We got lucky with Pena last postseason. The Pena he has been all year is the Pena he was projected as when he came up. A plus defensive player with average to slightly below average offense. He really should be our 9th best hitter next season if Diaz is our primary catcher. Pena as a ninth batter is pretty damn good. Our line up should be something like this. Altuve Bregman Alvarez Abreu Tucker Chas Diaz LF/DH bat (Brantley Role) Pena I would like to bring in a slugger like Bellinger/JD as the DH but Brantley wouldn't be bad if he is really healthy.
Throughout the season, he was letting the ball carry further towards the plate so he wouldn't be so susceptible to swinging at the down and away slider. However, he never learned how to adjust his bat path to drive the ball with power the other way (a la Chas when he's playing well). Because of that, he usually just ends up putting the ball in the ground with pretty lackluster force so it never gets by infielders. That's my uninformed read on it anyways. Either the hitting coaches did him dirty by never equipping him with the tools to fully adjust his swing to be productive, or he's just not able to adjust properly no matter how much instruction he's given. Either way, I don't think we're ever going to see him get back to the flukey power numbers we saw last year, but he still has to figure out how to get on base more often.
***IF*** Baker is back... I wonder if they'll try to flip Chas for pitching? He's their one seemingly decent asset who could bring back some real value - and... he could be a sell-high candidate. A healthy Brantley + Alvarez & Dubon makes Chas more expendable. I have no idea what the FO's view is - but if Baker has any shots to call... that might be on the table as he does seem to have some kind of problem with him.
