No Starting Gig: Brent Lillibridge

The Braves AAA affiliate shortstop has everything you want out of a major league shortstop. So then why is he not in the majors?  Because the Braves have a superb young shortstop in Yunel Escobar.  The Braves, of course want to get Brent Lillibridge a full time major league job but don't have room for him.  They want him to learn how to play more positions to become more versatile, so right now in AAA he's playing SS,2B,CF and 3B.  He's fast, plays great defense and has an .813 minor league OPS which is similar to Derek Jeter's lifetime OPS.  He can field well, has a great arm, hits for power and average and runs extremely well.  All this means that he's a five tool player.

If the Braves didn't have Chipper Jones at 3rd base, Yunel at short, Kelly Johnson at 2nd base and Mark Kotsay in center, he would be in the bigs.  The good news for him is that Teixeira and Kotsay will be free agents at season's end, meaning that Chipper could shift over to first and then Lillibridge would be able to compete for the 3rd base or CF job.  The bad news is that the Braves top prospects are in CF and 1B.  This guy is probably the least likely trade candidate out of all the guys I've wrote about so far but he's highly coveted all through the majors.  He would cost a lot to acquire but is very worth it.  He's only 24 and has proven to everyone that he's MLB ready and is a five tool player.  The Braves have tremendous holes in their rotation now with the injury to Tommy "lets screw the Mets over in the last game of the season because I'm a die hard Brave" Glavine and in their bullpen with the injury to Rafael Soriano and their biggest asset is Lillibridge so possibly he'll be traded by the trade deadline in late July. 

Possible Suiters:

Any major league team would take this guy because he's a five tool player and is extremely versatile being able to play SS,2B,3B,OF.