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The Braves reunited with Rosario amidst their deluge of injuries, and it was a painful month for everyone The Braves and Eddie Rosario have had a tumultuous time together — he played postseason hero in 2021, was horrendous while dealing with eye issues in 2022, improved but didn’t even make it back to average production in 2023, and then, even after signing with another team in the offseason... they reunited for a really crappy month for everyone.
How acquired
Rosario’s third (or second-ish) stint with the Braves was the second time the team acquired him midseason. After his two-year deal with the Braves expired, Rosario signed on with the Nationals on a split contract that paid him a pro-rated share of $2 million while on the major league roster in the middle of Spring Training. However, Rosario was absolutely awful in Washington, posting a 53 wRC+ and -1.3 fWAR in 235 PAs (basically a repeat of his 2022, where he “managed” -1.3 fWAR and a 63 wRC+ in 270 PAs), and got released in early July.
The Braves signed him to a minor league deal, gave him three games at Triple-A Gwinnett, and then called him up to serve as a warm body in the outfield. Unfortunately, his body wasn’t really all that warm.
What were the expectations?
Given that Rosario was horrendous earlier in the year, it’s hard to even say that a reasonable expectation was “replacement-level production that wouldn’t absolutely destroy the team.” Sure, maybe Rosario could’ve simply returned to his 2023 level with the Braves (1.3 fWAR in 516 PAs, achieved by overhauling his approach yet in the end, no different than what he was managing while slapping at the ball earlier in his career), but given just how bad he already was for three months, that seemed unlikely.
To be honest, it’s not really clear why the Braves even gave Rosario a shot — even suffering through all of their injury woes, they had options that weren’t a guy who was among the worst players in MLB in two of the last three seasons, but they went with Rosario for a month anyway.
2024 Results
As a Brave, Rosario received 84 PAs over roughly a month. That was enough for him to somehow be even worse than the horrific performance he put up in Washington. He finished with a 22 wRC+ as a Brave, and -0.7 fWAR. Sure, he underhit his xwOBA by a massive amount as a Brave, blending in with his teammates. But, his xwOBA itself was a pathetic .242, which was still worse than what he did in Washington (.265).
On the season, Rosario finished with -2.0 fWAR, a 45 wRC+, butcher-level defense (losing over a win in value with the positional adjustment factored in), and a .259 xwOBA that he underhit by nearly .030.
That Rosario basically kept playing every day pretty much leading up to his DFA says something grim about the state of the 2024 Braves roster, but we won’t dwell on it.
What went right?
That the Braves moved on after “only” 84 PAs? Oh, maybe that Rosario posted his best baserunning value since 2018 (though most of that positive value came in Washington)? There really isn’t much here.
That’s not to say he did absolutely nothing in a Braves uniform in 2024. On July 20, he hit a game-tying two-run homer late, setting up a walkoff win over the Cardinals:
That was the first game of a doubleheader; Rosario also went on to homer in the second game. Rosario amassed -0.47 WPA during his month as a Brave, which included +0.30 during the doubleheader and -0.77 in the other 22 games.
What went wrong?
Pretty much everything, which is how Rosario ended up with MLB’s second-worst fWAR mark for the 2024 season. He finished fourth-worst in MLB while struggling with his vision in 2022, so topping that while being ostensibly healthy, well, it’s not great.
The bigger issue, though, is that the Braves just kept playing him. Eli White, J.P. Martinez (who was outrighted to make room for Rosario), a number of other outfielder types on the waiver wire, and so on, were all just floating around. But the Braves gave 84 PAs to Rosario, continuing to play him even as the Trade Deadline came and went. White, for example, didn’t hit at all (.275 xwOBA) in a handful of PAs at the big league level, yet still managed to outperform Rosario all-around. But White didn’t get a single start while still on the 26-man roster after Rosario was added.
Rosario’s overall performance level was so bad that it’s hard to call out any of his individual games or PAs with the Braves as exceedingly problematic. On July 22, he went 0-for-3 with a sac fly to achieve his worst WPA as a Brave of the season — he had a key out in the first when down by a run and two men on, and down 4-0 in the ninth with two on and one out, managed only a sac fly rather than aiding the comeback.
But, honestly, the thing that went the most wrong was that he was better against the Braves in 2024 than he was for them. In 23 PAs facing Braves pitching, he had a fine .322 wOBA, even if the .275 xwOBA was bad. He hit two doubles off Charlie Morton, and drew two walks. In 84 PAs as a Brave, he had a .199 wOBA and .242 xwOBA, with one double and three walks. Thanks for nothing, Eddie.
2025 Outlook
Rosario is now projected to be below-replacement, which is not surprising at all. He was briefly picked up and then released by the Mets after the Braves cut bait, and it seems like that sort of Triple-A purgatorial existence is what’s in store for him for 2025, assuming he keeps at it.
