MIAMI – Hector Olivera has been used as a platoon player in recent weeks, and the Braves' ballyhooed Cuban third baseman was out of lineup again Saturday against Marlins left-hander Justin Nicolino.
But just because manager Fredi Gonzalez again sat Olivera in favor of Adonis Garcia against a lefty, fans shouldn’t assume the Braves and Gonzalez have any intention of deploying Olivera in a similar manner next season. Because they do not.
“Not at all,” Gonzalez said before Saturday’s game. “Today we had scheduled that he wasn’t going to play. He came out and got some ground balls early. We’re kind of picking and choosing. Next season, he’ll have winter ball – I don’t know if it’ll be a month, two months, but he’ll have some at-bats there — and then he’ll have a full spring training.”
And then?
“Then you’ll use him as your full-time third baseman or your full-time whatever,” said Gonzalez, presumably leaving the door open for Olivera to play another position next season, perhaps left field, if the Braves determine they can better configure their roster with him at a spot other than third base.
The point is, they fully intend to use him as a lineup regular in 2016 and beyond (he’s signed for five more seasons after this one).
“He’ll get normal playing time,” Gonzalez said.
He’s not playing every day now because, frankly, Olivera hasn’t hit lefties in an admittedly small sample size – he’s 1-for-14 with two walks and five strikeouts against them — and his third-base defense isn’t good enough to give him an edge over Garcia right now, as Gonzalez tries to do what he can to maximize a rather anemic Braves offense.
Garcia, a 30-year-old rookie, hit .278 with eight homers and a .491 slugging percentage in 169 at-bats before Saturday, including .354 (17-for-48) with four homers and a robust .667 slugging percentage against lefties.
The Braves gave up a lot – including top prospect Jose Peraza and left-hander Alex Wood – in the four-player trade package to get Olivera, 30, and they’ll pay him an average of more than $6 million annually over the next five seasons. So, yes, they have every reason and every intention to make him a lineup regular.
But they also are confident that Olivera will be a better player after he’s played winter ball in Puerto Rico and had a full spring training. He missed all of last spring training while negotiating with teams and eventually signing a six-year, $62.5 million contract with the Dodgers, which included a $28 million signing bonus paid by the Dodgers.
Just before Olivera was ready to be activated by the Dodgers, he had a hamstring strain that he reinjured late in the rehab process. As a result, he missed most of the first half of the season, too, and hasn’t had anything resembling a normal, sustained stretch of training and professional games.
Olivera has shown flashes of the talent that caused a handful of teams to get into a bidding war for the Cuban defector’s services. He’s 8-for-22 with a triple, a homer and four RBIs in his past six games, including a three-hit game with a sacrifice fly in Friday’s 12-11 loss to the Marlins.
While he’s struggled in limited at-bats against lefties, Olivera has hit .302 (16-for-53) against right-handers with four extra-base hits (two homers) and a .345 OBP and and .472 slugging percentage.
Next season, the Braves don’t have any plans to use him in anything less than an every-day role. But for the final games of the 2015 season, Gonzalez will continue to use him mostly or entirely against right-handers.
He could play Garcia in left field and Olivera at third base, but Garcia’s outfield defense isn’t good, and the Braves also want to get a better idea of how much, if anything they can expect from left fielder Nick Swisher, who is owed $15 million next season in the final year of the contract he signed with Cleveland.
Swisher has hit just .214 (22-for-103) with three homers, 16 RBIs and 28 strikeouts in 40 games since being traded to the Braves, though he does have 21 walks and a .352 OBP. He was 2-for-26 (.077) with one RBI in his past 11 games before Saturday, when Swisher made his 22nd start in left field.
