929 The Game Atlanta Braves insider Joe Patrick joined Dukes & Bell and talked about the team giving Travis d’Arnaud a contract extension and why it made long-term sense for the team.
Patrick talked about why the Braves did the right thing by extending d’Arnaud.
“I was kind of surprised, but it was a pleasant surprise, it was one that I would have liked the Braves to do in this free agency period, I just didn’t think that it would actually get done before then, I would have thought that d’Arnaud would have liked to hit the free agent market,” Patrick said. “But that shows that he really likes the position that he’s in with this Braves team and if you look at it this is a perfect position for the Braves to do this. Because you have a really good batting catcher here in Travis d’Arnaud, and so what you can do with the DH probably, almost certainly coming into the National League starting next season is you can move a guy like d’Arnaud into that DH spot when he’s not catching so you can still utilize what you have from his bat even on days when you want to rest his legs and not have him behind the plate.”
“I think what the Braves are really doing as an organization here at the catching position is really impressive, I think they are going to secure things for themselves because you got d’Arnaud, you’ve got two really good looking young catchers. We’ve already seen from William Contreras but also what Shea Langeliers is doing in the minor leagues, I know because he’s in the minors he doesn’t get a lot of play but he is hitting the ball like crazy in probably the toughest place to hit a baseball anywhere in the United States at the Braves double A facility in Mississippi. That’s really exciting, don’t know if he will be in contention to be called up next year, but I think when you look over the next couple of years the Braves have a really nice core of catching options that they can go to that have experience in the major leagues and can hit, and that’s going to be very important for this team.”
