Braves Announce Lineup for Grapefruit League Opener, Potentially Shedding Light On Bench Roles This Season

The Atlanta Braves announced their first spring training lineup of the Grapefruit League schedule this morning.

And it may give some clarity as to potential bench usage on this team.

Here's how Atlanta will line up for today's opener against the Tampa Bay Rays, from Port Charlotte's Charlotte Sports Park:

There's Braves baseball today 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Klh4OsB7gH
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) February 24, 2024

Pitchers to follow Strider include offseason acquisition Ray Kerr and flamethrower Daysbel Hernández.

The biggest thing that stands out to me is prospect Ignacio Alvarez playing shortstop (batting eighth), while veteran David Fletcher plays second base.

When discussing the potential bench configurations for this team, we've debated the utility of either keeping Fletcher as a high-level defensive backup on your bench or letting him go to AAA Gwinnett and play every day, hoping he excels so that another team takes his $14M in salary commitments off of your payroll via trade.

With the news that Alvarez is playing shortstop today, does this indicate that Atlanta is leaning towards having Fletcher ride the bench daily at the major league level? President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has admitted that finding quality bench options has been a struggle since there's not really a lot of projected playing time for a bench piece in Atlanta (barring injury).

Or is this just an opportunity to get a prospect (with defensive questions) some time at the position for evaluation purposes? It's definitely something to watch.

Our #7 prospect, Ignacio Alvarez, who is batting 8th and playing SS on 2/24:

What's the range like at shortstop? It's an organization that's lacking a clearly defined succession plan at SS, and I think he has the arm and hands for the position. Can he prove to be rangy enough?
— Lindsay Crosby, big baseball guy (@CrosbyBaseball) February 24, 2024

How to Watch today's Spring Training Matchup

Unfortunately, only eleven of Atlanta's thirty-two Grapefruit League games will be televised this season, and today's not one of those eleven. The matchup with the Rays, which has a listed first pitch of 1:05 PM ET, is being broadcast in audio form on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.

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