Earlier today, new manager Walt Weiss spoke with the media ahead of his debut as manager of the Atlanta Braves. We’ll have more to talk about later as far as quotes from him (and Chris Sale and Matt Olson as well) but for now, the biggest news of that presser is that we got a bit of an idea of what the lineup is going to look like tomorrow.
Weiss told the media that Drake Baldwin will be in the lineup as the DH for Opening Day against the Royals. Jonah Heim will be the starting catcher for Opening Day as well. This’ll be Heim’s first Opening Day start since 2024 when he was with the Texas Rangers and although he’s clearly being utilized in a bit of a depth situation while Sean Murphy continues to be on the mend, Heim should still be pretty excited about being the backstop for Opening Day.
This also means that Walt Weiss is going to try to get Baldwin’s bat in there as much as he possibly can as evidenced by the Designated Hitter appearance. This also means that he’s sticking to his guns when it comes to keeping Mike Yastrzemski from starting against lefties, as he would’ve been a prime candidate for the DH role heading into this season.
Walt Weiss also mentioned that Ronald Acuña Jr. would be batting leadoff and indicated that that’ll probably be where he stays. “First thing I said to him [in an office meeting] was ‘Do you want to hit first, second, or third?” So based on the fact that it now seems all-but-confirmed that Acuña will be leading off thanks to Weiss’s comments following that little question, it sure seems like Acuña will be at the top of the order as well and starting in right field.
So with just over 24 hours between now and the first game of the regular season, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of what Walt Weiss’ first official lineup card as manager of the Braves will look like. We know Acuña will be leading off and batting first, we know Drake Baldwin will be DH’ing and we know that Jonah Heim will be catching. What do you think the rest of the lineup will look like?
