The Braves have been among the most disappointing teams in MLB. They\u2019re nine games under .500 entering this weekend\u2019s series against the Rockies. They\u2019d lost seven straight before taking two of three in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
On paper, that all points toward Atlanta as likely deadline sellers. Yet the Braves entered this season with a top 10 payroll in MLB and have made the playoffs in seven straight years. They\u2019re not going to wave the white flag unless they feel it\u2019s unavoidable. Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> wrote last night that the Braves are still positioned as buyers, reporting that the front office is looking for help in the outfield and at shortstop.<\/p>\n If the Braves were to buy, those would each be natural targets. Left field has been an issue since\u00a0Jurickson Profar<\/a> was suspended following a positive performance-enhancing drug test.\u00a0Alex Verdugo<\/a> is hitting .247\/.301\/.312 across 166 plate appearances \u2014 arguably even worse than last year\u2019s .233\/.291\/.356 showing as a member of the Yankees. Eli White<\/a> hasn\u2019t been much better, running a .235\/.275\/.383 season line. White had carved out semi-regular playing time with a productive April, but he\u2019s hitting .202\/.231\/.288 in 109 plate appearances dating back to the beginning of May.<\/p>\n While left field is the clearest weakness in the outfield, the Braves have gotten similarly poor production in center. Michael Harris II<\/a> has had a dismal first half. He carries a .233\/.261\/.346 line through 275 trips to the plate. Harris is a productive baserunner and an elite defender, so he\u2019s still providing some value, but the Braves need much more from him offensively. He entered this season with a .285\/.325\/.469 slash over his first three years. The track record and the defense should keep Harris on solid ground as an everyday player, but his down year has essentially placed the entire burden on Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a> to get any kind of offensive contributions from the outfield.<\/p>\n Profar has fewer than 20 games remaining on his suspension. He\u2019ll return early next month, though that\u2019ll be clouded with uncertainty about what they can expect from him. Even if he plays well, he wouldn\u2019t be an option if the Braves make an improbable playoff push. Players cannot participate in the postseason during the year in which they were suspended for PED use.<\/p>\n Shortstop has been almost as much of a struggle. Opening Day starter\u00a0Orlando Arcia<\/a> is gone, having been released last month (and subsequently signing with Colorado).\u00a0Nick Allen<\/a> has taken the everyday role there. He\u2019s an elite defensive infielder who provides very little at the plate. The 5\u20198\u2033 infielder has yet to hit a home run and owns a .234\/.309\/.269 mark through 191 trips.<\/p>\n Allen\u2019s all-glove profile would be easier to tolerate if they were getting more from their non-Acu\u00f1a outfielders. Having multiple positions that don\u2019t contribute offensively is a tougher sell. Atlanta\u2019s .243\/.317\/.386 team batting line is middling, and they\u2019ve been terrible this month (.216\/.296\/.360). They\u2019d love to deepen the offense, but they\u2019ve also seen their bullpen melt down far too often and have spotty rotation depth after losing AJ Smith-Shawver<\/a> to Tommy John surgery. There are a lot of areas to address.<\/p>\n Of course, how aggressively they\u2019ll do so depends in large part on the next six weeks. The front office\u2019s impulse may be to add, but that\u2019d be difficult to pursue if the team is still well below .500 and nine games out of a playoff spot in late July. At that point, they\u2019d have little choice but to entertain offers on impending free agent DH Marcell Ozuna<\/a> (with a case for listening on ace\u00a0Chris Sale<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Braves have been among the most disappointing teams in MLB. They\u2019re nine games under .500 entering this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[1413,5,2270],"class_list":{"0":"post-101541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-alex-verdugo","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-nick-allen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114677939169400052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}