This continues my series where I predict the stats of each Braves player for the 2023 season, moving on to the weakest position of the team. The Braves don’t really know how they are going to approach left field this year. They made some offseason acquisitions, but none of them were very inspiring. Alex Anthopoulos is essentially throwing crap at the wall and hoping it sticks. For that to work, the Braves will need Eddie Rosario to have a bounce back campaign.
If you missed any of the previous editions to this series, follow the links below:
Eddie Rosario 2023 Stat Predictions
It’s not absurd to say Rosario was the worst left fielder in baseball last season. He’s a below average defender, and offensively, he hit just .212 with five homers in 80 games. His vision issues can be blamed for a lot of that, but there’s no telling how much better it will be this season. I’m going to assume the improvement is significant, but I still don’t think he will ever be what he once was.
Up until last year, Rosario was an incredibly consistent offensive player. From 2017-2021, his average wRC+ was 109.4 (9.4% above league average). In 2022, that number was down to 62. I think he will finish somewhere in the middle this year, and FanGraphs agrees, projecting him to record an 81 wRC+ over 98 games. I agree with the number of games played. Rosario will likely only play against right-handed pitchers, but if the vision is back to 100%, he should be much better than that offensively, closer to league average.
Eddie Rosario’s 2023 Stat Predictions: (101 games) .250/.297/.450, .747 OPS, 12 home runs, 50 RBIs, 0.2 fWARÂ
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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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