National writer Peter Gammons claims SS Vaughn Grissom has been injured for the past week
Braves Country has been abuzz since the shocking news dropped on Monday afternoon of both Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake, who the coaching staff said late last week were the frontrunners for the shortstop job, being optioned to AAA Gwinnett. That move cements Orlando Arcia as the starting shortstop.
National baseball writer Peter Gammons tweeted a possible explanation Tuesday morning:
Given Grissom's almost week-long absence from the defensive alignment, several folks (including our own Jake Mastroianni) were wondering if this was in fact the case.
But if he's legitimately been injured, there's a few questions here:
1) Why was he still hitting as the DH? Ostensibly, unless you hit a home run, you have to run, something which could aggravate a groin injury. Additionally, he looked healthy on Monday, making several difficult plays at short without stumbling or looking impaired in any way.
UPDATE: Mark Bowman of MLB.com has thrown cold water on this idea:
2) Why is no one else reporting and/or confirming this? We all know the Braves front office is notoriously tight-lipped, but given the attention to the shortstop competition, you'd think one of the beat writers like Mark Bowman of MLB.com or David O'Brien of The Athletic would be able to confirm the news.
I think it's more likely that the Braves are taking the big picture of the season over the best possible roster on Opening Day.
We all know that GM Alex Anthopoulos likes to take the long-view: While Grissom as the starter with Arcia as the backup is the best alignment of talent on Opening Day, there's a wild-card we're not accounting for here: Ehire Adrianza.
The ten-year veteran, on his second stint with Atlanta, is tenured enough that he could refuse a minor-league assignment and opt for free agency. By optioning Grissom and Shewmake both down to Gwinnett, you're able to retain the type of depth player that is coveted by teams at this point in spring training.
Remember, the Braves used five replacement players at second base last year after Ozzie Albies went down with injury.
This move allows Grissom and Shewmake to both play every day in Gwinnett, with Shewmake getting reps at an unfamiliar position of second base and lets Grissom fine-tunes the defense, all while keeping a veteran utility option in Adrianza on the roster to start the season.
The thought is that Shewmake would have gotten the call last season for 2nd base if not a for a partial tear of the PCL suffered just days before Grissom was called up to the majors - this move allows him to work and get reps at 2nd base so he's prepared to fill a vacancy at either position, if the need arises.
And both players are just minutes up the road if Atlanta needs either an injury replacement or an offensive spark as we get through the beginning month of the schedule.
In the meantime, we're going to trust Alex Anthopoulos and Brian Snitker here, because they've earned the benefit of the doubt.
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