If you are just waking up, where have you been? The Braves kicked off their postseason by adding righty outfielder Lane Thomas from the Royals. If you had been reading us all this time, you may have had an inkling.
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From Lane Thomas’s Fangraphs profile, he appears to have peaked in 2023. He hit 28 home runs with the Nationals that year and compiled 2.9 WAR. But he hasn’t reached those heights since. Lane suffered a left MCL injury in April 2024 before being shipped to the Guardians. In 2025, he suffered a bone bruise before serving two IL stints for plantar fasciitis. However, he was able to keep away from scooters long enough to come back and have a league average offensive season in the outfield for Kansas City. Now, I feel you may not be sold on Thomas in the same way that the Braves were. Nevertheless, if Atlanta employs him in the correct manner, he becomes a very useful piece.
A brief aside to mention a couple of things. Shoutout to Ivan to get me started on this, and we’ll hopefully catch some typos later if necessary. Also, thanks to whomever leaked this trade info before 10 pm so we had time to put something together for Sunday morning.
He’s a menace versus lefties
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Lane Thomas holds a perfectly league average 100 wRC+ for his career. However, he has a career .288/.361/.489 line with a 133 wRC+ versus left hand pitching. This season, the line is .263/.370/.430 with a 125 wRC+ and .800 OPS. Which is handy, because he will be playing left field and handling left-handed pitching at a minimum. Mike Yastrzemski holds a career 118 wRC+ versus right handed pitching. Now, Mike’s numbers looks worse this season (.694 OPS and 93 wRC+) versus righties. But there’s your platoon.
He isn’t a typical “Braves Powerpoint” guy
Dare I say it? He might be Tim Hyers’ star pupil. He walks at a 14.5% clip versus lefties. His swing percentage is a paltry 41.1% this season and 42.9% for his career. Z-swing (aka swings at strikes) is a tad low but the contact in the zone is high. He’s not going to put us to sleep at the plate, because the contact is solid. But is not really geared for power. It’s built more so for line drives.
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One excellent bit of news is his expected stats support his work. He is slightly outperforming his xwOBA by .001 overall. From the left side, it’s a .005 outperformance. So it’s not as if he’s on a Jimmy Baseball type tear here. He’s underperforming his xBA by .014 and outrunning his xSLG by .003. So his peripherals completely support his work.
He’s fast, but not really a center fielder
His bat has been pretty consistent throughout his career, but his defense took a bit of a nose dive after the injury spells of 2024-2025. Here are the hits allowed. You can see the circle there that denotes his range in center field. Balls that are on track to land in front of him often do. And he has trouble turning left.
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Those two bits of information help us understand that his best defensive spot is right field. However, Ronald Acuña Jr will complete the season in right field. Assuming Ronald plays more DH it will create opportunities for Lane in right. Michael Harris II will be in center. Lane could end up there as Michael’s backup, depending on what happens to Eli White after this move.
So what’s the verdict?
To be honest with you, I didn’t want the Braves to pursue a platoon in left field this season. I don’t mind Mike Yastrzemski, but I was really hoping they would sign someone during the offseason that would push Jurickson Profar into a part-time DH-LF-PH role. I wanted it more than a starting pitcher acquisition. I wanted the Braves to make Profar your best guy off the bench with Mauricio Dubon as a super defensive sub. But that’s spilled milk (or whatever it was Wet Jarred spilled).
The fact remains that the Braves have a platoon in left field, and now Mike Yastrzemski has a valid partner in Lane Thomas. The lineup is supported with a lefty killer and the defense will be okay. I mean, they signed Jurickson Profar to play left, and Lane Thomas is much better defensively even post-2023.
