The Braves have acquired catcher Kevan Smith from the Rays in exchange for cash, per a team announcement. Tampa Bay had designated him for assignment earlier in the week. In a corresponding move, Atlanta designated veteran backstop Jeff Mathis for assignment.
The Braves catching situation has been in constant flux since the injury to Travis d’Arnaud. The 38-year-old Mathis went 0-for-9 in his three games of work, striking out five times and failing to reach base. Of course, his value proposition is on the defensive side of the ball, not with the bat.
As for Smith, he is 1-for-4 this season with the Rays, his second season with Tampa after previously seeing time with the Angels and White Sox. For his career, Smith owns a .271/.320/.383 across 751 plate appearances since 2016.
In other moves, the Braves activated Grant Dayton from the 10-day injured list and optioned Tucker Davidson to Triple-A, per the Athletic’s David O’Brien (via Twitter). Davidson made a spot start against the Mets yesterday. In just his second career start, the southpaw gave up three runs on five hits across six innings of work. He walked one while striking out five. The Braves ultimately lost the game by the score of 4-3.
Dayton will return to the bullpen, the fifth lefty in manager Brian Snitker’s pen. He has made nine appearances totaling nine innings and giving up five runs. He does have a solid 10-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in this small sample of work.
A horrific DFA for the Braves…
I don’t get this move. Sure Mathis doesn’t hit much but he can lay down a bunt and plays good defense.
They want him in AAA he basically said at the start of the season he was working his way toward coaching. Braves want him as a coach like player in AAA plus he’s a perfect back up for the catching prospect at AAA
Plus, Mathis has been helping Flowers prepare game by game and scouting reports..
His ABs were just completely non competitive. He’s a great defender, but they can’t just give away 2 outs in 8 and 9 spots every time he plays.
Sounds like a first world problem. As a Pirates fan I’d be thrilled for the team to only be giving away two free outs in the daily lineup 🙂
I think if the Braves offense was performing more up to par, they could have afforded to keep Mathis, but with him in the lineup, it was like having 2 pitchers flailing away. K. Smith offers some sorely needed offense.
Looks like a nice little pickup… guy hits pretty well for a backup catcher. But I think Contreras should still start…
The job is Contreras to lose at this point. He’s played really well where TDA was well a one hit wonder I guess. Idk best thing could be just put the two catchers with the pitchers they manage best. 1a/1B catcher platoon.
Just as I said about the Lucroy signing…three-peat over Chicago, New York and Houston confirmed.
I liked him during his White Sox stint!
Mathis was abysmal at the plate but I thought his value as a veteran catcher was paying off well. Morton and especially Smyly have struggled this year and with Mathis catching, Smyly has given up 1 ER in his last two starts (with Mathis behind the plate both starts) and Morton looking better as well.
Contreras was behind the plate for Smyly’s last start. Mathis caught him once.
Mathis also only caught Morton once and he gave up 3 runs in 4.2 innings including 9 baserunners.
Not that I’m blaming Morton’s bad start on Mathis, but I don’t think there’s evidence that his presence had enough impact on the pitching staff to justify his inability to hit.
Just going on recall but I think Contreras caught Smyly’s last start. Mathis caught the game before last in Smyly’s turn in rotation.
Mathis was Royally Scammed.
Happy Steely Dan Day (May Nineteen)!
Looking for Offense anyway you can move. Once Travis is back Contreras is going to Gwinnett and they need a backup.
Travis might not even be back…and if he is then you can’t expect a ton from him this year.
I’m more convinced this move further solidifies the idea once Alex Jackson is back Contreras will work more with Mathis in AAA
Braves have a short leash on some of their player.s. Not saying Mathis should be on the team but with only 9 ABs and apparently solid defense, it’s hard to say he was a write off.
They want him as a player-coach in Gwinnett it’s been openly reported multiple times.
History keeps proving how hard it is to win 14 consecutive division titles, in the era of free agency no less.
You’re right but we didn’t cash in enough times. One World Series title? The ’90s/early 2000s Braves should have been like the New York Yankees, not the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Late 90s and early 2000s Yanks were a better team than Braves. Luckily, they were not in same division or Braves probably wouldn’t have won 14 straight divisions. So luck and consistency play a role in 14 straight. It’s still hard to do.
