It’s not Orlando, but I hear Tampa is nice…
I’ve spent the last couple of summers learning how to grill.
Of course, I had grilled before all of that, but I was like I really want to learn how to grill. So I bought this nifty book to learn more about the science behind grilling, and I started finding a few things a month to spend the requisite time on to learn how to grill.
There were so many things I didn’t know – indirect heating, thin cuts of meat versus thicker cuts, opening the hood versus keeping it closed. I had more or less turned the grill on hot for steaks and burgers and more medium heat for everything else. Turns out … that’s not how that works at all.
I started to get the hang of it, and even my wife was like, “Hey, this is actually good.” It’s amazing what doing it correctly will do, huh. Eventually, that led to me playing around with flavor, rubs, and spices.
Those … took a little longer to get the hang of. I ruined a set of lamb chops by overdoing the cayenne, and I still can’t quite add the right amount of chipotle to give my standard rub the kick it needs. But I’ve got a good and simple coffee rub that works really well, and my wife is more or less fine with me putting that on whatever.
Heading into this spring, I’m going to start looking at sauces. I’ve never really made any sauces, so it’s going to be a brand new experience for me. Given how the other stuff has gone, I can’t wait to waste a whole thing of molasses or whatever trying to make a good barbecue sauce, but it should be a fun experience nonetheless. I’d like to experiment with some more non-traditional American barbecue flavors, so if you have a recipe you think I should try, leave it in the comments.
The other thing I really need, though, is a new set of knives. We have a fine set of knives. They work fine, and they get the job done. But I could really use a better set to chop, slice off the silverskin, and do a better job trimming. I have decent knives, but I could use a better set (any suggestions can also be left in the comments).
I imagine that’s how the Atlanta Braves feel about Orlando Arcia. He’s fine. He plays good defense, and even while it’s slipping a bit, it’s still good enough to start, even if his bat isn’t good.
And the bat really isn’t good, and you shouldn’t expect it to be better. But he does occasionally run into a few, and as far as ninth-place hitters go, that’s about what you’d expect.
But could the team do better, even if it’s not immediately?
JP Crawford
After Crawford hit .266/.380/.438 in 2023, he was set as the cornerstone of the Mariners infield. He was 28, had signed a five-year deal in 2022, and had just posted a 5-win season. There was even some pre-2024 MVP talk. Then came 2024.
April was a rough start, hitting .198/.296/.302 before going down with a strained oblique. During a rehab game, he got drilled on the wrist that delayed his return, and then he got hit on the hand again in July, this time giving him a hairline fracture. He somehow still played 105 games, which doesn’t seem quite right for the kind of year he had, and he ended up hitting .202/.304/.321, which was still mildly better than Arcia’s .218/.271/.354 (Crawford’s wRC+ was 89 vs. Arcia’s 72).
Okay, so why target Crawford?
One, he was on a steady ascent before he came crashing down in 2024. He had always been a solid regular, and he had posted a few seasons above 3 wins prior to last season.
Two, he can hit, and his Statcast in 2023 looked pretty good, even if he doesn’t hit the heck out of it.
He makes a lot of contact, draws walks, and hits it hard enough to exact some power.
Three, his contract is pretty reasonable. He makes $11 million this year before getting a $1 million raise next year, and that means his contract is up after his age 31 season.
There are some drawbacks, though. He clearly had a rough 2024, and there’s no way to get around that. His defense has also jumped around a bit in his career, but he was downright bad in 2022 and 2023 before being about average in 2024. I’m not really sure what to make of that, but we can say he’s at least not great out there.
I’d be very interested in Crawford, but the Mariners aren’t exactly flush in shortstops while also still trying to win their 85 games. Buuut, you might be able to convince them to take Arcia back along with some decent pitching prospects to save a little money, which it seems like they want to do. But this deal probably needs to happen soon because either he plays well (and they won’t trade him) or he doesn’t (and you don’t want him).
Xavier Edwards
Brought over in a prospect swap, Xavier Edwards had an excellent campaign with the Marlins, hitting .328/.397/.423 (128 wRC+) along with 31 SB.
Mark, why would they trade this guy?
There’s some … shenanigans here, though, that we should be aware of. The first is the .398 BABIP that is obviously not sustainable, but if one were to argue, he’s incredibly fast and makes a ton of contact along with sustaining high BABIPs in the minors. The second is that …
It’s not a ton of hard contact. Now, that’s not necessarily a terrible thing. You can get by without being a power hitter, but you can see Edwards lives in extremes. He hits the ball a lot and has a good eye, but he’s going to have to find some holes to be productive on offense.
And three, he needs to hit because …
His defense is not very good at all. Maybe he gets better with more reps (hey, Marcus Semien made it work), but he’ll need to because the offense is likely to regress.
CJ Abrams
If you were looking for a potential outlet for trading Drake Baldwin, this might be it.
The former 6th overall pick came to Washington in the Juan Soto trade, and he’s more-or-less steadily improved since coming over. His power has increased. His walks have increased. His wRC+ has increased. And he steals plenty of bases.
Mark, you have a habit of letting the other shoe drop, so let’s hear it.
He might be available, however, because the season totals sort of underscore the massive difference Abrams had last year. In the first half, he hit .268/.343/.489, good enough for a 129 wRC+, but he fell off the face of the Earth in the second half, hitting .203/.260/.326 (64 wRC+) and getting optioned to AAA. It wasn’t pretty.