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Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images
The Braves reunited with Rosario amidst their deluge of injuries, and it was a painful month for everyone The Braves and Eddie Rosario have had a tumultuous time together — he played postseason hero in 2021, was horrendous while dealing with eye issues in 2022, improved but didn’t even make it back to average production in 2023, and then, even after signing with another team in the offseason... they reunited for a really crappy month for everyone.
How acquired
Rosario’s third (or second-ish) stint with the Braves was the second time the team acquired him midseason. After his two-year deal with the Braves expired, Rosario signed on with the Nationals on a split contract that paid him a pro-rated share of $2 million while on the major league roster in the middle of Spring Training. However, Rosario was absolutely awful in Washington, posting a 53 wRC+ and -1.3 fWAR in 235 PAs (basically a repeat of his 2022, where he “managed” -1.3 fWAR and a 63 wRC+ in 270 PAs), and got released in early July.
The Braves signed him to a minor league deal, gave him three games at Triple-A Gwinnett, and then called him up to serve as a warm body in the outfield. Unfortunately, his body wasn’t really all that warm.
What were the expectations?
Given that Rosario was horrendous earlier in the year, it’s hard to even say that a reasonable expectation was “replacement-level production that wouldn’t absolutely destroy the team.” Sure, maybe Rosario could’ve simply returned to his 2023 level with the Braves (1.3 fWAR in 516 PAs, achieved by overhauling his approach yet in the end, no different than what he was managing while slapping at the ball earlier in his career), but given just how bad he already was for three months, that seemed unlikely.
To be honest, it’s not really clear why the Braves even gave Rosario a shot — even suffering through all of their injury woes, they had options that weren’t a guy who was among the worst players in MLB in two of the last three seasons, but they went with Rosario for a month anyway.
2024 Results
As a Brave, Rosario received 84 PAs over roughly a month. That was enough for him to somehow be even worse than the horrific performance he put up in Washington. He finished with a 22 wRC+ as a Brave, and -0.7 fWAR. Sure, he underhit his xwOBA by a massive amount as a Brave, blending in with his teammates. But, his xwOBA itself was a pathetic .242, which was still worse than what he did in Washington (.265).
On the season, Rosario finished with -2.0 fWAR, a 45 wRC+, butcher-level defense (losing over a win in value with the positional adjustment factored in), and a .259 xwOBA that he underhit by nearly .030.
That Rosario basically kept playing every day pretty much leading up to his DFA says something grim about the state of the 2024 Braves roster, but we won’t dwell on it.
What went right?
That the Braves moved on after “only” 84 PAs? Oh, maybe that Rosario posted his best baserunning value since 2018 (though most of that positive value came in Washington)? There really isn’t much here.
That’s not to say he did absolutely nothing in a Braves uniform in 2024. On July 20, he hit a game-tying two-run homer late, setting up a walkoff win over the Cardinals:
That was the first game of a doubleheader; Rosario also went on to homer in the second game. Rosario amassed -0.47 WPA during his month as a Brave, which included +0.30 during the doubleheader and -0.77 in the other 22 games.
What went wrong?
Pretty much everything, which is how Rosario ended up with MLB’s second-worst fWAR mark for the 2024 season. He finished fourth-worst in MLB while struggling with his vision in 2022, so topping that while being ostensibly healthy, well, it’s not great.
The bigger issue, though, is that the Braves just kept playing him. Eli White, J.P. Martinez (who was outrighted to make room for Rosario), a number of other outfielder types on the waiver wire, and so on, were all just floating around. But the Braves gave 84 PAs to Rosario, continuing to play him even as the Trade Deadline came and went. White, for example, didn’t hit at all (.275 xwOBA) in a handful of PAs at the big league level, yet still managed to outperform Rosario all-around. But White didn’t get a single start while still on the 26-man roster after Rosario was added.
Rosario’s overall performance level was so bad that it’s hard to call out any of his individual games or PAs with the Braves as exceedingly problematic. On July 22, he went 0-for-3 with a sac fly to achieve his worst WPA as a Brave of the season — he had a key out in the first when down by a run and two men on, and down 4-0 in the ninth with two on and one out, managed only a sac fly rather than aiding the comeback.
But, honestly, the thing that went the most wrong was that he was better against the Braves in 2024 than he was for them. In 23 PAs facing Braves pitching, he had a fine .322 wOBA, even if the .275 xwOBA was bad. He hit two doubles off Charlie Morton, and drew two walks. In 84 PAs as a Brave, he had a .199 wOBA and .242 xwOBA, with one double and three walks. Thanks for nothing, Eddie.
2025 Outlook
Rosario is now projected to be below-replacement, which is not surprising at all. He was briefly picked up and then released by the Mets after the Braves cut bait, and it seems like that sort of Triple-A purgatorial existence is what’s in store for him for 2025, assuming he keeps at it.
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