{"id":404590,"date":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404590\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","slug":"whats-the-plan-for-shortstop-after-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404590\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Plan for Shortstop After 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Kim liked Atlanta enough to come back for one more year | \u00a9 Imagn Images<\/p>\n

In retrospect, not re-signing Dansby Swanson<\/a> after the 2022 season proved to be a bigger deal than we thought at the time. <\/p>\n

Since the start of the 2023 season, the Atlanta Braves have used eleven different players on the lineup card at shortstop. Outside of a magical first half of the 2023 season from Orlando Arcia<\/a> (.294\/.345\/.424, 111 OPS+), none of those players has been even league average at the position. <\/p>\n

(For more on the decision to move on from Dansby and what an alternative history might look like for Atlanta, tune in to Tuesday\u2019s episode of Braves Today, debuting at noon eastern on our YouTube channel<\/a> and wherever you get your podcasts.)<\/p>\n

For the 2026 season, the position is virtually set – late-season waiver claim Ha-Seong Kim<\/a> is back on a $20M salary, and two-time Gold Glove utilityman Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a> was acquired via trade to back him up if needed.<\/p>\n

But just one problem: Both players are free agents after this season. <\/p>\n

Operating on the assumption that baseball is actually played in 2027, who mans the position for Atlanta that season? Let\u2019s talk about it.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason that Kim is back in the fold on a one-year, $20M deal for 2026 is that he didn\u2019t get the long-term offer he was seeking in free agency. The Scott Boras-repped 30-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays last offseason as he was looking to return from shoulder surgery, but a combination of injury setbacks (back, hamstring) and poor performance (.234\/.304\/.345, an 83 OPS+) meant that he had to settle for a \u2018pillow deal\u2019 with Atlanta. <\/p>\n

Now, because Atlanta is who they are, this wasn\u2019t the typical Boras-negotiated pillow deal with high AAVs offset by deferred money and a player opt-out. No, this was a straight one-year deal at $20M for 2026, with no extra contract shenanigans that the Braves normally avoid. <\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s discussed his desire for a better season in 2026, including more stolen base attempts. \u201cMy strength is being able to steal bases anytime. I stole a lot early in my return, but since my physical condition wasn\u2019t great, I think I got hurt a lot trying to steal,\u201d he told Korean media at Incheon International Airport<\/a> when returning home after the season. \u201cIn Atlanta, it wasn\u2019t like one more stolen base would change the team\u2019s standings, so I told the organization, \u2018Rather than stealing bases, I\u2019ll focus on playing every game healthy,\u2019 and they agreed. Next year, I naturally think I should run as much as I used to, and I\u2019ll prepare accordingly.\u201d (emphasis added). <\/p>\n

If Kim shows that he\u2019s both fully healthy and back to his 2023 form, one in which he put up a 107 OPS+ while stealing 38 bases in 47 attempts, he\u2019ll easily be one of the most desirable free agents on the market next winter. <\/p>\n

Whether or not the Braves can sign him at that point remains to be seen – if he\u2019s making $20M this season and the \u2018Atlanta Max\u2019 is only $22M<\/a>, it\u2019s unlikely that they get a deal done in free agency. Atlanta can tag him with a qualifying offer after the season, in that case, and receive a draft pick as compensation if he were to sign elsewhere. <\/p>\n

The obvious path here, clearly, is an early extension. While it\u2019s unlikely that a Scott Boras-repped player signs prior to free agency, it\u2019s not entirely unheard of: Matt Chapman<\/a> signed a three-year pillow deal with two opt-outs with the San Francisco Giants after the 2023 season and then signed a six-year, $151M extension during his first campaign by the Bay. (Remember, the agent works for the player, not the other way around.) The spectre of a looming lockout and being saddled with a qualifying offer could help push Kim to stick around with Atlanta, especially given that his good friend<\/a> Jurickson Profar<\/a> is not only under contract with Atlanta through 2028 but also voluntarily changed from #7 to #17 this winter so that Kim could get his original number back. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>They\u2019ve been really close friends for years | \u00a9 Imagn Images<\/p>\n

