I’ve been working on the Lane Thomas player review that is going up later today, and it occurred to me…
There have been a lot of posts saying that the Braves may as well use their limited capital on re-signing their “good” additions/continuations from the last season: Mauricio Dubon, Tyler Mahle, and Raisel Iglesias. But, no one ever mentions Lane Thomas.
There are multiple reasons for that: Thomas got hurt and missed like half the time the Braves acquired him for, and, he was unplayable against righties
while his inputs (but not his outputs) backslid against lefties in a teeny-tiny sample. Put these together, and Thomas isn’t going to get much of a deal for 2027. Which means, it won’t be hard for the Braves to sign him.
If the Braves were okay with a down-the-stretch platoon of a not-hitting-that-well Mike Yastrzemski and Thomas, could they be okay with it for limited further investment for 2027? Thomas generally pounds lefties, and he did it in Kansas City — it was only in his 30 or so PAs as a Brave where that didn’t show up inputs-wise.
Of course, there are lots of reasons for the Braves not to: a logjam if you assume Jurickson Profar is around, a desire to have a real left fielder and push Yastrzemski to a different role, or even just finding a different/better platoon partner for Yastrzemski.
And, the Braves could pivot in left field and still sign Thomas as a righty DH/pinch-hit option. They dedicate a roster spot each year to someone who doesn’t even play; how much worse can Thomas be for basically no added cost?
Anyway, I don’t have any strong feelings about whether or not the Braves re-add a guy who projects for half a win over half a season next year, but it just seemed off that I don’t think his name had come up at all despite the Braves targeting him a few months ago. What do you think?