On a related note, those Braves teams show the importance of a bullpen, which was a lingering problem for those teams. A great rotation is good for a 162 game season, but you need a strong pen for postseason. Those Braves teams generally had subpar pens except 95 was their best pen IMO.
The 1998-1999 Yankees were pretty much unbeatable and the 2004-2005 Braves really had no business being in the postseason to begin with but that still leaves 10 other years and they only got it done once (in 1995).
Series against Twins could have gone either way. Braves won all their home games. Twins won all their home games and Twins had home field advantage.
The Jays series didn’t go 7. The first Yanks series was lost by Braves in their pen (see comment above). After that, Braves weren’t challenging the league for best overall team but they were still winning divisions.
The Braves won over 100 games in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003. Like I said, the 1998-1999 Yankees weren’t going to lose but those other three years (plus the 1993 team) were all 100-win teams or better without making a single World Series appearance.
I do give them more of a pass for 1992 than 1991, 1993 or 1996 though for sure. 1991 and 1996 both should have been titles and the 1993 team had no business losing to the Phillies in the NLCS.
After 1995, Braves did not have a pen that was championship caliber. Braves would have beaten Yanks in 96 with a good bullpen
On a related note, there are many examples of teams that won 100+ games who did not win a WS or make it to WS. I come back to bullpen as being necessary. For example, the Giants last WS title was won with only 1 starting pitcher last more than 4 innings. They had 1 good starting pitcher and a pen that came through in the WS.
A little luck helps because the Giants didn’t face a team as good as the Yanks in any other their 3 title runs.
Braves faced a Twins team who had home field advantage and who had won the WS just ~3 yrs earlier. Jays had a team that won WS back to back. Their next 2 WS appearances were against Yanks.
But of course, I wish Braves had won more than 1 title. I became a Braves fan in late 60s after Braves moved to Atlanta. I watched the team go ~25 years before they even won a post season game. I hoped to see them win just one game in post season before I died. I never dreamed they would win a post season series back then, much less a championship.
A lot of 100-win teams come up short of winning the World Series but the Braves had three straight 100-win seasons, five in seven years and six in 10 years (not counting the ’94 strike) and did not win the World Series in any of those 100-win seasons. That’s the difference. Obviously only one team can win it all each year but when you’re consistently winning over 100 games then you need to win occasionally. 1995 alone is not enough to validate that era. They needed a minimum of two more championships to say they actually took advantage of all that talent.
Name any of those years when the Braves had a good pen outside of 95.
A team plays enough poor to avg teams during 162 schedule to win a lot of games if the rotation is outstanding. An outstanding rotation is the hallmark of the Braves back then (except maybe early 90s, but that’s debatable).
When a team plays in the postseason, particularly WS, they usually face teams that also have good starting pitchers, maybe not quite as good as Braves rotation but good nonetheless.
My main point is that Braves did not put enough emphasis on the bullpen in the 90s. I don’t think the problem was coaching (Cox) nor rotation nor offense. It was mostly a problem with the pen not being championship caliber. And Braves had the misfortune of going up against some good teams in the 90s.
By the end of 90s, I got tired of watching the Yanks payroll take over MLB and checked out in the early 2000s, not coming back to the game for almost a decades (2010). I didn’t even know Braves made the Wainwright and Elvis Andrus trandes until years after the fact. Point is that I cannot speak from observation of the team in the early 2000s.
Runaway spending by certain teams has been the only thing that has caused me to check out for an extended period of time since I decided Braves were my team as a kid (I have never lived in Georgia).
I was just watching an interview with Chipper Jones and he said we would never trade a few more world series wins for all those years of being in the playoffs every year. He said it was just great the way things ended up.
I probably wouldn’t trade places with the Marlins…two World Series titles but basically irrelevant every other year in their history. I would trade places with the Cardinals, Giants or Red Sox though. They’ve all won more championships than the Braves and have made several postseason appearances as well rather than just catching lightning in a bottle a couple times like the Marlins. I would much rather have seven or eight postseason appearances in 15 years with three or four World Series titles than 14 straight postseason appearances with only one World Series title.
I sorta doubt that Chipper actually said it was great the way things ended up (meaning they won 14 division titles and only 1 WS). But I would not be surprised if Chipper said he is proud of winning 14 division titles. Greg Maddux frequently talks about his pride in the team being competitive year after year, so something similar to what I imagine Chipper saying.
