This morning, the Atlanta Braves revealed their Grapefruit League spring training roster.
Additionally, it can shed some light on this team’s possible bench usage.
From Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, here is how Atlanta will lineup against the Tampa Bay Rays in today’s opening game:
Next are pitchers Daybel Hernandez, a flamethrower, and Ray Kerr, an offseason signing, are two Strider players.
The fact that veteran David Fletcher plays second base and prospect Ignacio Alvarez plays shortstop (batting eighth) is what really jumps out to me.
We have discussed the merits of both keeping Fletcher as a top defensive backup on your bench and letting him play every day at AAA Gwinnett in the hopes that he performs well enough to be traded by another team to relieve you of his $14 million salary obligations.
Is it possible that Atlanta is moving toward having Fletcher on the bench every day in the major leagues given the news that Alvarez is playing shortstop today? The president of baseball operations, Alex Anthopoulos, has acknowledged that, barring injury, it has been difficult to identify good bench choices in Atlanta because of the low amount of predicted playing time for a bench player.
Or is this only a chance to get a prospect some time at the position—along with some defensive questions—for assessment purposes? Watching it is strongly recommended.
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