This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat publication. To learn the total publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it often in your inbox.
Although Kevin Pillar and Jesse Chavez got here to Spring Coaching as non-roster invitees final 12 months, the idea was each can be on Atlanta’s Opening Day roster.
This 12 months’s record of Braves non-roster invitees doesn’t embody any of these assumptions. However a 12 months faraway from seeing Dylan Dodd make the Opening Day roster as an NRI, it will appear ignorant to say none of this 12 months’s NRIs shall be with the workforce when it opens the common season in Philadelphia.
The most certainly NRI to hitch Atlanta’s Opening Day roster is David Fletcher, the veteran center infielder who was acquired from the Angels in December, when Alex Anthopoulos was flipping the dangerous contracts that got here with the Jarred Kelenic commerce.
There wasn’t a lot cause to be excited concerning the acquisition of Fletcher, who spent most of final season with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate. The Braves took him as a result of the Angels had been keen to tackle the $15 million owed to first baseman Evan White.
White has been an injury-plagued disappointment in MLB, and he would have at all times been behind Matt Olson in Atlanta. With Fletcher, the Braves at the very least gained a center infielder who’s a greater defensive possibility than Vaughn Grissom within the utility position.
Then, Fletcher was optioned and Luis Guillorme was signed. Immediately, Fletcher was not a lock for Atlanta’s Opening Day roster. Fletcher is able to dealing with the middle-infield spots. Guillorme’s vary on the middle-infield spots lessened as he gained weight over the previous couple of years. Neither participant appears to be somebody you might confidently use as a backup outfielder.
Guillorme has produced a .675 OPS over the previous three seasons, however he posted a .615 OPS in 120 huge league plate appearances final 12 months. Fletcher had only a .628 OPS over 97 MLB plate appearances final 12 months, however he’s the higher defensive possibility throughout the infield.
We are able to joke concerning the Braves by no means actually utilizing their backup infielders. However there’s a particular want to search out somebody able to serving as a beginning shortstop or second baseman if Orlando Arcia or Ozzie Albies had been sidelined for an prolonged interval. It’s not just like the nook positions, the place you might at the very least briefly put Marcell Ozuna at first base.
I’m undecided Fletcher or Guillorme is the man you wish to fill a long-term void within the center infield. However these are the Braves’ greatest choices for now.
So, Fletcher has to at the very least be thought of a candidate for the Opening Day roster.
What about an outfielder?
The Braves are set to enter this season with their outfield consisting of two left-handed hitters (Kelenic and Michael Harris II) and one right-handed hitter (Ronald Acuña Jr.). Including a right-handed hitter who’s able to manning every of the three spots nonetheless appears to be a necessity.
Eli White and Jordan Luplow are a few NRIs who’ve an opportunity to start the 12 months on Atlanta’s roster. Each are again in Braves camp for a second straight 12 months. Luplow’s roster bid was thwarted by an damage final 12 months. White was one among Atlanta’s high offensive performers throughout final 12 months’s Grapefruit League season.
The chances of both White or Luplow gaining a roster spot improved on Friday, when Pillar signed a Minor League cope with the White Sox.
It’s going to be enjoyable to see how a number of the Braves’ veterans react to Hurston Waldrep’s splitter throughout stay batting follow classes. And there’s definitely an opportunity we’ll see the extremely touted prospect (the Braves’ No. 2 prospect and No. 90 total prospect per MLB Pipeline) in some Grapefruit League video games. If nothing else, we’ll seemingly see him within the Spring Breakout recreation that shall be performed in opposition to Pink Sox prospects on March 16 in Fort Myers, Fla.
Waldrep isn’t going to be on Atlanta’s Opening Day roster. However one 12 months faraway from guiding Florida to the School World Collection, the first-round Draft choice might earn an opportunity to pitch within the Majors this 12 months.
Might Ken Giles, a former nearer who has totaled eight innings within the Majors because the finish of the 2019 season, do the identical?
Giles may very well be this 12 months’s feel-good story. However with the depth in Atlanta’s bullpen, he’s nothing greater than a longshot for the Opening Day roster. That doesn’t imply he gained’t be again within the Majors sooner or later this 12 months.