The Braves have several areas of need that they plan to address this offseason. The starting rotation (at least 2 spots) and catcher have long been targeted by the Braves as areas of need for the Braves. If you had asked many of us a few months ago, third base would have been right up there with those needs. Adonis Garcia had a historically bad start defensively at the hot corner and his bat was only a bit better.
However, after a short trip to AAA and batting almost a full 50 points better in the second half once he was called back up, Garcia looks like an entirely different player. While he isn’t going to “wow” anyone with his defense necessarily, he was certainly more capable in his second go-around at third and the Braves appear to agree.
#Braves no longer looking for a starting 3B, after Adonis Garcia improvement during season
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienAJC) October 3, 2016
This move (or lack thereof) makes some sense in the grand scheme of things. Garcia slashed .273/.311/.406 and while his 89 wRC+ and 0.8 WAR are not going to take the league by storm, Garcia’s presence in addition to the presence of Rio Ruiz on the 40 man roster allows some time for both Ruiz’s development as well as the development of prospects such as Austin Riley and Kevin Maitan.
For now at least, it appears that Adonis Garcia is the Braves third baseman going into 2017 and it doesn’t look like the Braves are looking to change that.