The Braves’ midseason adjustment of their backup infield option came up… Short.
The Braves didn’t head into the 2024 season with Zack Short in their plans. Though they probably could’ve acquired him for a pittance, they had both Luis Guillorme and David Fletcher in-house for backup infielder duties. But, about five weeks into the season, Fletcher was banished to the minors and Guillorme was sent packing to Anaheim, all so Zack Short could be the backup infielder. Did the low-stakes gamble work out? Not at all…
How acquired
The Red Sox designated Short for assignment on May 8; the Braves traded cash considerations for him the next day. Short actually started the season with the Mets, who had claimed him off waivers from the Tigers in November 2023. When the Braves acquired Short, they became his fourth organization in five months. (Short was originally drafted by the Cubs, and traded to the Tigers in August 2020, in exchange for former Brave Cameron Maybin.)
At the same time, the Braves sent Guillorme to Anaheim — whatever the move was, it was definitely some kind of not-so-oblique referendum on Guillorme’s services vis-a-vis Short’s.
What were the expectations?
At the time the Braves acquired Short, he had a -17 wRC+ (not a typo) across 19 PAs with the Mets and Red Sox. He also had a 59 wRC+ across 450 PAs with the Tigers from 2021-2023; his xwOBA did not exceed .300 in any of those three seasons. He also played pretty weak defense, getting especially overmatched at shortstop, and to a lesser extent, third base.
So, why did the Braves even acquire Short? They had their reasons, and given that a backup infielder is a pretty low-stakes position, it’s not worth too much consternation… but I honestly don’t know what they are. Short has never hit, and he showcased positional flexibility without, well, positional talent. If your backup infielder doesn’t hit, he should probably at least be able to handle shortstop pretty well, but that doesn’t describe Short at all. If there’s a narrative you could build about why they preferred Short, it may have been something akin to the fact that both Guillorme and Fletcher are very slappy hitters, while Short was more a patient guy that actually managed a below-average-but-not-awful .350 xwOBACON in 2023. Again, I’m not actually sure why that was better than Guillorme and Fletcher given that none of those guys can actually drive the ball, but that’s all I got.
In any case, Short compiled -1.0 fWAR in his 450 PAs with the Tigers and added another -0.3 in his 19 PAs in 2024 before coming to the Braves, so while the Braves may have expected him to do something halfway useful with some tweaks or whatever, the safe, generic bet was that he’d be a sub-replacement value bleeder that hopefully wouldn’t play very much, if at all.
2024 Results
Unfortunately, the 2024 Braves campaign was anything but a throughline where bad bench guys were relegated to the bench, where they belonged. Shortly after Short became the official backup infielder, Austin Riley had his bizarre “not on the Injured List but also not starting stint,” during which Short became the starting third baseman for just about two weeks. In that span, he did pretty much what he should’ve been expected to, with a 64 wRC+. After that, Short’s playing time became much more sporadic, though he still got a handful of starts due to things like the Orlando Arcia tooth saga. In said sporadic playing time, he posted a 53 wRC+.
All in all, Short had a 61 wRC+ and -0.1 fWAR in 69 PAs as a Brave, with some pretty weak defensive play in a small sample. He finished the season with -0.4 fWAR in 88 PAs, underhitting his poor .280 xwOBA by quite a large amount. It was his fourth sub-replacement season in four tries.
The Braves designated him for assignment in late July, and after no one claimed him on waivers, sent him outright to Gwinnett. He elected minor league free agency after the season.
What went right?
Well, on the premise that the Braves claimed Short for a reason, the season then conspired to give them an opportunity to put whatever designs they had to the test. Other than that, though, there’s almost nothing positive to say about Short, but I’ll try.
His walk rate was really high (again), driven by the fact that he just doesn’t chase — no player in 2024 with as many PAs as Short had as low of a chase rate (Leo Rivas beat him, but had two fewer PAs). Some of that lack of chases was because Short was pretty passive at the plate in general, but his z-swing rate was more like 21st percentile, rather than, well, the lowest possible.
And, fittingly for a guy who did oh-so-little with his opportunity, his biggest game for the Braves came in one of their worst defeats of the year, which was also his first game for the team — the disastrous 4-3 loss in New York. While Jarred Kelenic and Ramon Laureano screwed around and lost the game for Atlanta, Short came in for Riley and tore it up. He drew a leadoff walk to start the sixth and later scored the go-ahead run, and then did the same thing again in the eighth, scoring the go-ahead run once again. Unfortunately, it was all mostly downhill from there, though he did hit this game-winning double against the Cubs in his first-ever start for the Braves:
Short actually had a 226 wRC+ in his first four games as a Brave, with four of his nine hits and two of his three doubles for the team in that span.
What went wrong?
Unfortunately, he had a 17 wRC+ the rest of the way, and his defense was bad in its own right, rather than buoying his case for a roster spot. While there’s something to be said for the idea that a guy can be patient and discerning enough to get a good pitch to hit and drive it, Short simply lacks the oomph to do the driving part. When you consider that he also misses a ton, it’s not really clear what his offensive path to success is, even with his patience. Take an average strikeout rate (because a lot of takes and a lot of whiffs will add up even if you draw a lot of walks) and throw in abysmal contact quality, and you get a bad hitter. Throw in poor infield defense, and, well, that guy’s not really worth rostering.
Fortunately, Short’s most brutal game as a Brave was one they ended up winning. There wasn’t too much to this one — basically, in three PAs, Short came up with fewer than two outs and a runner on third twice, and came up short (sorry) each time, hitting it to short (sorry) in both instances. The second instance actually resulted in the runner getting thrown out at home.
And then there was this, which put an exclamation point on the idea that getting ahead by taking breaking pitches doesn’t actually help if you can’t do anything with this poorly-executed, game-ending pitch.
2025 Outlook
Now a free agent, Short’s nominal ability to play multiple infield positions and plate discipline will probably get him a minor league deal and invitation to Spring Training of some sort, but boy, he’s really gotta figure out how to supplement his limited strengths with something, anything, that pulls him up over the replacement level threshold. He hasn’t hit at any level since a nice 200ish-PA run with the Tigers’ Triple-A club in 2021, and he’s cost his major league employers half a win on defense in 538 PAs so far. The fact that Steamer projects him for a 77 wRC+ (and ZiPS for a 70 OPS+) when his career wRC+ is 57 is a small mercy.