The Atlanta Braves have signed Adam Duvall to a one-year deal worth $3 million. They have told Jarred Kelenic that he will platoon with Duvall this season. Kelenic should get the majority of the reps as the left-handed batter.
Table of Contents
- 1. Braves want Adam Duvall to platoon with Jarred Kelenic… but why?
- 2. Kelenic is a long-term project…more “long” than Braves thought?
- Duvall will fill two roles for Braves in 2024
1. Braves want Adam Duvall to platoon with Jarred Kelenic… but why?
The obvious, surface-level reason is so he can platoon with Jarred Kelenic. So we’ll go with a “platoon” as reason number one on our list, but the numbers don’t really work out.
What is a “platoon” in baseball?
For those of you that don’t know, a platoon is designed to pair hitters who play better against either left or right handed pitching. So a guy who hits .200 against lefties and .330 against righties would only face righties. On days they face lefties, the team would “platoon” him with another player who hits well against left-handed pitching.
Traditionally, a left-handed hitter will do better against right-handed pitching and vice versa.
So, since Duvall is a righty and Kelenic is a lefty, this all makes sense!
Or does it?
Adam Duvall has nearly identical numbers against lefties and righties over the course of his career. He has hit .232 against both over his entire career. His OPS splits are separated by just .010 points (.770 vs. LHP, .760 vs. RHP).
As a lefty, Jarred Kelenic has performed better against RHP in his career.
Jarred Kelenic vs. RHP: .211/.296/.400 (.696 OPS)
Jarred Kelenic vs. LHP: .189/.255/.311 (.566 OPS)
It’s really not good, either way. In fact, Duvall has been a much better player against both lefties and righties.
2. Kelenic is a long-term project…more “long” than Braves thought?
Kelenic has had a terrible spring. He has just three hits in 34 at-bats, good (bad) for a .088 average and a .184 OBP. Brian Snitker mentioned Kelenic had a hitting session in the cage in which Snit needed to go get a good look at his swing. Kind of funny that not long after that, the Braves are bringing back our old friend Adam Duvall.
Perhaps they’ve had a chance to get a good look at Kelenic in camp and they realized that he needs a lot more work.
I recently speculated that if Kelenic continues to be an 85-90 OPS+ hitter after a couple of months, they may opt to give someone like Forrest Wall a shot just to avoid the potential gaping hole in the lineup of a championship contender that Kelenic could create. A couple hours after that article was published, the Braves signed Duvall… They must have read it. <–That’s sarcastic.
I think we are all in the same boat with Kelenic. We are intrigued and dare I say excited about his upside, but also concerned about the reality of his first three years in the big leagues.
He is still young at 24, but the Braves aren’t interested in players hitting far below league average on a team that has championship aspirations.
Kelenic is a long-term investment for the Braves. He’s under team control for the next five years. It’s not the end of the world if he is a part-time player for Atlanta in 2024. In fact, it might be good for him. I’ll explain how on the next page.
Duvall will fill two roles for Braves in 2024
3. Adam Duvall the Mentor
Duvall is 35 years of age with a lot of success at the major-league level. If you are still playing in the big leagues at 35, you have a lot of wisdom to import on the next generation. Although, we hope Duvall isn’t there to teach Kelenic how to be more patient at the plate, considering Duvall’s career .291 OBP.
4. Adam Duvall the 4th Outfielder
Many were wondering who would win the fourth outfielder spot this spring. Forrest Wall has been making a solid case for himself, but he doesn’t have a ton of pop (3 spring homers aside) and his fantastic on-base ability still hasn’t been tested at the major-league level.
Adam Duvall has stuck around the big leagues so long for two reasons, hitting homers and playing great defense. Even last season in Boston at age 34, he manned all three outfield positions with the majority of his playing time coming in centerfield. CF has the highest bar so it is no indictment on Duvall that he was below average in DRS, but he still scored as an above-average corner outfielder. He’ s still capable of filling in anywhere in the grass.
Kelenic is still going to get the majority of the reps (to begin the year) but Duvall is an insurance policy we can all feel good about. Not just for Kelenic, for the entire Braves outfield.
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