resting them.
I couldn’t agree more. They aren’t done either.
‘Braves Sign Adeiny Hechavarria’
Gesundheit.
Hechevarria’s OPS with the Braves was 1.039. He’ll be the perfect clean-up hitter.
(just joking)
The Braves are making a statement after they got embarrassed by a terrible Cards team. I guess if you don’t make the playoffs, there is no way they can be embarrassed again.
Game 5 of a playoff series is hardly embarrassing, but you’re entitled to those false assertions and delusions. They only lost that series because Snitker decided to start Keuchel on 3 days rest in a ballpark that he had an >11 era and he also decided to start Foltynewicz the apprentice in a clutch game 5. Keuchel should have started the game at home we needed to win, and furthermore Snitker should have left Fried in game 1 when we were up 3-1 until he got into trouble, don’t forget he already k’d 2 batters in his 1 innings of 14 pitches. Martin getting injured also did not help the Atlanta cause in game 1. “Embarrassed” indeed.
The series was lost in game #1. That is 100% correct, Snit should have left Fried in the game to pitch 3 innings. Snit knew the pen was iffy, but I guess he figured he needed to use the player’s AA got for these innings, to save face. Then after saving Fried, if that is what he was doing, he hardly used him the rest of the series.
I def like this signing from a Braves fan standpoint. good player, good depth, good attitude he brings.
I feel the timing of these infield depth moves signals this is the Donaldson-less contingency plan and the bat will come in the outfield (if at all). It seems they’re adopting the same “wait-and-see” approach with the offense that they used with the pitching staff last season.
Sit back and watch AA work his magic on the trade market and cash in some of these high value prospects for the player this team still needs. He has trade equity in the bank and it’s about time to spend some
Unless they can solely construct a deal around pitching, without trading Anderson, I’m not excited about that, though. I really don’t want to see Pache or Waters dealt because you’re looking at an OF you could run out for years. Donaldson would’ve made things so easy. Then you flip Riley and 2 young pitchers for another quality SP, and you’d have been super strong.
First of all, I like Adeiny. He did bring some excitement and shored up a massive hole we had at SS with Camargo at the time. Good signing.
And I think AA will bring in that pitcher and power we need….
But I DO NOT like the idea of trading Riley now. I think the potential is huge with him, notwithstanding the funk he was in at end of season.
Hold ur nose and sign one of the FA’s available. Trade for a good SP if need be, maybe someone needs a gold glove CF packaged with a few mid tier prospects…
Look at Marte for OF, Clevinger and go from there.
If the deal isn’t there, ride it out and work to the trade deadline.
@ Tommyhawk, Riley has been a strikeout machine his entire life and it’s not going to suddenly stop for any length of time. They just happened to bring him up out of necessity when he was hitting everything they threw at him. With a hitter like him there’s always going to be extremely hot streaks and streaks where he strikes out 3 of every 4 at bats. He’s just another Mark Reynolds, either hits a homer or strikes out.