Your guess is as good as mine at this point!
The most interesting position battle in spring training this season Atlanta Braves It finally came to an end. After what suddenly turned into a heated battle in the past two weeks between previously assumed shortstop Vaughn Grissom and would-be starting shortstop Braden Shiomaki, the Braves decided to go with — wait for it — Orlando Arcia as the starting shortstop. Yes seriously. Grissom and Shewmake will both start the season at Triple-A with Both players get reps at shortstop and second base. As for the major league center, Orlando Arcia will hold the fort with Air Adrianza to be next in line.
You will hear some people say that this is not a shock and should be expected. I’ll disagree with that because as we’ve documented here on this site, the Braves have publicly been very high on Grissom being a shortstop receiver and being able to step into Dansby Swanson’s shoes in his position in the cornerstone mix. It seemed like it was going according to plan for the vast majority of spring training until the last week or so, which is when Braden Shewmake started to take an extended look at the situation. At first, I thought maybe it was just because they wanted to have a look at him at big league camp before he was eventually sent to Triple-A.
Then things quickly progressed from Shewmake suddenly glimpsing into conversation to being the starter at Shortstop, himself. Again, it would still have been a shock if Shewmake had been a starter at such short notice but it wouldn’t have come out of the blue either. Shewmake had a really strong spring, and if we compare the defensive capabilities, you can make a convincing argument that Shewmake’s defense at shortstop is better than Grissom’s. The Braves already have more than enough strikeouts among their ranks, so maybe they can handle a pure defensive approach in short order if that happens.
Jonathan Dyer – USA Today Sports
What makes this development strange is that as far as spring training games go, Grissom doesn’t seem to be doing all that badly when it comes to the glove. Sure, he didn’t look like a Platinum Glove candidate, but it looked like he’d done enough to earn the job on short notice. That’s what they’ve apparently been setting up for all winter, so it seemed like one of those scenarios that Grissom had to do wasn’t a complete failure and could potentially be the start. Now, that may have been the case behind the scenes and this is one place where we likely won’t get answers until someone talks to the Braves about it. Until then, we as fans are left in the dark to wonder what on earth might have happened to get to this point.
My best guess at this point is that the Braves may not have made up their minds and decided that since they had options (in the literal sense of baseball), they would let Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake continue to get some work in a relatively low pressure situation for maybe a month or so. Once things peter out, we’ll have a real idea of ​​who the shortstop will actually be in the future. Until then, we’re forced to do a lot of speculation.
So now we’re here with Orlando Arcia as the presumed starting point for the Braves heading into Opening Day. I can’t say I’m too excited about this – given that if the crucial element of shortstop defense is one reason Grissom or Shiomaki won’t play for a big-league team to start the season, it’s not particularly encouraging to put a player who’s played a total of six (6) games. In the short period since the 2020 season.
It’s even more disappointing when you think this couldn’t have been done for defensive purposes because Arcia hasn’t exactly been a standout with the gauntlet in recent seasons. That’s part of why it’s so strange to see a team suddenly go from fully prepared to send Arcia off the bench to deciding to assign him to the position moving forward. This could work or they could end up waiting on pins and needles for either Grissom or Shewmake to rip Triple-A down and make the decision easier for them.
This situation also raises another concern: If the Braves aren’t satisfied with their options at shortstop, how about a move in free agency or a trade buyout? One of the most shocking parts of that three-way trade that brought Shaun Murphy to Atlanta was the fact that the Brewers somehow got out of that trade by giving up just one prospect and not, say, Willie Adams. Adames has been involved in trade rumors for a while now and that the Braves have effectively decided to move on from Dansby Swanson, it seemed time to make a move to pick up Dansby’s replacement. Instead, Milwaukee held on to Adames while it looked like the Braves were fine to go with Grissom in this situation. Even if a trade doesn’t happen, Elvis Andrus would be a perfectly fine option to play in the short term – especially if all it took was $3 million to get him on a one-year deal like the White Sox did.
At this point in the whole process, it really seems like when it comes to this situation, the Braves are doing what they can rather than doing what they want. Chris Willis basically said it’s better than the bird app:
Again, I should mention that it may turn out that the Braves had very good reasons behind the scenes for making the decision they made here. It also may not end up mattering much in the long run either because the Braves are otherwise loaded into every other position besides left field and still plan to be a very good team despite their two glaring weaknesses. And Much Ado About Nothing could end up if one of Braden Shiomaki or von Grissom was playing shortstop for the big-league club by the time Memorial Day came around.
All in all, it’s just a very strange place for the Braves and not what you’d expect from a front office with a reputation for making a lot of clever moves when it comes to roster building. I’m sure this isn’t a situation anyone with the Atlanta Braves would consider ideal, but it’s also one that should have been resolved long before the last few days of spring training.
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