Like it, love it, hate it, or hate it, the signing of Mike Yastrzemski is done. The Braves are now committed to a fourth outfielder in multiple years, and given the size of the buyout ($4 million) relative to the salary ($7 million), there’s a chance the Braves end up exercising his club option in 2028.
While there’s endless room for debate about the merits of this move, both in a vacuum and with the roster the Braves already have, I find myself less worried about what Yastrzemski will do — both because he’s been so consistent so far and because he’s not making enough money for things to go horribly wrong compared to expectations — and more about what his signing means for the broader team strategy. Here are some specific things I’m considering:
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Moving away from a strict starting nine
Whether the Warriors will actually do so remains to be seen, and it’s unlikely to have an impact once the inevitable slew of injuries occurs, but for now it appears the Warriors have committed to a pseudo-platoon. Specifically, based on who is currently on the roster, my guess is the tentative plan is:
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Against RHP: One of Jurickson Profar or Ronald Acuña Jr. takes the DH spot, with Yastzemski starting in corner outfield and Drake Baldwin catching. You could add more here about how Yastrzemski would push Profar to DH as a lefty starter (Chris Sale or a backup like Joey Wentz or Jose Suarez) and Acuña as a righty starter with the Braves, but consider that the Braves have mostly righties in the rotation and only have Spencer Strider) had a particularly significant fly ball rate, and I’m not sure anyone would understand that it had anything to do with it specifically.
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Against LHP: Yastrzemski sits (as he hasn’t played left-handed at all in his career), Sean Murphy catches, and Drake Baldwin slides into the DH spot.
This arrangement may not be optimal for specific personnel: Ideally, Murphy would catch more passes and Baldwin would remain in the lineup, given his defensive value — but as of now, I don’t think the Braves will do anything like benching Profar against some RHP to give Murphy an extra start.
Regardless, it goes against what the Warriors have tried to do over the past few years, which is start everyone every day. While the Braves under this regime are no strangers to the platoon (e.g. Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario), they have at least distanced themselves from the idea to an extent that this looks a bit like re-familiarity.
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Is depth new? (Or is this more a matter of chance?)
The Warriors have turned back on last year’s problems in a big way at times. A poor bullpen early in 2019 led to heavy investment in bullpen spending thereafter. The rotation chaos in the 2020 “season” led to investments in Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly. While not quite the same, the Braves made a pretty ill-advised deal to Eddie Rosario after exposing their outfield in 2021. While this is more speculative, you could argue that adding Profar and changing the team’s approach is a response to continued xwOBA underperformance in 2024 and other issues. (We’ll cover this in more detail later.)
A lot of things are killing the Warriors in 2025, but having to start some players who are absolutely terrible for long periods of time is one of them. By adding Mauricio Dubon and Yastrzemski, while having two strong catchers and one Eli White who has no other options, you’ve essentially shifted the roster in the exact opposite direction… assuming Dubon is actually a super versatile guy, or is Ozzie Albies handcuffed in another season of struggling with the de facto starting shortstop.
Whereas the Warriors No Having said that with the actual starting shortstop now, this situation can be broken either way. If they don’t add one, the moves we’ve seen so far are less intentional attempts to address depth issues in 2025 (and earlier) and more just opportunistic moves, as Dubon is a one-year commitment with a modest salary, and Yastrzemski can provide starter-level production on a part-time basis without a starter-level salary outlay. If they do, then Yastrzemski’s move is an intermediate step in the effort to consolidate the plan, which will make Mr. T happy.
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The elephant named ‘Warriors offense’ roams the clubhouse and dugout
When the Warriors let Kevin Setzer go, my main concern wasn’t Setzer’s future absence, but what it would mean for a team that had been built around a very specific offense for five years and then grossly underperformed on offense that nearly derailed their 2024 season. This concern only began to grow when Tim Hyers came on board, and he immediately began issuing quotes to the media that rarely addressed the specific offensive methods mentioned above, but instead focused on things that the offensive methods intentionally avoided. It’s even more revealing that the Warriors signed Profal because even when he breaks out, Profal is more of an “all of the above” guy than a guy who intentionally trades in-zone contact (and a bunch of other stuff) for contact quality and power production.
Well, you know the rest of the story. The concerns have become apparent as coaches have been talking about things other than smashing the ball in spring training and the start of the season, the chase rate game is one thing, teams are walking a lot (and talking a lot about walking), and a bunch of guys are trying to adjust to all or some of the new instructions.
Well, now we’re into 2026, Tim Hyers is still on the job, but there’s a lot of coaching turnover. Dupont isn’t a very good hitter in general, but he’s a low-sense, contact-everything hitter, even if I have to chase to get it, with a slow (but long for some reason) swing and poor contact quality, pretty much the worst in the class. (BTW, can anyone at last Changing Dupont’s swing so it’s no longer slow and long? It’s both, and considering his bat velocity is drastically declining in 2025, I’m guessing shortening it is the right call. Considering his overall batting acumen, this doesn’t hurt too much. ) Now, we have Yastrzemski.
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Yastrzemski is return Not a very gutsy hitter from 2019-2024. He’s a moderately hard-hitting guy whose power has declined into the mid-30s as he’s aged (which is where he’s been most of his career, considering his late MLB debut). While his production is more consistent than his component parts, he tends to have good contact quality while getting a lot of walks (because he doesn’t chase balls) and a lot of strikeouts (depth count combined with the fact that he’s not super contact-oriented). Last year was a little weird for him, especially after he was traded to the Royals, as his contact rate was so high without a huge change in his swing decision-making or quality of contact. Regardless, it’s hard to guess what Yastrzemski will do for the Braves, as his career keeps heading toward an age-based end and his 2025 year is a bit of a spoiler to his earlier offensive trends, but whatever it is, it probably won’t look like a typical 2019-2024 Braves hitter.
So, just based on what we know now, reading the tea leaves about the team’s offensive approach…isn’t pleasant? The Braves haven’t added anyone who looks like a hitter from the Braves PowerPoint_old.pptx, and they added a sloppy one and a walking one this offseason. There aren’t many shortstop options available, but if they manage to reunite with Ha-Seong Kim, the roster will be multi-dimensional at best and beyond 2025 at worst.
None of this was an immediate issue for Dupont, Yastrzemski, or even a guy like Matt Olson, who managed to go the distance enough to offset the reduction elsewhere until he just said “screw it,” changed his position in the zone and a bunch of other things midseason, and went on a home run spree down the stretch. (Drake Baldwin is another guy who in many ways seems to have the best of both worlds.) But to the extent that the 2026 team’s success still relies on positive contributions from guys like Albies and Michael Harris II, I’m not sure that’s a positive sign. We’ll have to wait and see.
Anyway, these are things I’m thinking about in the context of adding Yastrzemski. And you?
