Braves Rumors: Marcell Ozuna trade bait, Vaughn Grissom confidence, Olson vs Freeman
By Mark Powell
Braves Rumors: Vaughn Grissom as confident as ever
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Vaughn Grissom — a player who has spent most of his season in the minor leagues — on this site. He was tabbed as the potential replacement for Dansby Swanson, a player who helped lead the Braves to a World Series and was known as ‘The Sheriff’ in the Atlanta clubhouse.
Grissom hasn’t panned out just yet. He struggles defensively at shortstop, which isn’t a natural fit for him. At the plate, those struggles got the best of him, and he was unable to lock down the starting shortstop job in spring training. That ultimately went to Orlando Arcia, who has since made the NL All-Star team.
Still, Grissom was called up as infield depth when Ozzie Albies went down with an injury earlier this week. He’s confident, and has been raking in Triple-A.
“I’m still confident,” Grissom insisted, per the AP. “No one can take that away from me.”
Grissom is hitting .327 with six homers, 50 RBIs and 11 stolen bases in Gwinnett. There’s a decent chance he’ll be on the Braves postseason roster because of his bat. He makes for a solid pinch hitter who can play multiple infield positions. At second base, Grissom has at times looked even more comfortable than he does at shortstop.
“Hopefully they can call on me again and have confidence in my offense, my defense, and everything around that,” Grissom said. “We’ll see.”
It’s unclear if Grissom will go back down to Gwinnett when Albies is recalled from the injured list. If so, rumors will continue to swirl about his future with the big-league club. He deserves a shot somewhere.