Nick Markakis will be sitting out the Atlanta Braves’ 2020 season. The team will need its young stars to step up in his absence.
Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis recently announced that he will be sitting out the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Markakis, 36, has somewhat quietly had a nice career, amassing 2,355 hits. Last year, despite missing several weeks in the second half due to injury, he still batted .285 with nine home runs and 62 RBIs.
The team did bring in Yasiel Puig to try to fill the outfield hole that Markakis leaves. It’s hard to know what the Braves will get from Puig this year, as he hit for a lot of power in Cleveland but then was more of an average hitter in Cincinnati. Even with Puig in the fold, there still is a great opportunity for some young Braves hitters to step up in the absence of Markakis.
Which players have the best opportunity?
Even without Puig, the Braves already had a nice outfield mix with Marcell Ozuna, Ender Inciarte, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Adam Duvall. The Puig signing seems to be an indication that the team doesn’t feel that Drew Waters and/or Cristian Pache, two of their most highly regarded prospects, are quite ready to take over for Markakis.
So, even if this doesn’t turn into an opportunity for Waters or Pache, the Braves’ young core still has a great chance to not only help make up for the lost production from Markakis, but also to gain some valuable experience in more of a leadership role.
At 22, Acuna is already one of the game’s most exciting players and an NL MVP candidate. After a season in which he hit 41 home runs and stole 37 bases, he’s already “stepped it up” quite a bit. Yet if he can take his career to another level early on if he continues that production this year in Markakis’s absence.
The two other big names with a big opportunity at a young age are Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley, both 23. Albies is quickly becoming a star in his own right, earning a Silver Slugger Award last year. Riley is still highly-regarded but needs to make more contact; while he hit 18 home runs in 80 games last year, he struck out a whopping 108 times.
Then there’s Dansby Swanson, 26, the former #1 overall pick who has become a productive major league hitter but not a star. He’s gotten a little better every year; can he break through and have a career season in this shortened 2020 campaign?
Without Markakis on the field this year, the Braves’ young core has a tremendous opportunity to show that the team can win a third straight NL East title without the leadership of its highly regarded veteran Markakis. If indeed the team does win again this year, it will be thanks both to their production and to their leadership abilities.