José Bautista is on his way to Atlanta
We’re only about a month into the 2018 Major League Baseball season, but it’s safe to suggest that the National League East has easily been the league’s most surprising division. As of this writing, the Atlanta Braves are atop the division, with the heavy preseason favorites, the Washington Nationals, buried in fourth place.
It’s too early to draw any definitive conclusions, but it sure looks like the Braves are for real. They’ve been routinely crushing the ball day in and day out despite the fact that much of the roster isn’t proven at the big league level. They did just get a bit older, however, as the team has elected to recall veteran third baseman Jose Bautista from the minors on Friday.
One of the most basic sports betting tips out there is to not jump the gun. While the Braves are hot now, there’s always a chance they’re playing over their heads and will eventually come crashing back to reality. We haven’t seen it yet, though, which makes the Braves a very interesting team to watch as the season progresses.
Bautista, who emerged as one of the game’s premier sluggers during his recent time with the Toronto Blue Jays, was signed to a minor league deal by the Braves a few weeks ago. Bautista initially came up as an infielder, but he spent the vast majority of his time in Toronto patrolling right field. With Atlanta, he has shifted back to third base.
The Braves have been tearing the cover off the ball despite the fact that Ryan Flaherty has logged the majority of the playing time at the hot corner thus far. While Flaherty has gotten off to a solid start with the bat, he’s been a below-average Major League hitter during the entirety of his career to this point. Unless he’s enjoying a Bautista-like late-career surge, it’s safe to say Flaherty will come back down to earth at some point.
Bautista will be with the club tonight in Atlanta when the Braves begin a weekend series against the San Francisco Giants. He was once an elite hitter, but his performance at the plate tailed off considerably in his final two seasons with the Blue Jays. Bautista, now 37, slashed just .203/.308/.366 in 157 games last season. He did hit 23 home runs, but the power is essentially the only part of his game still intact.
Bautista hit .256 during his time with Triple-A Gwinnett this season, picking up 11 hits in 43 at-bats. He’s been hot lately, however, going 6-15 with a home run in his last five games.
One would imagine Bautista and Flaherty will essentially split time at third base in the immediate future. The Braves are coming off a three-game sweep of the New York Mets to pull into sole possession of first in the division. Atlanta holds a 1.5-game lead on New York, with the Philadelphia Phillies lurking just two games back. The Nationals are fourth, four games out of first.