If Kim decides to maximize his earnings on the open market, Atlanta could always pivot to Dub\u00f3n as the new shortstop. Anthopoulos expressed confidence in his ability to handle the position defensively, telling Braves Today<\/a> the team\u2019s internal models were okay with that outcome if it came to it this year. \u201c\u200aWe feel comfortable with him at shortstop [\u2026] Our underlying data on him at shortstop is good and strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

My question would be the offense. Since becoming a full-time starter with the Houston Astros in 2023, Dub\u00f3n\u2019s offense has regressed in three straight seasons, from a 97 OPS+ to an 87 to last season\u2019s 78. The defense has held, but the offense has not. <\/p>\n

And as I wrote the day after the trade<\/a>, Dub\u00f3n\u2019s strength is not his ability to play shortstop, it\u2019s his ability to play everywhere: <\/p>\n

Mauricio Dub\u00f3n has not only played every defensive position but catcher in the last few seasons; he\u2019s won the American League\u2019s utility Gold Glove in two of the four years of the award\u2019s existence. On Statcast, he grades out as above-average at every defensive position, having put up a +40 Fielding Run Value and +45 Outs Above Average in his career. [\u2026] Could allowing Dub\u00f3n to play four or five days a week, rotating him through different defensive positions while giving the everyday starters either an entire day off or a \u2018half-day\u2019 as the designated hitter, help stave off some of the numerous injuries that have decimated Atlanta\u2019s offense in recent seasons?<\/p>\n

Bringing him back to be the next starter at shortstop means that the team is once again signing up to eschew load management and potentially grinding down their starters over a 162-game regular season schedule. <\/p>\n

But there are other options besides bringing one of these two back. <\/p>\n

Honestly, it does not look promising. <\/p>\n

Just like this winter\u2019s free agent class at the position, next winter\u2019s is also a pretty sparse class. As of now, Kim is the clear jewel of the position, followed by then-32-year-old J.P. Crawford<\/a> and\u2026Amed Rosario<\/a>? <\/p>\n

Might as well sign Kim during the season, right? <\/p>\n

Thankfully, there is another way. We already mentioned signing Dub\u00f3n to be the everyday shortstop, but he\u2019s not the only player who could be moved to shortstop and expected to thrive defensively. <\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner<\/a> only moved to the keystone out of deference to free agent signing Dansby Swanson, but graded out at +10 Fielding Run Value and +13 OAA the last time he manned the position on an everyday basis in 2022. He has a career +73 OAA in the middle infield and has shown the speed (82nd percentile 28.6 ft\/sec) to maintain the range. While his arm strength could be the limiting factor, with Hoerner\u2019s 2025 season mark of an average 75.5 mph coming in as a 7th percentile mark, he\u2019s consistently shown throwing velocities of four to seven mph higher in the sporadic innings he\u2019s covered at shortstop since the Swanson signing. <\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies utilityman Edmundo Sosa<\/a> is another shortstop conversion candidate – he\u2019s played nearly 1400 innings at short in his seven-year MLB career and holds a +18 OAA mark. What helps is that he also has a career .258 average and 99 OPS+, including a 109 OPS+ last season. <\/p>\n

Given the sparse free agency market, it\u2019s possible the Braves need to go identify and get a shortstop for 2027 via trade. Most of these acquisitions would fit into one of two buckets: acquiring a young player who is headed for a free agency payday or getting an \u2018overpaid\u2019 veteran in a salary dump-type situation. <\/p>\n

And some of the names will be familiar because they\u2019re the same names we discussed early this offseason<\/a>, when we were waiting to see if Kim would pick up his player option to return to Atlanta. <\/p>\n

Young pre-FA names: Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a>, CJ Abrams<\/a>, Zach Neto<\/a><\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a reportedly cut off extension negotiations last summer<\/a> when the Houston Astros seemingly capped out at five years and $105M, an amount that would have bought out just three free-agent years and sent him back to free agency at 32. He then switched his representation to Scott Boras, so he\u2019s likely heading to the open market after 2027. Would the Astros follow the same pattern as they did last winter with Kyle Tucker<\/a>, trading him prior to his final year of team control in order to get more compensation than just the qualifying offer?<\/p>\n

