Ken Rosenthal comments on the Braves next offseason moves

Among the Braves’ first wave of offseason moves, they acquired Houston Astros super-utility man Mauricio Dubon.

Dubon is a guy who can quite literally play all over the diamond. He’s a two-time Gold Glove winner and spent time at shortstop, second base, first base, third base, right field, center field, and left field this past season for Houston. With the move, the Braves have raised the floor at shortstop. Dubon should be able to replace Nick Allen defensively while also providing a little more at the plate.

Atlanta could easily justify starting him at shortstop every day, but as MLB insider Ken Rosenthal noted on his latest episode of Fair Territory, in a “perfect world,” the Braves would still land another shortstop this offseason and use Dubon as a valuable super-utility piece.

“Perfect world? They (the Braves) get another shortstop,” Rosenthal said. “It’s just going to be difficult to do that. As I wrote last week, we talked about this on Fair and Foul Territory — Mauricio Dubon is a floor for them. He is at least a guy that can cover the position if they do not get someone else, and the problem is, outside of Ha-Seong Kim, there really isn’t a quality shortstop available. Yes, Bo Bichette has played shortstop, but teams generally don’t view him as the future at that position. They view his future more at second base or third base.”

Bichette was always highly unlikely to be an option at shortstop, especially for a team like the Braves that values defense heavily at the position. His price tag is also likely to be far more than Atlanta would prefer to spend, at least based on their recent spending habits.

The idea that starting Dubon every day at shortstop would significantly hamstring the Braves’ chances of competing is overblown. This is a team that made MLB history in several offensive categories just a couple years ago with Orlando Arcia as their starting shortstop. As long as the money saved by rolling with Dubon is used to upgrade the roster elsewhere, the Braves should be more than capable of regaining control of the NL East.

“In the end, to get more offense, they might end up spending on the DH spot more so than the shortstop spot,” Rosenthal continued. “DH has been occupied for them the last couple of years by Marcell Ozuna. Marcell Ozuna is a guy who has been productive — highly productive at times for the Braves, not so productive last year. There are plenty of DH types available, and yeah, the Braves can certainly swim in those waters. Remember, their chairman, Terry McGuirk, has said they have every ability to be a top-five payroll team again. Well, let’s see what happens this offseason.”

—