{"id":26842,"date":"2019-11-25T00:23:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T05:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=26842"},"modified":"2019-11-25T00:23:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T05:23:45","slug":"atlanta-braves-ink-travis-darnaud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/11\/25\/atlanta-braves-ink-travis-darnaud\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Braves Ink Travis d&#8217;Arnaud"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Atlanta Braves Ink <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/darnatr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Travis d&#8217;Arnaud<\/a><\/h1>\n<p>Following the signing of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grandya01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yasmani Grandal<\/a><\/strong> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/CHW\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chicago White Sox<\/a> there were plenty of question marks surrounding teams who needed a catcher. Among the many teams left with questions after failing to snag Grandal was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/ATL\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Braves<\/a>. That is until recently when the Braves inked a two-year $16 million with veteran catcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/darnatr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Travis d&#8217;Arnaud<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Bounceback Year<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It was a resurgent year for the seven-year veteran. He delivered his second-best batting average of .251 with an on-base mark of .312 while slugging .433. His 16 home runs, which tied a career-best, showcased his overall power at the plate.<\/p>\n<p>It was a turbulent start that began with a 2-for-23 slump to begin the year with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/new-york-mets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Mets<\/a>. After being dealt to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-dodgers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> for a brief stint, d&#8217;Arnaud found his way onto the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/tampa-bay-rays\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> roster. From there he proceeded to touch up the best batting mark he&#8217;s had with a single team, a .263 average with 67 runs batted in. His efforts resulted in a mark of 107wRC+ and a WAR of 1.8 across 92 games and over 360 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>d&#8217;Arnaud also showcased a strong mark from the field posting an above league average in runners thrown out (28 percent).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Win-Win<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The signing comes as a win-win for both parties involved. Ultimately, it&#8217;s a low-risk move for the Braves even though they have to pony up eight million in average annual value. It&#8217;s rather easy for Atlanta to pay that money after looking at the available quality catchers left on the table. That includes now-former Brave <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cervefr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Francisco Cervelli<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chiriro01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Robinson Chirinos<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gomesya01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Yan Gomes<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/avilaal01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Alex Avila<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Overall, the payroll for the Atlanta Braves will likely sit around $115 million or more. That&#8217;s even with the signings of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=smithwi04,smithwi05,smith-084wil,smith-082wil,smith-080wil&amp;search=Will+Smith&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Will Smith<\/a><\/strong> for $40 million over three-years along with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/odayda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darren O&#8217;Day<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=martich02,martin015chr,martin012chr&amp;search=Chris+Martin&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Martin<\/a><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> d&#8217;Arnaud will likely serve as the mainstay behind the plate with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccanbr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brian McCann<\/a><\/strong> retiring and will serve as a nice pairing with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/flowety01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Flowers<\/a><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The signing still gives Atlanta space to sign another big-name free agent as the off-season progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atlanta Braves Ink Travis d&#8217;Arnaud Following the signing of Yasmani Grandal to the Chicago White Sox there were plenty of question marks surrounding teams who needed a catcher. Among the many teams left with questions after failing to snag Grandal was the Atlanta Braves. That is until recently when the Braves inked a two-year $16 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2979,"featured_media":26849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[48,164,686],"class_list":["post-26842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-featured","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-new-york-mets","tag-travis-darnaud"],"modified_by":"Jared Cantatore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2979"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}