The Braves bench in recent years has been rather lean. A pre-trade William Contreras and a somewhat resurgent Ramon Laureano are the best of recent memory. But most of the other bench options. are remember by the way that swung their plastic swords rather than the lumber. Your bench doesn’t really matter as much if you’re winning 90+ games. This season’s team might be a little different though, both in depth and their place in the playoff chase.
This year’s bench (or host of designated hitter rotation options) has been strengthened by grabbing Ha-Seong Kim (which pushed the newly acquired Mauricio Dubon to a bench role) and Mike Yastrzemski. The result is a solid core of outfield and infield options that allow the starters to rest, play DH, and avoid late-inning defense.
Once those three were acquired, I felt this year’s bench was probably the best in a decade. The best of this century, however, was from 2009. That team featured super-utility options Martin Prado and Omar Infante, the Philly-weirdo-destroying Matt Diaz, and starting-catcher-most-anywhere-else David Ross. Even Ryan Church chipped in a league-average bat and outfield defense. I’m not sure any other second string since 2000 was even close to that group.
So is next year’s Braves bench the best since 2009? Steamer has Sean Murphy at 1.4 WAR, Mike Yastrzemski at 0.8, Mauricio Dubon at a criminally-underrated 0.7, and Nacho Alvarez at 0.2. An optionless Eli White is hanging around as well. You could argue for 2010’s bench as well, but they lost Martin Prado to a permanent role, but Alex Gonzalez/Yunel Escobar were around with Brooks Conrad. 2011 had David Ross (1.1), Eric Hinske (0.8), bat-licker Jose Constanza (0.7), Brooks Conrad (0.6), and Jordan Schafer (0.5).
Hey does anybody remember the Jose Constanza/Jason Heyward debates when Constanza was on the best three-to-four-week heater of his life? I wish I didn’t.