9/5 Braves @ Nationals

I've been a doubter of his bat, but I've been very pleasantly surprised with not only his second-half production, but also just how solidly he's been hitting balls (many more line-drives and a lot fewer weak grounders).

I still wish his offensive game were less batting-average-dependent, especially considering his speed hasn't really translated to large stolen-base totals. But he's seemingly made some progress reaching base without a hit (the .064 isoOBP in 2016 is far better than his first two seasons), and if he can improve that further and/or collect a few more XBH, I do think he can be a long-term answer in CF for the Braves, given what he brings with the glove.

Still, unless a substantial discount can be had, I'm with others arguing for another year before extenting.

Folks tend to overreact to players' hot and cold streaks. Before August, when his OPS was well under .700, there was no extension talk. Now that he has put up a 900+ OPS in August everyone wants to hand him a 6-7 year deal.

His OPS is .737 this year. His career OPS is .723. Those values include several hot and cold stretches, and the end result is a guy with a sub-750 OPS.

Ender still is what we all thought he was, a defense-first CFer that produces 3-4 WAR. That is certainly very valuable, especially when he is under cheap team control like he is for age 26-29 seasons at about $20M total. However, defensive value declines at a younger age than offensive value, so signing Ender into his 30s is asking for trouble.
 
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