“Oh hey, why aren’t the Braves doing anything at the Winter Meetings?” Boom! They did.
As far as outlays go, this isn’t a particularly large one, and that’s because Mike Yastrzemski is a 35-year-old who nonetheless has managed decent production in a seven-year MLB career. He’s been quite consistent since debuting at age 28 in 2019, posting between 1.5 and 2.5 fWAR every single year.
Yastrzemski put up 2.4 fWAR in 558 PAs between the Giants and Royals last year, with a 106 wRC+. His career includes a 111 wRC+, and he’s been between 99 and 120 in each season he’s played except 2020, where he went a bit berserk with a 158 wRC+ in those nine-ish weeks of play.
In addition to reasonable offense, Yastrzemski plays decent defense, including center field in a pinch. He has a career +1 in OAA-based runs across over 6,300 innings, most of that in right field. He’ll give the Braves another guy to rotate through outfield and the DH spot as needed, but given his defensive upside relative to the relatively poor fielding of Jurickson Profar and Ronald Acuña Jr., he’s probably more of a guy that will start in the outfield consistently while the other guys split time with Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy, DHing as needed. Yastrzemski is also very much a heavy-side platoon bat (career 79 wRC+ against lefties, career 120 wRC+ against righties), so he won’t be in the mix about a third of time when a lefty starter takes the hill.
The commitment the Braves are making is relatively modest; $23 million over two years pays him as an expensive part-timer, which is more or less what he is. His projections aren’t too great — in the 1.0 to 1.5 WAR range over 400-500 PAs from Steamer, but like many players who contribute a fair bit defensively, those projections are knocked down by Steamer’s heavy regression of defensive value. It’s also worth remembering that Yastrzemski is getting a guaranteed commitment for his age-36 season, with a club option covering his potential age-37 campaign, and the collapse could be looming. Still, he’s been relatively consistent to date, and the Braves may have been heartened by his torrid conclusion to 2025, where he had a .392 xwOBA in 186 PAs with the Royals, so we’ll see what happens.
Stay tuned for more on the Braves’ signing of the grandson of Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski.
