The Atlanta Braves have a problem at shortstop.
Last season, Orlando Arcia struggled mightily. The 30-year-old slashed .218/.271/.354 with 17 home runs and 24 doubles. He was consistently a hole in Atlanta’s lineup while it needed a boost. With Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider out, Arcia took a huge step back. His regression has continued into this spring of this season, too.
This spring, the shortstop is a horrendous 3 for 31 with three singles and two RBIs. It couldn’t be more obvious that the Braves need to replace the veteran infielder
But Braves manager Brian Snitker recently came to his starting shortstop’s defense.
“I don’t look at spring training (stats),” Snitker told Braves beat writer Justin Toscano. “I don’t care about spring training. We’ll just start judging a week from (Thursday). I know I looked, he’s been our starting shortstop and we’ve won 193 games, I think, the last two years, so that’s pretty good.”
Snitker is sort of backed into a corner to respond like this or else he would be throwing one of his starters under the bus.
Snitker is right that the Braves have won a lot of games over the last few years, but it hasn’t been because of the play of Arcia. If Atlanta had an improved shortstop, it would be in a much better spot.
Players like Trevor Story and Bo Bichette could become available in a trade this season. Those would be solid options for the Braves, but they could also roll with Arcia and top prospect Nacho Alvarez Jr.
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