Braves News: USA beats Venezuela, shortstop competition, more

Mar 19, 2023 - 10:00 AM

Team USA won a wild game against Ronald Acuna and Venezuela in which each team had to come back from 2+ run deficits. A grand slam from Trea Turner turned the tables for Team USA in the eighth inning.

On the Braves’ side of things, there has been some interesting buzz around the potential of Braden Shewmake potentially being in contention for the Opening Day starting shortstop spot, despite Vaughn Grissom being widely considered the favorite and seemingly not having done anything to lose the opportunity this spring. Braden Shewmake was the Braves’ second first round pick from 2019 and has largely struggled with the bat in the minors but is considered a much better defender than Grissom. Shewmake has had a very nice spring on both offense and defense, however, and clearly the organization believed in him enough at one point to spend a first round pick on him. He is also quite a bit older than Grissom, so they may want to give him a chance to be something at this point.

Braves News

Brian Snitker said that they would take one of the two options between Shewmake and Grissom on the Opening Day roster.

Dylan Dodd continued to make his case for the fifth starter spot with another strong start Saturday.

Kyle Wright is extremely close to his 2023 debut.

Devin reviewed the Braves’ 2018 draft class.

Tune into episode 391 of the Battery Power podcast.

MLB News

Jose Altuve was hurt during his WBC game Saturday.

Jorge Polanco may begin the season on the Injured List.

Arta Moreno answered questions about a lot of Angels’ topics.

Brandon Nimmo has a minor strain from an awkward slide into second in the WBC.