It was the first full season in the major leagues for the now -31-year-old outfielder, as Eli White found a role as a backup outfielder and took advantage of his playing time to have a solid all-around season with the Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta traded for White on January 3, 2023 after the Texas Rangers cut him from the organization’s 40-man roster in late December of the previous year. Originally an 11th-round draft pick by the Athletics in 2016, White was part of a massive three-team trade between those two clubs and the Tampa Bay Rays that landed him in Texas and also included his future Braves teammate and the man he filled in a lot of time for, Jurickson Profar.
What were the expectations?
White, who made his Rangers debut in 2020, had 171 major league games under his belt before joining the Braves organization, but played just 41 games with Atlanta in the two seasons heading into Spring Training 2025. His track record in 2025 was pretty poor: just 0.3 fWAR in 448 PAs, as he didn’t hit a lick (59 wRC+). On the other hand, his value was backed up by some pretty insane defensive traits.
White didn’t really do anything of note in 42 PAs in 2024 (his 115 wRC+ was betrayed by another poor xwOBA), but the Braves gave him a lot of playing time early in Spring Training – including multiple games at shortstop and second base, positions White had played in college and in the early minors before converting to a (nearly) full-time outfielder. He was also out of options, which played no small part in everything that happened.
White’s defensive acumen in the outfield seemed legitimate, but there were serious questions about his hitting and whether it was worth having a pure speed and defensive outfielder with no options on the roster. He was projected as a pretty mediocre bench option, given his lack of track record, stellar defense and all.
In 105 games and 271 at-bats, White had a 10-10 season, showing surprising pop with 10 home runs while also swiping 10 bases. All told, he had an 84 wRC+, but compiled 0.7 fWAR, thanks in large part to his defense. He significantly underperformed what was a fairly average xwOBA, so offensively it was actually a much more successful season than it first appears. Defensively, he amassed quite a bit of value in not that much playing time (+5 OAA-based runs in less than 600 innings), but since he played largely at corner in the outfield, his value was affected by the positional adjustment.
White’s 0.7 fWAR in 271 PAs roughly equates to a rate of 1.5 fWAR per 600 PAs, which is very good bench player, if not quite starter quality. If he hadn’t undervalued his xwOBA, he probably would have produced like an average regular, so everyone has to be pretty happy with this turn of events considering his complete inability to hit at the Major League level before 2025.
When Profar’s PED suspension and the struggles of Bryan De La Cruz and Jarred Kelenic created a black hole in the Atlanta outfield, White answered the call in late April with a hot streak that extended into mid-production. As the regular lineup until Profar returned from suspension, White gave the team offensive productivity and had several standout games, including his two-homer, 4 RBI game at the Bristol Speedway Classic where he was essentially the entire Atlanta offense in a 4-2 victory.
White wasn’t expected to play a major role with the club, as the outfielder was likely slated to be at the end of Atlanta’s bench for pinch-run duties, but by the time the season ended, White had proven he could be a solid bench piece who could contribute as a temporary regular when called upon.
Like speed-first, fifth outfielders Josh Anderson and Lane Adams before him, White was a threat on the base paths, but his double-digit home run output made him a viable pinch-hit option once he returned to his reserve status.
He stayed super fast; his sprint speed has been in the 96th percentile or higher, and usually in the 99th percentile, in each of his Major League seasons to date.
Outside of a horrific baseline blunder that cost the Braves a point and possibly a win in the standings, it’s hard to say anything went wrong for White compared to his expectations. In reality, however, his batting line was buoyed by his hot streak in late April, and then again over twenty PAs in September; For the remaining four months he struggled with the record for the most part, apart from the occasional outburst like the one he had in Bristol.
If you look at his Baseball Savant page, almost all of the offensive metrics are average at best, and pretty bad at worst. On average he had pretty good contact quality. but the combination of an above-average strikeout rate and a walk rate of about half league average, plus the fact that he made a lot of very weak contact to go with an above-average barrel rate, made for something in the average-but-not-really-better-than-that range. Although pitchers challenged him a lot, he still had an above-average chase rate and showed little ability to hang in on pitchers’ pitches.
That said, things certainly would have looked a bit better without xwOBA’s underperformance.
We’re not going to focus on the worst baserunning ever, but one time White had a terrible game without a critical brain fart on the bases was on May 22. The Braves lost that game in walkoff fashion, but before they did, White was having a miserable time, going 0-for-5. One of his strikeouts came when the Braves were down three, the bases loaded and one out. But worse, he found himself with runners on the corners and one out in the tenth, and grounded into a routine double play that forced a walk-off loss in the bottom half of the inning.
White and the Braves have agreed to a $900,000 deal through 2026, meaning he likely has an inside track for a bench role with Atlanta next season. (That, and he’s still out of option years…) It’ll probably take a few players to be unavailable at the same time for White to get extended playing time, but as a pinch-running option, late-inning defensive replacement, and a pinch-hitter with some pop, White has the ability to be a multi-year bench option, as long as age doesn’t rob him of his elite speed too quickly.
Steamer has White as a replacement level for 2026, but Steamer always has a strong decline in speed and defense, which are the things White relies on to generate value. ZiPS essentially has him replicating his 2025 offensively, but with even more defensive value, giving him average production in a part-time role as a point estimate. He probably won’t play enough to do it again, but expecting something similar to his 2025 seems reasonable, and that’s a good guy to have around.
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