HOUSTON — In mid-May, with a third-place team that had yet to spend a day over .500, Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos sat down with infield coach Ron Washington. The start of the season had revealed several areas for concern. But Anthopoulos wanted to discuss just one in particular: The Braves were using defensive shifts less often than any other team in MLB.
This was in line with how they had operated for the last few seasons. But it was an approach that was beginning to look less tenable. The players were getting a bit frustrated. Their defense was consistently getting stung by balls that might have been caught with different positioning.