Part of the issue was pure BABIP as he hit .243 on balls in play in the second half after a perfectly fine .307 in the first. But that’s somewhat underscored in the batted ball metrics as he lost the ability to hit line drives and added a lot more ground balls. There was a shoulder injury as he jammed his shoulder, but he didn’t miss a lot of games. Maybe he should have.
His offense is better than Edwards’.
It’s not great, but when you remember that he’ll be 24 for the entirety of the 2025 season, it earns him a little grace.
His defense, however, was atrocious. If we look at OAA for last season for all SS that had at least 200 PA, Xavier Edwards and CJ Abrams were the worst two, and Abrams was the worst, by far. Given that the Braves infield defense is already pretty rough, going with one of the worst defenders in the game at shortstop probably ain’t it.
But the Braves have Sean Murphy now and for a few years, and catching prospects don’t gave great track records. I don’t think Abrams goes for nothing, and Baldwin might be the best chip they have, though Keibert Ruiz has a decent-sized contract that might keep him as the catcher for the Nationals. It’s worth a thought anyway.
Geraldo Perdomo
Author’s Note: This was written before Perdomo just signed an extension, so he’s largely out. But I’m leaving it in because I think the general reasoning stands, even if it’s less likely than it was 24 hours ago.
Perdomo is only here because of Jordan Lawlar. Lawlar, another former 6th overall pick, mashed the tiny sample of AAA pitching he saw last year, and there’s a decent chance that, even if he’s not ready now, he will be sometime this season.
Enter Perdomo, who has quietly put up two consecutive 2-win seasons.
His Statcast looks eerily similar to Edwards’ …
But his defense is more up to the league average area.
It would be a weird swap here. The Diamondbacks are good. Perdomo is good. There’s just no real room long-term for Perdomo unless he slides over to third, where the bat would have to significantly improve in order to be valuable there. The Diamondbacks also aren’t really looking for pitching, and Baldwin isn’t someone you’re dangling here, even if Arizona didn’t already have Gabriel Moreno.
Cleveland Guardians
I would like to now turn our attention to the Cleveland Guardians, who have a few potential options here, but the options depend on what they actually do with their middle infield.
They have Juan Brito, who is definitely a second baseman only, so we’ll ignore him for now, though his presence is important.
Daniel Schneeman should probably also just be a second baseman, but he did play some shortstop last year. It just wasn’t good. But in the interest in being consistent as I have discussed literally the two worst defensive shortstops in MLB last season …
Nah.
Another option is Gabriel Arias. His defense was significantly better than … well basically anyone else I’ve discussed so far. His bat?
There are some things to like here. He does strike out a lot, and he hasn’t walked a ton in his brief time in the majors. But his defense is good, and there’s some definite thump in the bat.
Brayan Rocchio is another quality defender who …
Also has a little bit of trouble hitting. He makes more contact, but you can see that the contact doesn’t ultimately amount to much.
Finally in our smorgasbord of random middle infielders, we have Angel Martinez. He played a little SS in AAA, but he has mostly played other positions over the last few years.
He also makes a lot of contact without impacting the ball a lot.
If I had a choice here, I’d be the most interested in Arias. He can defend, and there’s real power there. He does swing and miss a lot, and there’s no glossing over that. But he also has improved that at every stop, so there’s hope he could improve at the MLB level as well.
Worth a Mention
None of these guys are likely to go anywhere, but they’re worth mentioning as they’re on teams who aren’t likely to be good this year
I’d have talked about Colson Montgomery here, but given how many catchers the White Sox have now, I don’t think Baldwin is a good trade chip in this scenario. Maybe you could swap some pitching here, and I’d be happy to do that. But I have a feeling that’s not really what the White Sox want to do here. But it’s the White Sox, so maybe.
Gavin Lux and, more importantly, Elly de la Cruz have the middle infield covered in Cincinnati, which likely means Matt McLain to the OF. I don’t really see a match here unless the Reds are interested in some pitching, but this might be the most realistic target in this section.
Zach Neto isn’t going anywhere but Anaheim, but even if he was, Atlanta likely can’t offer the best package. Baldwin would at least be the best fit in terms of trade chips.
Bo Bichette hasn’t been very good for a bit, and Toronto is definitely running it back for another year. But maybe at the deadline, I guess.
Ultimately, there are some solid but imperfect options here.
If I had to choose, this is sort of my ranking:
Crawford would be the main target. He’s clearly the most accomplished, and he’s the most likely of the group to actually help this year. His defense has been erratic, but it’s been good enough. The question is if Seattle is still looking to shed money as a deal of Arcia plus pitching might work, in theory.
Gabriel Arias would be next on my list. I think a lot of the other guys would be players Atlanta would have to wait on, but I think Arias could be had right now. There’s a reason, of course, for that, but I think there’s enough there to take a peek at what it would take to acquire him and give him some run. The problem is that he’s not clearly a better option overall than Arcia, so you’d have to be sure it wouldn’t destroy the clubhouse (I have no answer here) to give these two a Spring Training competition.
Perdomo would be the next one on my list, but he’s third because I’m concerned that it would take too much to acquire him at the moment. My guess is that Lawlar goes back to AAA for a bit, and if he does, there’s almost zero chance that Arizona moves Perdomo. But … if Lawlar were to start the year in the majors … I’d probably be willing to give up a better pitching prospect or two than others might be in order to acquire him.
[UPDATE: Stupid extension. NEVERMIND]
But hey seriously, what new knives should I get?