Preston Tucker became the 10th different Braves player in 10 years to start opening day in left field when he got the nod Thursday in the season opener against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Manager Brian Snitker said Tucker and end-of-spring-training signee Peter Bourjos will likely split the left-field starts for now, until super prospect Ronald Acuna’s expected arrival. The Braves need to keep Acuna in Triple-A until at least April 14 to assure an extra year of contractual control before he could become a free agent, though they insisted at the time of his reassignment to minor league camp that it was done for developmental reasons.
Snitker said the team’s other extra outfielder, Lane Adams, would be used primarily as a bench player and pinch-hitter, the role he excelled in last season as a 27-year-old rookie, when he finished fourth in the majors with 12 pinch hits and had the most pinch-hit RBIs (12) by a Brave in the past seven seasons.
The Braves haven’t had a player start consecutive season openers in left field since Ryan Langerhans in 2006-07. Matt Diaz is the only Brave since then to have multiple starts in left field, in 2008 and 2012. Braves opening-day left fielders in the past decade: Garret Anderson (2009), Melky Cabrera (2010), Martin Prado (2011), Diaz (2012), B.J. Upton (2013), Justin Upton (2014), Kelly Johnson (2015), Hector Olivera (2016) and Matt Kemp (2017).
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