Outfielder Jake Marisnick is in camp with the Braves as a non-roster invitee, reports Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That indicates the Equity Baseball client signed a minor league deal with the club.
Marisnick, 34 in March, signed a minor league deal with the Angels last winter. He spent the year playing in Triple-A for that club, getting into just 54 games around a few stints on the injured list. He performed well, hitting .283/.368/.551, but didn’t get called to the majors.
The veteran has an established track record at this point as a glove-first outfielder. From his 2013 debut to the present, he has logged 5,357 innings on the grass with 80 Defensive Runs Saved and 52 Outs Above Average. The latter method didn’t come into existence until 2016, so the sample size is a bit smaller. Only nine outfielders have a higher DRS tally during Marisnick’s career and all but one of them spent more time out there than him. He’s also 11th on the OAA board, again trailing only one player with a smaller sample of innings played.
However, his offensive contributions have been less consistent. He’s had a few good showings with the bat but has hit .228/.281/.385 in his career overall. That production translates to a wRC+ of 81, meaning he’s been 19% below average on the whole.
Atlanta has some question marks in its outfield. Ronald Acuña Jr. is still recovering from tearing his ACL last year and could miss about a month of the season. Until he’s back, the projected outfield consists of Michael Harris II and Jurickson Profar in two spots. A third spot could perhaps be a platoon between Jarred Kelenic and Bryan De La Cruz.
Profar is coming off a monster season at the plate but has been wildly inconsistent and isn’t a great fielder. Kelenic’s production has been up-and-down, both offensively and defensively. De La Cruz is a poor defender and is coming off the worst offensive showing of his career thus far.
The club has Carlos Rodriguez and Eli White on the roster, but White is out of options and might get squeezed. Rodriguez hasn’t yet made his major league debut and has just 31 games of Triple-A experience. The club previously brought in Conner Capel for some non-roster depth and now Marisnick gives them a bit more. If a path opens up to some playing time, he’ll give Atlanta a glove-first outfield option off the bench.