Braves rank second in Fangraphs’ Left Field power rankings

The Braves’ spot in left field is going to look a bit different this year, but at least it is with a familiar face that almost got the Triple Crown last year. Adam Duvall was the primary guy to man the position last year with him appearing in 45 games at the position in 2020. However, with the demise of the DH in the National League for 2021 (seriously, what an incredibly stupid decision), Duvall has moved on and Marcell Ozuna, the team’s primary DH last season and who the Braves successfully re-signed late in the offseason, now becomes the starting left fielder.

Yes, Ozuna is going to do some things out there in left field that are going to make us cringe, but its the price one pays for a bat of his caliber in the middle of the lineup. Unless he absolutely craters as a hitter, the good with Ozuna is going to outweigh the bad and if he craters, the Braves have bigger problems than a few errors in the outfield.

With Ozuna installed in left, the Braves seem set to get quite a bit of production out of their outfield this season and, according to Fangraphs, they are set to be the second best team at left field this coming season.

It took me a second to figure out who would place above the Braves in this spot, but a quick reminder that Christian Yelich is projected by FG to get 670+ plate appearances as a left fielder solved that mystery pretty quickly. He didn’t look great last year coming off injury, but Yelich is still a bad, bad man and I, for one, hopes he gets back to form this year as baseball is better with him doing his thing.

Ozuna is projected to get in the neighborhood of 3.3 fWAR which edges out Eloy Jimenez and the White Sox for second place honors. Others that are projected to potentially see time in left include Austin Riley, Drew Waters, Johan Camargo, Ender Inciarte, and Phillip Ervin.