This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it recurrently in your inbox.
ATLANTA — A pair months in the past, I in contrast Nick Allen to former Braves shortstop Rafael Belliard, who had an incredible glove and a toothpick for a bat. Allen would possibly by no means be lauded for his offensive accomplishments. However he has change into the Braves’ major shortstop as a result of he has proven he can constantly produce extra environment friendly plate appearances than Orlando Arcia.
“He’s a extremely stable shortstop, and he’s had a number of the finest at-bats we’ve had all yr,” Braves supervisor Brian Snitker stated. “He’s already earned extra enjoying time.”
Braves followers clamored for Atlanta to seek out anyone apart from Arcia, who ranked final amongst certified shortstops in each wins above substitute (0.8, per FanGraphs) and wRC+ (72) final yr. However even after Allen was acquired from the A’s for an obscure Minor League pitcher named Jared Johnson on Nov. 11, it was laborious to see a substitute had been landed.
However what we didn’t know was that Allen had some hassle seeing whereas producing a .537 OPS in 760 plate appearances for the A’s from 2022-24. The 26-year-old infielder began carrying goggles this yr to battle towards the astigmatism that affected his imaginative and prescient, particularly throughout evening video games.
The influence won’t be important. He had a .518 OPS in 452 plate appearances throughout evening video games whereas with the A’s and a .566 OPS in 308 plate appearances throughout day video games. However just like the change of surroundings, the goggles present Allen additional purpose to really feel like he’s been given a contemporary begin.
“I couldn’t be extra grateful for the chance to simply maintain enjoying and maintain going,” Allen stated. “I’m simply attempting to battle daily.”
Arcia began the season opener, however as soon as Allen was positioned at shortstop for the second sport, it was obvious the Braves had been critical about giving him common enjoying time. However Snitker took it one other step when he used Allen as his beginning shortstop for 4 straight video games from Tuesday-Saturday.
“He’s performed nice protection for us and the bats have been skilled,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley stated. “So I’ve been tremendous happy with him.”
Arcia was elected to start out the 2023 All-Star Recreation, however he has produced a meager .646 OPS for the reason that begin of that season’s second half. The 1.4 fWAR he has produced for the reason that 2023 All-Star break ranks final amongst certified shortstops, forward of solely St. Louis’ Masyn Winn (2.8 fWAR) throughout this lengthy span.
Together with producing far too many wasted plate appearances, Arcia additionally appears to have misplaced some vary. There have been two cases through the season’s first highway journey the place he was unable to get to a ball he seemingly had at the least stored within the infield previously.
Look, no one envisioned Arcia to be an on a regular basis shortstop, together with himself. Had he seen himself in that function, he wouldn’t have accepted the $2.43 million common annual wage he gained from the three-year, $7 million deal he signed in the beginning of the 2023 season.
That was the identical yr when both Braden Shewmake or Vaughn Grissom was going to be the beginning shortstop. Wow, is that this time to remind you that Dansby Swanson had achieved every little thing he may, together with name staff chairman Terry McGuirk, to make it clear he needed to remain in Atlanta, even when he was leaving a big amount of cash on the desk?
Anyhow, we’re now again to Allen, who’s benefiting from his alternative. He’s the son-in-law of Bret Boone, who teamed with Braves bench coach Walt Weiss to function Atlanta’s center infielders through the 1999 World Collection. Boone and A’s supervisor Mark Kotsay, who loved his personal brief stint with the Braves in 2008, each gave Atlanta coaches purpose to be enthusiastic about Allen’s ardour to play and win.
Allen is 5-for-18 (.278) with a double up to now. He’s not going to hit 17 homers like Arcia did throughout each of the previous two years. However his capability to offer extra productive at-bats may result in extra runs over the course of a whole season.
“I’ve simply gotta maintain going,” Allen stated. “To date so good. So no matter I can do to assist the staff win, it doesn’t matter what, I am there.”
