{"id":304499,"date":"2025-11-21T04:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T04:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/304499\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T04:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T04:24:07","slug":"braves-notes-dubon-seager-holmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/304499\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Notes: Dubon, Seager, Holmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos met with reporters on Wednesday after the team acquired<\/a>\u00a0Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a> from the Astros for Nick Allen<\/a>. Anthopoulos confirmed the Braves view him as a potential starting shortstop while leaving the door open to pushing him back into a utility role if they land an upgrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur underlying data on him at shortstop is good and strong,\u201d Anthopoulos said (link via Mark Bowman of MLB.com<\/a>). \u201cBut I think he\u2019s good at second, good at third, and good at the corners. He can play center field. We like the contact and the speed, as well.\u201d Anthopoulos said Dub\u00f3n\u2019s job \u201cwill be determined by what else we do this winter and even in Spring Training.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no indication the Braves will be a factor for\u00a0Bo Bichette<\/a>. The only other clear free agent upgrade is Ha-Seong Kim<\/a>, who declined his $16MM player option. Anthopoulos made clear at the beginning of the offseason that the Braves wanted Kim back, but it remains to be seen if they\u2019ll meet his asking price on what will presumably be a multi-year deal.<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t any teams that are known to be shopping an everyday shortstop. Washington could move CJ Abrams<\/a>, but the asking price would be huge and they may be reluctant to trade him within the division. The rebuilding White Sox and Rockies have young shortstops they hope are foundational pieces (Colson Montgomery<\/a> and\u00a0Ezequiel Tovar<\/a>, respectively).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been some speculation about the Rangers entertaining offers on a highly-paid superstar as they face payroll constraints. It\u2019d still be a huge surprise if Texas trades Corey Seager<\/a>, who arguably remains the team\u2019s best hitter and is signed for $31MM per season for another six years. It\u2019s not clear if the Braves would have any interest in assuming a significant portion of the remaining $186MM on that deal. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic<\/a> report that Atlanta is one of the clubs on Seager\u2019s eight-team no-trade list. Even if the teams could line up a stunning blockbuster, they\u2019d need to get the player to sign off.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Dub\u00f3n has started 81 MLB games at shortstop. He played a career-high 206 1\/3 innings there this past season. Dub\u00f3n has 721 career frames at the position. Defensive Runs Saved has him right around average, while Statcast grades him an excellent nine runs above par. Dub\u00f3n, a two-time Gold Glove winner in a utility capacity, is established as a plus defender at second base and throughout the outfield. He\u2019s an above-average runner with good hands and a plus arm. Dub\u00f3n is unlikely to be as good a defensive shortstop as Allen was, but he\u2019s not a complete zero at the bottom of the lineup, so he\u2019s a better overall player.<\/p>\n

The Braves need to weigh the value of the upgrade from Dub\u00f3n to Kim against the cost it\u2019d take to bring the latter back \u2014 which could pull resources from their need for a mid-rotation starter. There\u2019s too much injury downside to rely on a rotation of Chris Sale<\/a>,\u00a0Spencer Strider<\/a>,\u00a0Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a>, Reynaldo L\u00f3pez<\/a> and\u00a0Hurston Waldrep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Braves don\u2019t have much in the way of upper level depth behind that quintet. That makes Grant Holmes\u2019<\/a> health a big x-factor, even assuming they add at least one starter. Holmes turned in a 3.99 ERA while striking out a quarter of batters faced in 22 appearances this year. His season ended in July when he was diagnosed with a partial tear of the UCL in his elbow.<\/p>\n

Ligament damage always raises a risk of surgery. Holmes is trying to rehab without going under the knife. Anthopoulos said the Braves are \u201creally encouraged\u201d by how things have progressed in the past four months (relayed by David O\u2019Brien of The Athletic<\/a>). They still won\u2019t know whether Holmes can avoid surgery until he builds up the intensity during Spring Training, yet that\u2019s a positive development at this stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos met with reporters on Wednesday after the team acquired\u00a0Mauricio Dub\u00f3n from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[7953,33292,133475,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-304499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-corey-seager","9":"tag-grant-holmes","10":"tag-mauricio-dubon","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}