This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman's Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
If I wasn¡¯t so stubborn, I might admit I am a little hard-headed.
With that, I¡¯ll admit I¡¯m finally buying into the Braves entering the regular season with Vaughn Grissom as their starting shortstop. I¡¯m only about three months behind many of you. But the way I see it, I¡¯m three weeks ahead of the deadline to submit the correct guess.
Who knows what will happen over the remainder of Spring Training? But as long as Grissom does what he has done in the early stages of the Grapefruit League slate, he¡¯ll probably be Atlanta¡¯s starting shortstop on Opening Day.
What has Grissom done to win the job? Before answering this, it¡¯s best to point out that it¡¯s his job to lose. And so far, he hasn¡¯t done anything to erase this opportunity. He¡¯s made the routine plays (minus one miscue on Tuesday night) and shown he has sufficient bat-to-ball skills to provide some value at the bottom of the lineup.
Will he continue to look reliable over the final three weeks of camp? We¡¯ll see. But he has certainly quieted me and some of the talent evaluators who just assumed he¡¯d end up as a second baseman, left fielder or utility man.
Maybe he will end up in one of those roles. Or maybe it¡¯s not wise to make any assumptions about this 22-year-old fighter.
Grissom began the 2022 season at the High-A level and rose to the Majors much faster than anybody would have expected. Without the contributions he made during his first few weeks as the club's second baseman, Atlanta wouldn¡¯t have won its fifth consecutive National League East title. The kid is a winner, as he showed when he fouled off seven two-strike pitches with two outs in the ninth inning of a regular-season finale that had no postseason implications.?
While his Braves teammates anxiously looked forward to heading back to Atlanta, Grissom continued to show the fight that has helped make third-base coach?Ron Washington?a believer. You already know all about?the work Washington did?when he spent three weeks during the offseason working out with Grissom.
Did he create a Gold Glover? No. But he may have created a suitable option for the Braves.
Grissom¡¯s range is a concern, especially without the shift. But there¡¯s also concern about?Orlando Arcia¡¯s ability to be an everyday player.
There¡¯s not a perfect solution to filling?Dansby Swanson¡¯s void. But the Yankees also had concerns about?Derek Jeter?before giving him the starting shortstop job at the beginning of their 1996 World Series-winning campaign.
The more you¡¯re around this game, the more you realize the only thing we know is that we don¡¯t know.