The Braves’ Other Middle Infield Question

The Braves have the most glaring shortstop need in MLB. Mauricio Dubón and Ha-Seong Kim are impending free agents, leaving Jim Jarvis as the top in-house option. There’s a decent chance they’ll re-sign Dubón on a two-year deal, but he’s ideally suited as a super-utility player. If the Astros make Jeremy Peña available before his year of club control, the Braves should be heavily involved. They’ll also surely look into younger shortstops who might be expendable on their current team (e.g. Anthony Volpe, Brayan Rocchio). The focus on shortstop has potentially overshadowed that the Braves’ other middle infield position might also need a shakeup. Ozzie Albies has started 1117 games at the keystone for the Braves over the past nine seasons. No one else has started more than 44. Albies has been a steady, durable lineup fixture for years. He has handily outperformed the $35MM contract extension he signed in April 2019 and was a legitimate star through the ’23 campaign. The past three years haven’t been nearly as productive. Albies dipped to a league average .251/.303/.404 showing in 2024, though it seemed fair to attribute the offensive downturn to a broken toe and wrist fracture that he suffered that year. Albies started the ’25 season very poorly but seemed to find his form in the second half, at least until suffering a hamate fracture that ended his season a week early. He finished last year with a .240/.306/.365 slash line, but the Braves had a very easy call to exercise his $7MM option and retain him for 2026. The option came with a $4MM buyout anyway, so it was only a $3MM net decision. Albies played in all 162 games for the first time in his career, starting all but two of them. He earned an All-Star nod with a solid first half in which he batted .267/.320/.439 with 14 home runs. Although it wasn’t quite a return to peak form, Albies looked like he was back to being one of the better all-around second basemen in the National League. Then came one of the worst stretches of his career. Albies had a .575 OPS after the All-Star Break, a bottom 10 mark among hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. It was an especially ugly finish, as he batted .136 with a .189 on-base percentage in September. To his credit, Albies connected on a couple home runs among five extra-base hits in seven playoff games, but he finished the regular season with a pedestrian .237/.293/.392 slash line over 683 plate appearances. Among the 30 second basemen to tally 400+ plate appearances, Albies ranked 25th in OBP and 15th in slugging. He was tied for fourth at the position with 22 home runs, yet that’s partially driven by opportunity. Only Nico Hoerner and Fernando Tatis Jr. had more at-bats. Albies’ defensive grades have hovered around league average for the bulk of his career. It’s now three straight seasons in which Albies has been worth around 1-2 wins above replacement, per both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference. Second base hasn’t been as big an issue for Atlanta as left field or the two left side infield positions. It hasn’t been a huge strength either, though, and the Braves would have an easier path making a move at the keystone than at any other position of need. Atlanta can retain Albies for one more year on another $7MM option. This one doesn’t have a buyout, so it’s a true $7MM decision. They’ll probably pick that up. It’s the kind of money that utility players like Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Kiké Hernández and Willi Castro have commanded in free agency. Albies would do better than that as a true everyday player. It’s also difficult to imagine the Braves would drop such a key clubhouse presence to save that amount of money. That doesn’t preclude them from making a subsequent trade, however. The Braves should be able to find teams interested in one season of Albies at that price. That wouldn’t be the case if they tried to move Austin Riley, who’s signed for another six years and $132MM. They’d be lucky to get out from under more than a few million dollars if they tried to deal any of Sean Murphy, Jurickson Profar or Mike Yastrzemski. Atlanta doesn’t have anyone knocking down the door in the farm system, but unlike at shortstop, they’d have free agent alternatives at second base. Brandon Lowe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Gleyber Torres and Luis Arraez are all slated to hit the free agent market. Atlanta could see if a team like the Reds, Rays, Red Sox, or Rangers has interest in Albies — perhaps in a deal involving a back-end starter. Cincinnati’s Nick Lodolo is projected for a $5.7MM salary in his final arbitration year and looks like a change of scenery candidate. Boston probably doesn’t have a season-opening rotation spot available for any of Tanner Houck, Johan Oviedo, or Kutter Crawford. Tampa Bay is down to one year of club control over both Shane McClanahan and Griffin Jax. They wouldn’t swap either pitcher for Albies straight up but could kick around some kind of multi-player framework to send more value to Tampa Bay. Those are all entirely speculative scenarios, to be clear, but highlight a few possibilities if the Braves make a change at second for the first time in a decade.