I have heard Chipper say that the only year he knows they had the best team and didn’t win was 1996. He said that he can look at all the other years objectively and realize they lost to a better team (not sure I can say that aside from the 1999 Yankees, 2001 Diamondbacks and 2004-2005 Astros but whatever). I don’t think the 1997 Marlins, 1998 Padres (Yankees would have beaten us anyway though), 2000 Cardinals, 2002 Giants or 2003 Cubs were better than Atlanta. The Braves just didn’t show up at that time of year.
@48. I’ve been a Braves fan since 1994. I agree they should’ve won at least one more World Series in the 90’s. I blame Bobby Cox leaving the starting pitchers in too long.
The 1996 WS is a good example of Braves problem with the pen. Braves won first 2 games easily.
In game 3, Braves lost 5-2. Glavine pitched 7 innings, 2 runs (only 1 earned). Greg McMichael comes into the 8th, records no outs and gave up 3 earned runs.
Braves lost game 4 by 8-6 in 10 innings. Neagle went 5 IPs with 3 runs (2 earned). He outpitched the Yanks starter who went 2 IPs and gave up 5 earned runs. Yanks pen gave up only 1 earned run over next 8 IPs. Braves pen gave up 5 runs (4 earned) over 5 IPs.
With Braves winning first 2, they could have swept that series with a good pen.
The Atlanta pen didn’t give up any runs in Games 5 or 6 in 1996 and the Braves lost both games. The staff as a whole held the Yankees to three runs or less in four of the six games and held them to one run or less in three of those games. The Game 4 loss was awful but you can’t expect the bullpen to be perfect the entire series. That series is on the offense for scoring only two runs in Game 3, getting shut out in Game 5 and scoring only two runs in Game 6.
Even being like the Red Sox of this century would have been much better.
2003 (Wild Card)
2004 (Wild Card)
2005 (Wild Card)
2007 (AL East Champs)
2008 (Wild Card)
2009 (Wild Card)
2013 (AL East Champs)
2016 (Al East Champs)
2017 (AL East Champs)
2018 (AL East Champs)
They won the World Series in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018. There were a few down years in there but I’ll take that over 14 straight division titles and only one World Series title any day. It doesn’t have to be a dynasty but we need to cash in occasionally instead of just wasting all this talent.
Dodgers have won 8 straight division titles (and counting) with just 1 WS in that span. Dodgers have had good starting pitching and good offenses during that span. Their weakness has been…bullpen.
Even just winning two championships would have looked so much better than 1995 alone…but I would still call it underachieving without winning at least three.
Bobby Cox was a great manager for the Braves during the regular season but was terrible in the playoffs.
What Mathis would teach Contreras over a season is more valuable than the difference in offensive production. Hate this move lots.
I don’t really understand why we optioned Davidson. In my eyes, he earned another start. Him and Wilson should be in the rotation until further noticed
This is the same classic AA mishandling of young pitchers never keep them in the pen or rotation; constantly moving between majors and AAA sometimes with no appearances between the shuffle.
This isn’t talked enough and I’ve always felt I was the only one screaming at how bad we manage our young pitchers. It’s insanely brutal… unless they come up and crush it ace style, they get mismanaged. Think soroka fried and Anderson are the only ones that held slots. I could write a long list of mismanaged players
It’s a big big problem, the reason the rays compete year to year is how they bring up pitchers. Seems they are always trading an ace for a huge haul and yet always find a way to manage the pitchers. Even with them using the opener they have so much depth of guys they handle with white gloves.
This is to give us another bullpen arm for right now. Davidson wouldn’t be able to pitch for the next several days anyway. He’ll get another start at some point.
I wonder that if you acquire a player for cash, if there’s a tax. I think of these things.
Only goods and some services as far as I know. Not humans.
lol…give it some time and Biden will Tax that too hahaha!
The Braves are really trying to win a WS this year
What a move.
AA for president
Drew Waters fans will be glad to know that he hit 2 HRs yesterday in Nashville (away game at the Brewers AAA team facility). Drew is a switch hitter and hit a HR from each side.
Let’s hope he steps it up from here. Drew was a batting champion at AA Mississippi, but has had to adjust at Gwinnett. So maybe the adjustment period will soon be over and Drew can be a contributor late this year or more likely next season on the big club. The guy can play all fields, seeing mostly CF at Gwinnett.
I live near Nashville and will be watching him play (hopefully) this week.
