The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve recalled outfielder Michael Reed from Triple-A Gwinnett and designated fellow outfielder Danny Santana for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster.
Santana, 27, has spent parts of the past two seasons on the Braves’ big league roster, but he hasn’t produced at the plate, hitting just .199/.251/.345 in 184 plate appearances after coming over from the Twins in a minor trade.
More broadly, Santana’s bat has been in a veritable freefall since a terrific rookie campaign with the Twins back in 2014. The switch-hitter posted a .319/.353/.472 slash in 430 PAs that season and even garnered some Rookie of the Year consideration, finishing seventh in the AL voting. However, that rookie effort was buoyed by an enormous .405 average on balls in play — including a particularly fluky .343 average on grounders. As Santana’s BABIP has trended back to more normal levels, his overall offensive output has cratered. In 735 PAs since that time, he’s batted just .219/.256/.319.
Well dang. I was hoping to see that we were making roster room for a new bullpen addition or something a tad more exciting but at least we sent Santana back down. I like Santana, he just is t helping a whole lot.
This is a great example of the impact of BABIP and expected regression – to those who dismiss it as useless analytics.
Finally. Good Riddance
In spite of any logic and/or proof, somehow he will find a way back onto the Braves 25-man. Really appreciated the analysis in this post, but feels more like salt in the wound due to the team’s ongoing reliance on players like Santana, Bonifacio, etc when they already have superior bench options in the system. I would be surprised (yet gleeful) if they have just now cured themselves of this ailment.
Amen. Remember Greg Norton?
Oh man. You’re gonna give me a nightmare! These are horrifying baseball players, somehow we always end up playing at least one every season. This season we have had two, Santana and Moylan. Moylan’s only saving grace is that he is awesome, and funny. But he is beyond washed up. I would love it if he reverted back to being a coach, which I believe was a part of his original deal in returning to the Braves the second time. This third time around has been wholly unnecessary, he would have gone down in team lore regardless.
I just don’t get it, teams generally play these kinds of guys because they have boat anchor contracts, entrenching themselves on the team. We, instead, tend to self-entrench bad players when they could be readily set free at any time.
He will be back!
Reeds numbers in aaa are absurd. I hope he does well!
That .506 babip in AAA is pretty insane.
He can have any BABIP he wants so long as he hits off the bench. This is the type of player that we just have to ride his hot streak, peripherals be damned. He was a minor league free agent signing. If he has a long-term future with the team, great, otherwise just give us all your unsustainable stats now.
No way! Danny Santana was optioned out? Surprising. The OF carousel continues.
Reed is still young enough to potentially pan out, and his numbers in the minors aren’t terrible. He may surprise a few people.
So glad this finally happened! Reed is probably playing way over his head right now, but who cares. Santana is absolutely useless. He once upon a time had a very small smidgen of pop, but that quickly evolved into helpless swings that consistently produced outs. I mean, I get that he can play OF, but dear lord, we have 3 levels of minor league teams with OFs.