ESPN this week unveiled its list of the top 100 players in baseball "right now" as determined by a panel of experts voting on 160 candidates. Two Braves players made the list.
One of them is no surprise. First baseman Freddie Freeman checks in at No. 17, a big move up after he was No. 77 on last season's ESPN list. (This is why I say he's too valuable to be moved to third base to accommodate Matt Adams , but I digress.) Freeman is set to begin his rehabilitation assignment this weekend in anticipation of being activated from the disabled list.
Notes Michael Bonzagni of ESPN Stats and Information:
Freddie Freeman has a .290 lifetime batting average to go along with a .376 on-base percentage and a .495 slugging percentage in about 4,000 plate appearances. There are only two other players in Braves franchise history to reach those thresholds with that many plate appearances through their first eight seasons: future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones and 1960s star Rico Carty.
The other player to make ESPN's top 100 list is a bit surprising: Center fielder Ender Inciarte is ranked No. 94. Inciarte has struggled with injuries and batting slumps during his two seasons with the Braves but his defense has been consistently excellent.
Defense is largely what elevated Inciarte to the top 100. ESPN Stats and Info’s Brendan DeAngelis writes:
Since his debut in 2014 through 2016, Ender Inciarte led all NL outfielders in defensive WAR with 6.8 and was second only to Jason Heyward in Defensive Runs Saved with 64. He won his first Gold Glove last season.
Inciarte, 26, might be the most underrated Braves acquisition since the team started its rebuild. The hype surrounds the bushels of prospects the Braves collected for what's now considered the No. 1 farm system in baseball. Those prospects include Dansby Swanson, who came along with Inciarte in a December 2015 trade with the Diamondbacks.
But Inciarte was the one promising young major leaguer among those hauls. Now he is having an All-Star type season as Swanson is still trying to prove himself. And the main piece the Braves sent away in that trade, Shelby Miller, hasn't been the same since he left. The Braves signed Inciarte to a five-year, $30.5 million contract extension in December. That's looking like a bargain with Inciarte potentially a mainstay in center field for years to come.
Soon the Braves will have to make the transition from rebuild to contending and that means adding more major league talent. Only six teams had fewer players on ESPN’s top 100 list: the Angels, Royals, Orioles, Pirates and White Sox each had one and the Athletics had zero. The good news for the Braves is that they are better positioned than those teams to restock from the farm.
The Athletics (No. 23-ranked system by ESPN’s Keith Law), Orioles (25), Royals (26) and Angels (27) have thin farm systems. The Pirates (No. 4) and White Sox (10) have good prospects in the minors but they aren’t as highly-regarded as the Braves’.
Related headlines
About the Author
