The Braves bench has been bad. I was expecting this to be somewhat of a strength for the team this year, but with Dan Uggla struggling and being moved to the bench in lieu of Ramiro Pena at second base, with Tyler Pastornicky not getting much playing time and not performing too well in his limited plate appearances, and with the backup catching duo of Gerald Laird and Ryan Doumit performing poorly, the Braves have a serious issue on their hands.

The easiest culprit to remove from the roster is Jordan Schafer. He is not owed over $20 million like Dan Uggla and he also has no history of quality performance. In the first half of last season he was pretty good, but his career high wRC+ of 91 was tied to an abnormally high BABIP and he has shown no signs of last year being even remotely real this year. His current line of .143/.182/.238 is putrid and while he does provide the Braves with a backup centerfield option, Jason Heyward proved capable of moving over to center if need be last season.

My solutions to fixing the bench would be to remove Uggla and Schafer from the roster and to bring up Joey Terdoslavich and Tommy La Stella. I choose Terdoslavich over Todd Cunningham due to his power being more dangerous and his upside offensively being a bit higher than Cunningham's. With that said, I would not mind at all if Cunningham were brought up in favor of Schafer. I have no issues saying that in my mind I am quite positive that Cunningham is the better player than Scahfer, even if he is a downgrade defensively. The team's defense is top notch, they need offense and Schafer provides very little of that while Terdoslavich and Cunningham have the ability to provide at least some as switch hitters with decent contact skills.

We must look back on how Schafer got to the Braves. He was cut by the Astros and was looked at as a long shot to make the Braves roster as a waiver claim when he was originally signed. He performed well in spring training and forced himself on the roster. That small sample of good play, however, should not allow him a permanent spot on the roster. He needs to keep proving that he belongs in the majors with a top tier organization, and he has not done any of that this season and did very little of it during the second half of last year too. The Braves need to shake things up, and an easy way to do so is to strengthen the bench a bit. In my opinion, it is time to cut ties with Jordan Schafer.