Jason Heyward has made a pair of acrobatic catches in each of his past two games – a diving catch in left center field on Monday night and a leaping catch at the wall Tuesday night – giving an indication just how little hesitation he’s felt about coming back from a broken jaw.
“I’m having fun,” Heyward said. “Confidence is not an issue there. Once I was in shape, I was ready to go play and whatever happened - just hoping the ball is hit my way.”
Heyward is also giving the Braves confidence that he’s the man for the center field job in the playoffs, which would allow them to keep Evan Gattis in left field and Justin Upton in right.
Heyward has played 16 games in center field this season, after playing in only two last year.
“He’s got a reckless abandon too,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He’s fast. He gets good reads and he’s not afraid to leave his feet. He’s not afraid to challenge the wall. He gives us a nice option out there.”
Having Heyward show such a high comfort level in center field and with Jordan Schafer available to back him up raises questions about whether the Braves would put the struggling B.J. Upton on the 25-man playoff roster. If they decide to carry 12 pitchers in the division series, which Gonzalez said Wednesday is an option, despite the short series and off days, Upton could be the odd man out.
“Are you going to have a guy on the bench when you’d really rather have another pitcher?” Gonzalez said. “Our bench is pretty good, maybe you could go one less pitcher.”
Gonzalez said he and the coaches met with general manager Frank Wren and staff Wednesday to start talking about the postseason roster. They won’t finalize those decisions until next week. They have until the day of Game 1, Oct 3 to turn in their roster. Factors that go into those decisions center on players’ health, the number of pitchers they want to carry, and what opponent they are matched up against, Gonzalez said.
“How are we going to use our bench?” Gonzalez said. “How are we going to use our position players? (We’re) still working through it.”
Heyward was out of the Braves lineup Wednesday night for a planned day of rest. He had started four of the Braves previous five games since coming off the disabled list and come off the bench Saturday in Chicago too. Gonzalez said Heyward is feeling so good he took a shot at talking his way back into the lineup Wednesday.
“He’s played more than what we were going to do from the very beginning which is a great testament on his part,” Gonzalez said.
