Johan Camargo hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning of a May 2 win at New York after replacing injured shortstop Dansby Swanson midway through the game. But frankly, he hadn’t done a whole lot since while filling in for Swanson.
With Swanson back in the lineup Saturday, Camargo was shifted to third base and had one of his best games of the season, going 2-for-2 with two big, run-scoring hits and a walk and also making a couple of slick defensive plays in an 8-1 win against the Marlins.
“The plays he made, and again, some big hits,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He hadn’t been hitting into real good luck lately, but that’s a couple of big hits. And he played a real good ballgame (defensively) at third.”
Camargo singled to drive in the tying run and start the scoring in the Braves’ four-run fifth inning, and he added an RBI double after Kurt Suzuki’s homer in a two-run seventh to push the lead to 6-1.
He showed why the Braves might keep him around when they have to make a roster decision soon, despite the fact he’s got minor league options and could be sent to Triple-A if they choose.
The Braves have out-of-options utility men Ryan Flaherty and Charlie Culberson who can both play third base in addition to veteran Jose Bautista, the former slugger who’s struggled mightily since last summer and shown little sign of regaining any semblance of his once-formidable power.
If the Braves give Bautista longer to try to get going, rather than release him, it presumably won’t leave much playing time for Camargo, especially if Flaherty or Culberson also need to get at-bats at third base.
“I think just focusing on playing every day (is the way to go), keeping your head up, trying to focus on what we can be in control of here,” Camargo said through a translator.
Third base was supposed to be Camargo’s position this season, but a strained oblique midway through spring training forced him to start the season on the disabled list.
It also led the Braves to sign Flaherty on their last weekend of camp. Flaherty was terrific in the first weeks of the season as the starting third baseman, but the Braves signed Bautista, who has a good relationship with Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos from his years as Blue Jays GM.
Those developments left Camargo on the outside looking in until Swanson got hurt, at which point Camargo became the primary shortstop for more than two weeks.
From May 3, the day after Swanson got hurt, through Friday, Camargo batted just .146 (6-for-41) with no extra-base hits, 10 walks, eight strikeouts and a .327 OBP and .473 OPS. His high line-drive rate and .182 average on balls in play in that period did, however, support Snitker’s point about Camargo not getting much luck to go his way.
But Camargo, 24, also knows it’s a results business. And when asked about the third basemen the Braves signed to play the position he had been penciled in for before his spring-training injury, he smiled and fielded the question as cleanly as the plays he made Saturday.
“That’s life,” he said. “God has a plan and right now I’m just trying to stay focused on what I can be right here, just keep my head up and focus on the task at hand.”
