What took so long?! As soon as outfielder Jurickson Profar was suspended for 80 games for PEDs, the Atlanta Braves should have called up veteran Alex Verdugo. I understand that he just recently signed with the organization, but what a colossal waste of time it has been in the Atlanta outfield so far. Michael Harris II is sorry, not sawry. Jarred Kelenic’s days as a big-leaguer should be over by now.
While the Braves await the triumphant return of Ronald Acuña Jr. batting leadoff and manning right field, baby steps, folks. Verdugo no longer plays for the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees for a reason, but Atlanta could use an AL East castoff over whatever the hell Brian Snitker is penciling into his mediocre lineup every night. The infield is starting to swing the bats better. The outfield, on the other hand …
Although it remains to be seen how much better Verdugo will make the Atlanta outfield, he is not addicted to striking out like his new teammates Harris and Kelenic are. Every time I tune in to watch the Braves, I find myself going full-blown Star Fox when I see their outfield alignment: Who are these guys? They are not Star Fox. Heck, they are not even the Atlanta Braves. They are a waste of space.
The corresponding move to bring Verdugo up was to send Bryan De La Cruz down to Triple-A Gwinnett.
The #Braves today recalled OF Alex Verdugo to Atlanta and optioned OF Bryan De La Cruz to Triple-A Gwinnett.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 17, 2025
The Braves welcome a similar sad bag of crap to Truist Park in the 7-12 Minnesota Twins on Friday.
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Alex Verdugo is not a Braves panacea, but his promotion will help
Trying to find the bottleneck that exists with this vastly underperforming team is like searching for a bit of hay in a needle stack. It is not for the faint of heart, but you have to do it, I suppose. Admittedly, there is not a lot this team does well. If I had to isolate the problems, though they would be that this team strikes out too much offensively and the bullpen is about are reliable as a rain-soaked grocery bag from Kroger.
Yes, a middling offense and a leaky bullpen are the two most obvious constraints Atlanta must fix to be better. If I had to pick one, I would say elevating the offense just a bit will do slightly more than improving the bullpen. This is because better starting pitching could remove this mediocre bullpen slightly more from the equation. No matter how good or bad the pitching is going, you still have to hit.
Verdugo is a Major-League player going into an outfield that does not currently have one. Kelenic is living on borrowed time in right field. Harris II should be required to wear a golden sombrero every time he steps into the batter’s box or his Ford Bronco we all know about. I want to root for these guys, but they have made it almost impossible in this April to forget. If Verdugo is Joc Pederson, I will ascend.
Verdugo is not going to show up and magically make the Braves better, but his play cannot hurt them. At the very least, he’ll put the ball in play a bit more; even while struggling in New York last year, his K rate ranked in the 88th percentile. That’s lightyears ahead of what any other Atlanta outfielder is doing right now, and at least gives you the chance that something good might happen.
