Atlanta Braves beat writer Dave O’Brien joined Dukes & Bell to talk about spring training as the season is a little over a week away and O’Brien talked about if this lineup could be better than the one that helped capture a World Series last year.
When asked if the 2022 Braves have a better lineup than last year’s team.
“When they get Acuan it is, when they get Acuna it will be I think, it should be, provided everybody’s playing decent then it should be,” said O’Brien. “But there are some guys that had big year’s last year. It won’t be easy for Austin Riley to repeat last year, it won’t be easy for Dansby to hit that many bombs, it potentially is better though, deeper than last year, with Rosario having him from day one, with having Ozuna back with him only playing forty eight games last year.”
O’Brien went on to say the Braves could be better off without Freddie Freeman in the long run.
“Freddie, the best first baseman in baseball is replaced by a guy who is the probably second best first baseman in baseball or third best at the lowest but offensively and defensively you could argue he’s better than Freddie or as good as Freddie right now. He’s gotta do it over years but if you look at last year, last year’s totals were actually better than Freddie and I love Freddie and I didn’t wanna see him go. But in the long run, they’re gonna better I think five years from now with this guy than they would have been with Freddie.”