NEW YORK — Four weeks after Jace Peterson made his second consecutive opening-day start at second base, the Braves optioned him to Triple-A Gwinnett on Monday.
Peterson was hitting just .182 (8-for-44) with one extra-base hit and a .465 OPS in 21 games, and had started just two of the Braves’ past 10 games, and only two of the past 16 at second base.
“Jace is a big part of our organization, and why sit him on the end of the bench, play him twice a week?” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He needs to go down there and get 45 or 50 at-bats, string together 10, 15, 20 games, and see what he has. He really hasn’t had a chance to play steady.”
With Peterson struggling early, Gordon Beckham moved into the primary second-base role before going on the disabled list with a strained hamstring. Five players have started at second base in 14 games since the Beckham injury including five starts by rookie Daniel Castro.
Reid Brignac, one of three position players brought up from Gwinnett on Monday, got the start at second base in the series opener against the Mets on Monday night.
Peterson, 25, started 137 games at second base in 2015 in his first full season in the majors and first year with the Braves after being acquired in a trade from the Padres. After a sizzling 50-game stretch before the All-Star break, Peterson’s offense fell off and he was slowed by a thumb injury that he played through without revealing how much pain he was in.
He finished the 2015 season with a .239 average, 34 extra-base hits (six homers) and a .649 OPS, and the Braves thought he would improve significantly upon those numbers this season after resting and rehabbing the thumb over the winter.
“Jace Peterson played every day for me last year,” Gonzalez said. “But you sit back and you talk to your coaches and you go, are we doing this guy any good (keeping him up in the majors in a part-time role)? At the end of the day, is him playing once or twice a week doing him any good, or doing us any good? So we sent him out.
“That’s going to be a positive. Petey’s going to turn that into a positive, and we’ll see him again…. We have to do what’s best for him and what’s best for our organization. I think what’s best for him is to go to Triple-A and play every day and get back to where he should be.”
