The Braves bench has been quite thin in recent years. A pre-trade William Contreras and a somewhat resurgent Ramon Laureano are the best in recent memory. But most other banking options. as a matter of fact, one remembers that they brandished their plastic swords instead of the wood ones. Your bank doesn’t matter much if you win more than 90 games. However, this season’s team could be a little different, both in terms of depth and position in the playoff chase.
This year’s bench (or a host of designated hitter rotation options) has been bolstered by the signings of Ha-Seong Kim (who pushed newly acquired Mauricio Dubon into a bench role) and Mike Yastrzemski. The result is a solid core of outfield and infield options that allows the starters to rest, play DH and avoid late-inning defense.
Once those three were purchased, I thought this year’s bank was probably the best in a decade. The best of this century, however, came from 2009. That team featured super-utilities Martin Prado and Omar Infante, Philly-weird-destroying Matt Diaz, and starting catcher-usually-everywhere-else David Ross. Even Ryan Church posted league-average batting and outfield defense. I’m not sure any other second series since 2000 even came close to that group.
So is next year’s Braves bench the best since 2009? Steamer has Sean Murphy at 1.4 WAR, Mike Yastrzemski at 0.8, Mauricio Dubon at a criminally underrated 0.7 and Nacho Alvarez at 0.2. An option-less Eli White is also hanging around. You could also make a case for the 2010 bench, but they lost Martin Prado to a regular role, but Alex Gonzalez/Yunel Escobar was around with Brooks Conrad. 2011 had David Ross (1.1), Eric Hinske (0.8), bat-licker Jose Constanza (0.7), Brooks Conrad (0.6) and Jordan Schafer (0.5).
Hey, does anyone remember the debates between Jose Constanza and Jason Heyward when Constanza had the best three to four week heater of his life? I wish I didn’t.
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