What The Atlanta Braves Are Getting in Zack Short

The Atlanta Braves shuffled around their backup infield, but there's reason to believe it raised the ceiling of the bench.

Former New York Mets and Boston Red Sox infielder Zack Short was acquired by the Atlanta Braves this morning / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves continue to tweak their bench. 

After a pair of trades on Thursday morning, the Braves have sent incumbent utilityman Luis Guillorme to the Los Angeles Angels and replaced him with Zack Short, acquired from the Boston Red Sox for cash considerations after Boston DFA’d him over the weekend.

There are things to like about the move by President of Baseball Operations Alex Anthopoulos. 

It’s all about the bat

Luis Guillorme was here because his defense was...fine all over the infield. Zack Short’s the same way, albeit with a higher defensive ceiling - he can finish a game or a series if you have an injury, but you don’t want him as an everyday starter. 

But despite losing the left-handed bat of Guillorme, there’s reason to think that these two trades can potentially give you more from an offensive perspective (and not just because he's faster than Guillorme, although that does help): Short’s got hidden potential in that bat. 

He’s not yet shown that potential, mind you - Short’s a career .169 hitter in 469 plate appearances, with just thirteen homers against 138 strikeouts. 

The potential is there, though. 

Here’s a list of players that have gotten 250 plate appearances since the start of 2023 and have the combination of a less than 20% chase rate, a greater than 80% contact rate, and a barrel rate of 8% or better: 

Juan Soto
Seiya Suzuki
Lars Nootbaaar
Tommy Pham
Mike Yastrzemski
LaMonte Wade Jr.
Mitch Garver
Mike Trout
Zack Short

See where this is going? 

Short’s career chase rate is 17.3%, more than 10% better than MLB average (28.4%). While his power isn’t absurd - his career-high exit velocity is 108.2 and his 87.6 average is within 1 mph of MLB’s 88.5 average - he put up a 8.7% barrel rate over that sample, almost two percent higher than the MLB average barrel rate of 6.9%. 

Put simply: Zack Short may be...short on overall power (sorry), but he’s shown the ability to make optimal contact. 

(Making more contact, however, is something I'd love to see Short do. His career zone contact rate - how often he hits balls in the strike zone when he swings - is just 78.4% against the MLB average of 82.0%).

A guy making the league minimum with five remaining years of team control, better defense at shortstop, better speed, and some sort of offensive potential remaining to be unlocked is better than the alternative (Guillorme), especially when that alternative was costing you $1.1M and was only here for one more season.

It’s a small move, but it’s all down to what hitting coach Kevin Seitzer does with it. It could pay off down the line.