By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Atlanta Braves’ acquisition of outfielder Marcell Ozuna to fill the role of cleanup hitter behind Freddie Freeman doesn’t mean that the Braves won’t make a move to upgrade their options at third base but it does make it a lot less likely.

After Josh Donaldson was more or less forced to leave Atlanta by Alex Anthopoulos’s unwillingness to sacrifice one or two bad years for two or three good ones, the rumor mill began to swirl about potential replacements for the erstwhile Bringer of Rain.

One of the more popular and exciting rumors was that the Braves would make a trade for the Colorado Rockies’ Nolan Arenado or for the Chicago Cubs’ Kris Bryant to hit fourth and man the hot corner.

Bryant’s future is still up in the air as he waits to find out whether or not he’s eligible to hit free agency at the end of this season or the next; The Rockies have said that Arenado would be in a Colorado uniform at the start of the season (and boy did he not like that announcement).

Those factors, coupled with the signing of Ozuna to a one-year deal, means that Atlanta is probably going to enter Spring Training and then the regular season with what they have at third base: namely, Austin Riley and Johan Camargo.

Is that good enough? For the large chunk of Braves Country that thought Nolan Arenado might be coming to Atlanta, Riley and Camargo are certainly let downs but they may not necessarily be that come game time.

Yes, Camargo really made himself questionable last season, but he was also shuffled around the diamond and lineup. He was forced to be a utilityman after going into the previous offseason under the impression that he’d start at third base in 2019.

Inconsistent at bats make a big difference to Major League ballplayers and, evidenced by the tear he went on in Gwinnett after he was demoted, he’s still got the ability if those ABs come more frequently.

Camargo had an insane OPS of 1.221 during his short stay in Triple A (only 58 at bats, but still) and we never got a real chance to see if that hot streak would stick around when he was promoted back to the bigs.

In short, the evidence suggests that with regular at bats, even if it’s just as part of a platoon, Camargo can bounce back.

Riley, of course, burst onto the scene upon his arrival from Triple A, blasting 16 homeruns in less than 200 at bats before the All-Star Break, after which his production tanked.

While that kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde act meant that the Braves couldn’t rely on him to bat cleanup going into this upcoming season, the kid is only 22 years old and isn’t anywhere near developing as a complete player just yet.

He also will finally get the chance to play his natural position with more regularity, and comfort is a real factor in production for plenty of ballplayers.

Perhaps the best thing about having these two are the primary options for third base is that they don’t need to produce at an elite level to be a big part of a winning team. With an offense that includes Freeman, Ozuna, Ronald Acuna, Jr., and Ozzie Albies, Riley and/or Camargo don’t need to feel the pressure of shouldering a large part of the team’s production.

They simply need to be good enough and if one of them should take off and play at an All-Star level, then they’ve simply exceeded both their own expectations and their necessity on the roster.

So no, neither Riley nor Camargo are Arenado or Bryant or Donaldson but they also don’t need to be.