Orlando Arcia at Shortstop
In his first Spring Training game since being announced as the Braves shortstop (until further notice), the 28-year old Venezuelan went 2-for-3 with a walk & a 3-run BOMB that went 426 feet, tallying 4 RBI.
Coming into camp, the shortstop competition at Spring Training was advertised as a battle between perceived-favorite Vaughn Grissom & veteran utility/former Brewers SS Orlando Arcia.
The overwhelmingly believed outcome was for Vaughn Grissom to earn the job. After a 2022 campaign that saw him announce his arrival offensively with authority at historic Fenway Park & be a contributing member of the division-winning Braves. 2022 didn’t do anything to quell the worries concerning his defensive ability to hold down the shortstop position for the better part of his initial team control. To bridge the defensive gap, he was sent to Ron Washington in New Orleans for weeks at a time, multiple times.
In multiple interviews, Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos announced & reaffirmed the front office’s belief in Vaughn’s ability to play shortstop, at the direction of Ron Washington.
He didn’t prove that to be true.
So then the corporate writers around Braves Camp started to inject Braden Shewmake’s name into the Opening Day Lineup conversation. Then again. And then again. To the point that myself & others thought “alright, Shewmake it is”. Almost as another cog in the young gun machine that’s turned out Michael Harris, Spencer Strider, & Vaughn Grissom in 2022. The machine that’s seemingly sending a member to Atlanta to be the Braves 5th starter, in either Jared Shuster or Dylan Dodd.