The Braves watched Dansby Swanson depart in free agency this winter. They’ll enter the season with something of a question mark at shortstop for the first time in six years as a result.
As things stand, shortstop looks like a two-man battle between young infielder Vaughn Grissom and utilityman Orlando Arcia. Grissom, 22, is seemingly the organization’s shortstop of the future. He has just 41 MLB games under his belt and comes with some questions about his ability to handle the position defensively, as many prospect evaluators have suggested he’d be a better fit for second base or left field. Arcia has a much longer MLB track record but owns a modest .243/.295/.369 line in just under 2200 career plate appearances.
Veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus remains unsigned and would seem a viable fit on paper for a win-now Atlanta team in a competitive division. There’s no indication the Braves have explored the possibility of adding a stopgap shortstop, though. Atlanta has placed a decent amount of trust in their highly-touted young players in recent seasons, and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos expressed optimism about the in-house candidates over the weekend.
Anthopoulos acknowledged that some have defensive concerns with Grissom but noted that well-respected infield coach Ron Washington has offered strong reviews on his offseason work. “I can see how the scouting community might have questions about Vaughn. I had questions about Vaughn when I first saw him,” Anthopoulos said (link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). “And I’ve been wrong plenty of times. The difference is we have a guy in Ron Washington who’s unbelievable with this stuff. He wouldn’t just say something to say it. … And, look, we don’t know how Vaughn’s going to hit. He’s got to earn the job. Orlando Arcia can do it, too. But Wash really believes in Vaughn. We believe in Vaughn, too, but we’re going to go with who we think the expert in that area is, and I don’t know anybody better in the game than Ron.”
Certainly, the Braves would love for Grissom to seize the position out of the gate. The right-handed hitter impressed during his first crack of major league action, hitting .291/.353/.440 with five home runs over 156 plate appearances. He showed an aggressive approach but quality bat-to-ball skills. Grissom played mostly second base with Ozzie Albies injured last season, with public defensive metrics painting him a couple runs below average in 347 innings of work.
Albies will be back at the keystone, while Austin Riley has third base secured. The only non-shortstop position in the lineup that’s unsettled is left field, where a hodgepodge of players led by Eddie Rosario look to be competing for reps. Skipper Brian Snitker stressed over the weekend that Grissom wouldn’t factor into the corner outfield during exhibition play, with the club viewing him solely as an infielder (via David O’Brien of the Athletic).
The 28-year-old Arcia is a lower-upside veteran fallback. He’s coming off the best offensive showing of his career in a part-time role, hitting .244/.316/.416 with nine homers through 234 trips to the plate. That was the first above-average slash line of his seven big league seasons. Arcia made hard contact at a career-high 42.5% clip to collect 18 extra-base hits over 68 games. It was a nice year for the 28-year-old to at least put himself in the mix for the shortstop position if Grissom falters, although his modest career track record at the plate raises questions about whether he could maintain his 2022 production over a full year of everyday shortstop reps.
With as good as the Rest of the Braves lineup is they can stand to let Grissom take the job and develop into the role. It’s not like Swanson set the world on fire out of the gate, let the kid play
They have a deep enough lineup to go defense first at SS, so I think Arcia and Grissom would have to be really abysmal for them to make any sort of trade at the position. I think the two of them more than likely get a full year’s audition.
I am just commenting in hopes my good friend Nashville Jeff Bridges comes along at 5am and gives me a like.
I been hearing all off season they love Grissom and think he can stick at short. Ron would know better than just about anybody.
Rsox is correct. Dansby took awhile to be a star. One thing I do really like about Grissom is he has good power already and I can see him adding more size to his frame and getting even better in that department. Nice thing about defense is that can be improved with reps and Washington is a good guy to help in that area.
As far as Arcia goes he had nearly 200 pa in 2020, as well and put up an almost identical OPS as he did last season, granted last year was league wide a down offensive season, so his OPS+ has him better in 2022, he still had almost a league average batting line in 2020 so we are talking about 2 out of 3 seasons with similar production. He was quite a quality defender when he first came up but has taken a step back. He has more potential than people credit him. He was given up on pretty early as an everyday player for Milwaukee, though understandably as they gave him a chance and he didn’t hit.
The only time it felt Arcia could hit was against the dodgers in the playoffs
Rafael Furcal took awhile for his defense to develop too.
Yea but he always had the cannon arm.
Furcal was only 18, I mean 22, when he came up.
Grissom has a good arm (though not a cannon like Furcal had). His arm is rated a 55 on the scouting scale, which is good.
I think the braves should sign Elvis Andrus. He could tutor/mentor Grissom into the SS position.
Agreed. I can’t believe he hasn’t been picked up by one of the several SS-needy teams yet. But with their youth, it seems Elvis could only help the Braves at this point.
Tutoring the IF is Ron Washington’s job.
Elvis has Costello value but is demanding a Pressley price tag.
Agree on Andrus comments. But for some of the others I find it hilarious how some forget the early years of Swanson. People were ready to run him out of town because he wasn’t the superstar #1 pick of the draft, instant success impact player. Players are called up earlier now and there is a adjustment period to MLB talent. AA made the right move by not paying retail at 25+ mil a year for a guy who’s dominant tool is the glove. Let’s see how that bat plays in the Cubs lineup.
What about Jose Iglesias?
That would make for an Iglesiating glut.
Braves already have Raisel.
Braves are over the CBT luxury tax already so doubt they want to add much more before the season starts. Braves always trade for players at the deadline so am sure they want to keep some payroll in reserve for that.
Guys like Andrus are just too expensive for the Braves at this point imo. He’d cost probably $7M+ for one year.
No mention of Braden Shewmake… if I’m placing bets he’s gonna get some starts at SS this year.
I’m a Braves fan and don’t see the lineup as “deep”
Elite – Acuña
Above Average – Murphy, Olson, Albies, Riley
Remember Harris has a lot of value from defense but his offense really shouldn’t be looked at as a solid anything since this will technically be his sophomore season and he could regress.
Left field and DH with Rosario and Ozuna looks to be very questionable for at least the first half of the season (we know Snit isn’t going to bench a guy in May).
Add in this SS situation and you have 5 bats you know are good and 4 you don’t honestly know what will happen
Does Harris fall in the “good” category. Because he just won (or runner up) rookie of the year and you don’t win that being a bad hitter
Does Harris fall in the “good” category. Didn’t he just win ROTY