Atlanta Braves: Sign Bench Piece in Sean Rodriguez

The Atlanta Braves haven’t taken the holidays off making moves on Thanksgiving adding former Pirates player Sean Rodriguez.

The Atlanta Braves are not resting over the holidays this weekend continuing to make headlines by signing Sean Rodriguez to a 2-year deal that early reports say guarantee him at least an 11-million dollar deal during his time with the Braves.

Sean Rodriguez is a utility player who enjoyed a career season with the Pirates in 2016 hitting 18 homers and hitting well above his career average at .270. The 31 one year old utility man will offer the Braves depth options at multiple positions and should be a platooned player as opposed to a starting one barring injury.

Adding Rodriguez is a bit of a surprising and pointless move for the Braves. Rodriguez has never been the .270 hitter that he was last year in his career and often signing a player past thirty after a career year rarely looks good in retrospect.  Looking at Sean’s career numbers could be cause for concern as well considering he has hardly ever hit above .230 leaving his career average at .234 with last year’s career numbers figured in.

It is hard to see exactly how the Braves see Rodriguez deserving of a two year deal or an upgrade over the options that they have in their farm system. While Daniel Castro may not offer an average much over the Mendoza line there is also little reason to think that Rodriguez can realistically maintain last year’s career numbers.

The move as well may signal that the Braves are focusing on improving other areas of their team and cooling on any ideas of breaking the farm for Chris Sale. After two weeks full of rumors that the Braves were trying to add Chris Sale it seems as if the price may have been higher then they were willing to pay.

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Adding Sean Rodriguez may not be the move that Braves’ fans were hoping for over Thanksgiving but it is one that will not hurt the team or their farm system long term. Sean Rodriguez will look to slot into a platoon role backing up multiple positions barring injury in 2017. The Braves pitchers and catchers will report to camp Feb. 14th.