Orlando Arcia was an All-Star for the Atlanta Braves in 2023. If you need proof that Alex Anthopolous is a cheat-code, there you have it!
Read that again…Orlando Arcia was an All-Star for the Atlanta Braves in 2023.
AA must have lost it!
It’s been 10 1/2 – 11 months since all of Braves Country thought AA had lost it. Dansby Swanson had been overpaid by the Cubs and, two weeks before the team headed north to Atlanta, Arcia was handed the job. Conventional wisdom had a battle brewing between the now-departed-Vaughn Grissom and now-departed-Braden Shewmake. The duo logged most of the spring training innings but were optioned to Gwinnett in favor of Arcia.
The cry for AA’s head was fervent from all of us. Nobody, and I mean nobody, saw Arcia in the mix – let alone having a shot at an All-Star team. Not only was he handed the job, his contract was extended.
Alex Anthopolous is a cheat-code, and he can’t even say with a straight face that he saw THAT coming!
Dude had an amazing first month of the season! His slash line was .333/.400/.511, good for an OPS of .911. Surely, everyone thought, he will cool down in May. But Arcia, in his best Dwight Schrute, said FALSE! He kept at it, hitting.314/.371/.471, for an .841 OPS at the end of May.
Would Arcia swoon in June? Not so fast, my friends. Orlando raised his average as high as .341. His OPS was back up to .889 and he locked up his first All-Star berth.
Slow fade
Now, the second half was not the first half, to be sure. By season’s end, Arcia completed the season with a line of .264/.321/.420 – all better than his career averages.He also belted 17 HRs, drove in 70 runs, and played a great shortstop. Arcia’s slow fade to the mean was expected, but has done nothing to cause AA or the Braves to move on from him – at least as yet.
In fact, Shewmake was moved to the White Sox early this off-season, and Grissom, recently, was dealt to the Red Sox for Chris Sale. Confidence is apparently high in Arcia’s defense, and with the offensive prowess of the rest of the lineup, the fact that Alex Anthopolous is a cheat-code has the Braves ready to roll into 2024 with him manning short.
I’ve often wondered if the Braves would bring in a UT guy with a primary focus on SS (Guillorme ain’t that). There are none of Orlando’s offensive stats that seem fluky, but I won’t deny that I’m not very confident that he’ll produce like he did in 2023 ever again. There’s a whole lot of blue on his Statcast page.I still like the idea of Elvis Andrus on a 1/$2MM deal.
Is “now” Andrus really better than some combination of Arcia, Fletcher, and Guillorme? I’d like to think Arcia is a fine placeholder until we can develop an internal option for SS – Alvarez, Benitez, Tavarez, Perdomo, Diaz, lots of very young possibilities…
I think Arcia is pretty much a lock for a .750 OPS, which is fine for his defense and this lineup.
I hope Arcia posts a .750 OPS, and I agree that would be great for his defense, but I don’t see how he’s a lock for it given that he has never posted a .750 OPS in his career. Arcia is a good bet to be a playable starter though below average. He is precariously close to slipping into the average defense and minus bat category that makes him only a useful backup, as he approaches 30 and has below average range at the SS position. We should be looking for an upgrade soon. Fortunately, we don’t need him to carry us.
It’s interesting that both Arcia and Murphy had crazy first halves, came back to earth in the second half, and still managed career years at the plate, but there seems to be a lot more concern about Murphy’s second half. It was the first half that was the outlier.
I wouldn’t worry about Murphy. His Statcast page is filled with red. He’ll be fine.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/sean-murphy-669221?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
https://x.com/bravesonbally/status/1752169743086195160?s=46&t=WSNPrB2JyUoeKSn2PZsXZg
He’s a treasurer, and hopefully our future manager. Reminds me a lot of Kevin Cash down here in St. Pete.
He would make a great manager.
We have a new thread.