Grissom returns with something to prove

This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

When Vaughn Grissom rejoined Atlanta’s roster at the start of this past weekend’s series in Kansas City, he expressed what he was feeling when he learned he had not won the starting shortstop job and would begin this season with Triple-A Gwinnett.

“I knew there was still some marinating to be done,” Grissom said. “It felt good knowing I had done a decent enough job, but you can’t be just decent.”

With Orlando Arcia sidelined for at least a couple weeks with a microfracture in his left wrist, Grissom is going to have to prove he can be more than just a decent defensive shortstop. If he can do so, he’ll silence the critics who have wondered whether he has the range necessary to be an everyday shortstop at the big league level.

“That’s like part of every athlete’s dream is to prove everyone wrong,” Grissom said.

It’s also part of every athlete’s dream to come through in the clutch like Grissom did on Sunday, when he delivered a decisive go-ahead single in the ninth inning of a 5-4 win over the Royals. His opposite-field single allowed the Braves to complete a three-game sweep and extend their winning streak to six games.

It’s good to see Grissom’s energy back within the Atlanta clubhouse.

Quite honestly, he was placed in a tough position in the past few months. Though it seemed like the odds were against him breaking camp as Atlanta’s starting shortstop, many media outlets tabbed him as the favorite during the winter months and stuck with that storyline deep into Spring Training. It seemed like the narrative should have been at least subdued earlier than it was.

With that being said, Grissom handled the demotion in a professional and effective manner. Instead of sulking, he hit .366 with a 1.044 OPS over 48 plate appearances for Gwinnett.

“I was having success, but we weren’t winning,” Grissom said. “That’s the main thing. We had a couple guys that were playing well, but we weren’t stringing it together. So, I have mixed feelings or mixed emotions with that.”

The jury is still out on Grissom as an everyday shortstop. But comments like this combined with moments like last year’s final regular season at-bat (seven consecutive two-strike fouls with two outs in the ninth inning of a game that didn’t affect the playoff standings) create further reason to think he is indeed the kind of guy you want filling some role on your team.