Ever since Chipper Jones retired after the 2012 season, third base has been one of those spots on the Braves’ roster where you figure that they always could have done with some sort of improvement. After Chris Johnson BABIP’d his way into a career year in 2013 and promptly returned to earth in 2014, the Braves have had to make do with Adonis Garcia during the initial years of the rebuild and then Johan Camargo forcing his way into the lineup as a reliable if unspectacular starter as the Braves got relevant again.
However, the arrival of Josh Donaldson means that (should he remain healthy) the Braves can once again count on good-to-great production from their third baseman in the lineup. That’s a big relief as far as 2019 is concerned but it also brings up some interesting questions when it comes to the Braves and their future at third base.
The main question is what happens if Donaldson stays healthy, plays at the level that he’s accustomed to and plays himself into convincing the Braves to actually open up their checkbook and sign him to an extension following 2019. While it’s absolutely understandable to be skeptical of the Braves (or any baseball team, really) actually spending money on players, let’s say that this best-case scenario actually takes place. What happens with Austin Riley?
Well, as Anthony quickly touched on in his latest post, the Braves are trying to see if Riley can provide anything as an outfielder. This is also relevant to this year’s team as well since it’s possible that Riley will be ready for the bigs at some point this season. Obviously Riley won’t be playing third base if Donaldson is playing well, so the best way to get something out of Riley at the moment would be if he could play another position.
Assuming they find out that they can just stick him in a corner outfield spot actually utilize him as an outfielder, that would be pretty big if Austin Riley makes it to the bigs and can hit right away. That would be a huge boon to the big league roster as a whole and give the Braves even more of a boost to an offense that already figures to be pretty good this season.
The Braves really don’t have much to lose in this situation. If Donaldson is indeed successful and has a stranglehold on third base, that still wouldn’t block Riley from making it up to the majors as an outfielder. If Donaldson is unsuccessful, then Johan Camargo could be called upon to hold down third base (again) until the team decides that it’s time to see what Austin Riley can do at third. Atlanta will either have a consensus top-10 third baseman, a perfectly capable third baseman or a top-10 third base prospect at their disposal and that is quite a lovely position to be in.
Third base is not really a huge problem for the Braves right now and that’s a far cry from where they were not too long ago. 2015 saw the Braves use nine different players as third basemen, 2016 saw them use eight and then they returned to using nine different third basemen in 2017 and that included Freddie Freeman volunteering to play third base (and not being too bad, at that). Those were truly dark days and it appears that the Braves have finally come out of the valley of darkness when it comes to third base.
Granted, the Braves will be hard-pressed to return to the level of stability that they had when Chipper is around. You really don’t need me to tell you that it’s extremely difficult to replace a first-ballot, near-unanimous Hall of Famer. The years that the Braves spent trying to figure that out is testament to that.
For now, it appears that the Braves are in a good spot when it comes to the hot corner. There are still legitimate questions about Josh Donaldson’s health, Austin Riley’s versatility and where Johan Camargo fits into all of this. Those are good questions to have, as opposed to “Can Freddie Freeman really play third base?” As long as the Braves don’t have to ask that particular question of themselves again, then third base has finally returned to being a spot of strength for them.
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