Abrams and Neto are in similar positions – promising young players on teams that don\u2019t portend to be competitive during their remaining team control. Do either get moved? While it\u2019s questionable if Abrams will move in the division, Alex Anthopoulos has made several deals with his former lieutenant and current Los Angeles Angels GM Perry Minasian. If Neto does get moved by LA, you\u2019d have to imagine that Atlanta would have as good a chance at anyone at landing the Campbell University product. He wouldn\u2019t exactly be cheap, as he\u2019s not scheduled to head to free agency until 2030 (barring the next CBA changing that timeframe), but he\u2019d immediately be the best shortstop available next winter were he to be made available. <\/p>\n

Pricey veterans: Corey Seager<\/a>, Trevor Story<\/a>, Ezequiel Tovar<\/a><\/p>\n

I wrote about these options back in early November as we waited for Kim to make his decision and without re-hashing the entire newsletter again, Story and Seager would be short and long-term salary dumps, respectively, while Tovar would be Atlanta buying low on a potential franchise cornerstone that\u2019s dealt with injuries and underperformance in the short-term. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got one more idea, though, which is so crazy it just might work: <\/p>\n

Matt McLain<\/a> of the Cincinnati Reds<\/p>\n

One more season of underperformance by the UCLA product, who moved from shortstop to second base out of deference to budding superstar Elly De La Cruz<\/a>, could potentially see the notoriously frugal Reds looking to move on from the versatile speedster as he gets into the heart of his arbitration years. In just 503 career MLB innings at shortstop, McLain has +2 OAA at shortstop and a +7 Fielding Run Value overall. <\/p>\n

The issue here is twofold: He missed the entire 2024 season due to a shoulder injury and his bat still hasn\u2019t returned, coming in at -16 Batting Run Value last season after hitting .220\/.300\/.343. The speed\u2019s still there – a 93rd percentile sprint speed of 29.2 ft\/sec and 18 stolen bases last year – and so if Atlanta feels like the bat can come back, the acquisition makes a lot of sense. <\/p>\n

The problem here is that if the bat comes back next season, McLain\u2019s likely not made available via trade next winter. Does Atlanta need to reach out to Cincinnati President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall this winter or early next year? It\u2019s likely, but I\u2019m fine with that. Maybe there\u2019s a path here to move one of Atlanta\u2019s excess starters and a pitching prospect or two to get the deal done, although Cincinnati\u2019s main offensive weakness has been and continues to be their outfield, an area where Atlanta\u2019s not exactly deep in prospect capital. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely. Atlanta\u2019s main shortstop options – international free agent John Gil<\/a> and 2025 college draftees Alex Lodise<\/a> (Florida State, Rd2) and Cody Miller<\/a> (East Tennessee State, Rd3) will likely start 2025 in High-A. While the Braves have been aggressive with their prospects, that\u2019s usually been confined to pitching prospects, not hitters. It\u2019s increasingly unlikely that any of that trio is ready to be the starting shortstop on Opening Day 2027, and Atlanta would want a veteran shortstop on the roster as a fallback either way – a World Series-contending team can\u2019t afford to put every single egg in a rookie\u2019s basket. <\/p>\n

I understand that talking about the 2027 season feels a bit premature – I mean, we haven\u2019t even played the 2026 season yet and we don\u2019t know what the CBA we\u2019ll be playing under will look like\u2026but this is how front offices think. Alex Anthopoulos wants to build the most competitive roster he can for 2026, sure, but that desire needs to (and will) be balanced with extending Atlanta\u2019s competitive window as long as possible. <\/p>\n

Not having a shortstop to speak of on the roster in 2027 makes it pretty difficult to compete for the division, nevermind championships. I\u2019m sure Atlanta will figure something out, either through free agency or a trade, and I can\u2019t wait to see what it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim liked Atlanta enough to come back for one more year | \u00a9 Imagn Images In retrospect, not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-404590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404590","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=404590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}