After playing some fantastic baseball, the Braves have hit a bit of a skid, dropping three of four and watching their lead in the NL East slip to 6.5 games.
The pitching put the club in a 4-0 hole early on Monday, as the Twins kept finding holes in the defense with relatively soft contact — highlighted by a Josh Bell double that flew higher than it carried, landing perfectly in the no-man’s land between first base and right field to open the scoring.
However, Martin Pérez — who entered the game with an 18-inning scoreless streak — settled down and still gave the Braves five innings, and the bullpen didn’t allow a run the rest of the way. The Braves bats had every opportunity to claw their way back.
But as we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, they’ve really struggled to string performances together. Outside of one surge in the fifth inning, which saw hits from Austin Riley, Drake Baldwin, and Ronald Acuña Jr. lead to a couple of runs, the Braves were held scoreless over the other eight innings and recorded just four more hits.
You could chalk it up to nothing more than a rough stretch, and for the most part, that’s what’s responsible. The core group has to be better if the Braves want success down the stretch and into the postseason. But it’s hard to look at the lineup card every night and not scratch your head a bit, particularly with how the Braves have handled shortstop.
Despite a scorching start right after he was called up, Jim Jarvis has fallen off a cliff offensively. He has just three hits this month over 12 games, none of which have gone for extra bases, leading to a .091 batting average and .209 OPS. Going back further, Jarvis has hit just .162 with a .440 OPS over his last 24 games.
The story was a fun one initially, and Jarvis has still been marvelous defensively, but it’s fairly evident Dubon is the better fit at shortstop — which would open up more opportunities for guys like Lane Thomas and Sean Murphy.
Murphy has played in just five games since returning from the IL, and he has the same number of hits as Jarvis has all month. Add in that he’s a dream behind the plate for pitchers and has a track record of being elite offensively for stretches, and the Braves should be prioritizing getting him more at-bats.
Lane Thomas has appeared in just eight games since the trade and is sporting an .884 OPS. The Braves seem to be considering him strictly an option against left-handed pitching, which he’s crushed over his career. But an argument could be made he’s a better option against righties than both Dubon and Jarvis, who are far better defensively than offensively.
The shortstop situation gets even more peculiar when you consider how the Braves have handled Ha-Seong Kim. The $20 million man is amid one of the worst offensive seasons in MLB history, sporting a .066 batting average and a -32 OPS+ (132% below league average). It’s clear he’s only on the roster because the Braves paid him a boatload of money in the offseason — yet they’ve given him just three plate appearances since he returned from the IL.
They aren’t even trying to see whether he can find a groove the rest of the way, which begs the question: why the hell is he on the roster at all?
The Braves clearly have their reasons and admire what Jim Jarvis brings to the table. But it does feel like they should be far more interested in getting Sean Murphy going — a guy who’s proven he can carry an offense when he’s hot — than a rookie hitting .217 with an OPS south of .600.
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(Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire)