What does the future hold for Atlanta Braves' Mallex Smith?
The Atlanta Braves currently have a conundrum in the outfield. They’ve got two center fielders, but there’s only one center field.
The players in question here are Mallex Smith and Ender Inciarte. Ender is the most established out of the duo and is basically a shoe-in to be an Atlanta Brave for the next several years.
Following Mallex Smith’s hand injury this year and following Ender Inciarte’s return from his injury, we saw Inciarte take the drivers seat in center field. And it was a beautiful thing to watch.
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The fear among many Braves fans is this – Ender can only play center field and Mallex can only play center field, therefore based on their performances this year, the Braves will keep Inciarte and trade Mallex Smith.
This is not true.
Ender Inciarte is certainly the superior defender. There is no questioning this as of now. While he is not as fast as Mallex Smith, his instincts are better, which is more important in a center fielder than speed. See Andruw Jones.
Mallex Smith is certainly not at the Inciarte level of defending yet, but he does have potential. He’s still young, fast, smart and most importantly coach-able.
Braves fans need to be reminded of this – Ender Inciarte has a cannon and Mallex Smith does not. Which is more important in right field than center field.
Ender Inciarte also won a Fielding Bible Award in 2015 as an Arizona Diamondback. A year in which he primarily played right field.
Could Ender Inciarte be a starting center fielder on basically any team in Major League Baseball? Absolutely.
But out of the duo, Inciarte is the only guy who would be effective at another position. Mallex Smith is a center fielder, and is only a center fielder. Therefore, if both players are going to play on the same team, it makes the most sense to move Ender Inciarte to right field and keep Mallex Smith in center field. This scenario would be most effective.
The other question surround Mallex Smith is this – Is Mallex Smith an everyday player or a platoon player? This concern has been stemmed by Mallex’s less than stellar performance against left handed pitching in 2016.
Consider this – In 2016, under Fredi Gonzalez and Brian Snitker, Mallex Smith experienced 139 at-bats against right-handed pitching compared to just 50 at-bats against left-handed pitching. He barely had a chance to show us what he could do at the big league level against such pitching.
In the minors, Mallex Smith flourished against lefties. In 2015, Mallex Smith hit .288 against LHP in 124 PAs, .302 in 2014 in 143 PAs, and .341 in 111 PAs in 2013.
Perhaps the problem is Mallex Smith has not been given a chance to perform against big league left-handed pitching.
This obviously leaves us with an odd man out in the Atlanta Braves outfield (assuming Matt Kemp stays, which I believe he will) – Nick Markakis. As much as I love Nick Markakis, based on his age, he is the odd man out here. Look for Atlanta to trade him and keep Mallex and Ender.
Mallex Smith is better than his .238 batting average shows. He’s an exciting young player with elite speed who had a small injury setback and the future is extremely bright for him.
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