PHOENIX — When the Braves faced a left-hander (Arizona's Wade Miley) on Saturday, second baseman Dan Uggla was back in the lineup for only the fourth time in 28 games and the first time since hot-hitting rookie Tommy La Stella arrived from Triple-A on May 28.
Uggla made two errors in the 4-3, 11-inning loss to the Diamondbacks and went 0-f0r-4 to drop his average to .169 and his OPS to .490, fourth-lowest in the majors before Sunday among 290 batters with at least 100 plate appearances.
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said Uggla has handled his diminished role as well — or better — than anyone could have hoped.
“Professionalism off the charts,” Gonzalez said of the veteran second baseman. “He comes in every day ready to play. Supports his teammates, which doesn’t surprise me. Great guy in the clubhouse. He has been – I’m not going to say surprising, because I’ve lived with him eight years (as Marlins and Braves manager) and I know what kind of guy he is.
“I know he’s hurting and it’s not easy, but he has handled it tremendously.”
Told of Gonzalez’s comments, Uggla said, “My situation is tough, but it’s not tough to be supportive.”
Uggla is still owed more than $20 million over the rest of this season and next in the final years of his five-year, $62 million contract. The Braves have tried for many months to trade him but haven’t found a team willing to pay any significant part of the money he’s owed.
At some point the Braves could just release him and pay off what he’s owed in order to open the roster spot, but so far they’ve resisted. The most they’ve ever paid for a player to go elsewhere was $10 million of the $15 million that Derek Lowe was owed in the final year of a four-year, $60 million deal, when Lowe was traded to Cleveland on Oct. 31, 2011.
Before Saturday, Uggla’s last start was against Boston’s Jon Lester on May 27, the day before La Stella arrived. That was also the last lefty starter the Braves faced before Miley. They aren’t scheduled to face another lefty on the seven-game trip that concludes with a four-game series at Colorado starting Monday.
La Stella was 11-for-26 (.423) with 11 singles, one RBI, two walks and only one strikeout in eight games before Sunday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks. He already has five multi-hit games including Friday’s 5-2 win, his fourth two-hit game in the past five.
Uggla, widely regarded as the best power-hitting second baseman in the National League before he was traded to the Braves in November 2010, had two homers, 10 RBIs and a .246 slugging percentage in 118 at-bats before Sunday — and only four multi-hit games in 32 starts this season.
Since his two-homer, five-RBI game at Philadelphia on April 14, Uggla was 10-for-73 (.137) with no RBIs, seven walks, 24 strikeouts in 24 games, and had no extra-base hits and six errors in his past 21 games.
La Stella, a left-handed hitter, was 0-for-1 in his only at-bat against a lefty since being brought to the majors. At Triple-A Gwinnett, La Stella hit .321 with a .791 OPS in 131 plate appearances against right-handers and .236 with a .646 OPS in 67 plate apperances against lefties.
“Miley’s obviously a left-hander, so just be ready later in the game if they need me to come off the bench,” said La Stella said before Saturday’s game.
He understood the reasoning for sitting him against a lefty or bringing in Ramiro Pena at second base for late-innings defense in some games when the Braves had a lead.
“Absolutely,” La Stella said. “Especially in the National League, baseball is all about matchups. I’ve been out there an awful lot for my first time up (in the majors). So I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Gonzalez was asked prior to Saturday’s game about starting Uggla in place of La Stella.
“(Uggla) is on our team, and we’ll get him in there every time we can to help him help us somewhere down the road,” Gonzalez said. “Somewhere down the road he’s going to have to come up with a pinch hit off the bench or something. It’s the same thing with (backup center fielder Jordan) Schafer.
“Schafer hadn’t gotten a start in a couple of weeks and we threw him out there yesterday and he got three hits. As long as those guys are here, we’ll plug them in.”
After losing his starting job, Uggla was initially supplanted in the lineup by the combination of Pena and Tyler Pastornicky. Pastornicky was sent to Triple-A to open a roster spot for La Stella, and with La Stella getting regular second-base duties Pena has been back in the utility role where the Braves think he’s most effective.
