Braves Briefing: Eddie Rosario may return even if his club option is…

Atlanta Braves fans are concerned that left field might be vacant as free agency starts.

Reports came out on Sunday that the Braves were “expected to decline” outfielder Eddie Rosario’s $9M club option for 2024, making him a free agent and leaving the Braves without an obvious replacement in the outfield corner.

Rosario’s return is still conceivable, though, as every season there are instances where a team rejects a player’s option only to sign the player in free agency to a different contract that often has more years and less money than the option.

Now, that’s not a guarantee. There’s bound to be interest in Rosario, who despite grading out only average at the plate (100 wRC+) as the strong-side of a platoon, has shown that he can get hot and take over a series – the 2021 NLCS is an obvious example, but there’s evidence of that happening even this season.

When Atlanta went to Arizona to face the Diamondbacks for a three-game set to open June, Rosario singlehandedly carried Atlanta to a series victory. He hit two home runs on Friday, scoring all of Atlanta’s run in a close 3-2 loss, before adding a triple, a run scored, and an RBI on Saturday and a grand slam on Sunday as Atlanta won the final two games of the series.