Nice…good to hear. Wish I was in Nashville right about now myself
Drew had another HR yesterday and 4 hits. I’m thinking this kid is starting to figure out how to hit AAA pitching. I’m more and more encouraged that he will be with the big club next year.
I think Pache needs a year at AAA too. Let Heredia take over CF this year and give Pache some more development time at Gwinnett.
(going to the game tonight and hoping to see Waters slug another HR)
I want to see Drew Waters and also Michael Harris. We need to get some more cheap, young outfield talent in here considering Pache’s struggles (to this point) and the likelihood of the DH returning next year.
Braves are going through Catchers like they are going out of style. Wonder when Lucroy makes it to Atlanta
The Braves had little to lose with this move. A lot of conversation about a really minor move.
Smith is a decent hitter but a poor receiver. Catcher with his bat normally has a starting gig.
Wow we are going back to Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Avery days today! The 2021 Braves aren’t playing well enough to even think about 100 wins. Those teams came to ST with a expectation to win the east and 4 future HOF’s. My favorite yr was 95 obviously but that is all spilled milk now. Let’s get a win tonight
This franchise needs more titles. Take the expansion era alone. The Yankees, Dodgers, Cardinals, Orioles, Tigers, Mets, Pirates, Athletics, Reds, Phillies, Royals, Twins, Blue Jays, Marlins, Red Sox and Giants all have more titles than the Braves since expansion began in 1961. That’s 16 teams that have won at least two championships in that span and the Braves only have one.
Which is really amazing to think about considering they played in 6 World Series in the ’90s, had 4 future HOF’s on the pitching staff, a future HOF at 3B and a borderline HOF at 1B during that time
Meant to say 5 World Series
4 future HOF on pitching staff? There was Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux. Who else? Btw, Maddux was not on the team for their first 2 WS appearances, But he was a Braves for the next 3. Braves won one of the 3 and lost the other 2 vs Yanks.
Yeah, the Pirates won their last 2 titles the year before I was born 1971 & when I was 7 in 1979. They were competitive in some other years but haven’t been to the World Series since ’79. That’s FORTY ONE YEARS and counting. To bad Bonds, Bonnilla, Bream and the crew couldn’t get past the Braves in ’91 & ’92. It could’ve changed everything for the organization.
Sorry, my bad. Think i was counting Chipper lol
I know those Yankees and Blue Jays teams were really good but the Braves had a 2-0 lead in 1996 with the next three games at home and then had a 6-0 lead in Game 4. There’s no excuse for closing that series out. There’s also really no excuse for losing to the Twins in 1991. Atlanta had more than enough chances to win that series.
The ’91 Pirates had the best record in Baseball and they only had a losing record against two teams, the Dodgers (5-7) and the Braves (3-9). The bad thing was the offense didn’t show up in October, after scoring 5 runs in game 1 of the NLCS they only scored 7 runs the rest of the series. The ’92 team was aided greatly by the fact that the NL East was mostly terrible. Though they won 96 games that was significantly attributed to owning the Mets/Phillies/Cardinals to 42-12 record. Offensively they were weak beyond Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke but this team put up much more of a fight than the ’91 team. I’m sure Pirates fans think about Francisco Cabrera about as fondly as Red Sox fans think about Aaron Boone.
You are right though. If either of those teams could have gone to the World Series i imagine the 20 years following would have gone much differently
Keep in mind that the 91 Braves were anchored by kids. Pitchers Smoltz, Glavine, Avery and Wohlers were at the beginning of their careers. So was OFer David Justice. The team didn’t have any star at the catcher position. IFers included a few names in Braves lore (Lemke, Blauser) but no star except Terry Pendleton.
OF was pretty good with Justice, Ron Gant, Otis Nixon, and Lonnie Smith. That team became the first NL team to go last to first in back to back seasons (had to look that up to be sure).
And I can’t emphasize this enough. Prior to 1991, the Atlanta Braves had never won a post season game. They appeared into 2 postseason series (late 60s and early 80s) and were swept both times (0-6 total). There was no history of winning baseball prior to 91.
One other point for the younger fans, Braves were known as a good offensive team but with no pitching except my all time favorite Brave, Phil Niekro who pitched for the Braves a long time, through much of the down decades. That changed in 91 with Glavine and Smoltz. Not coincidentally, Atl Braves not only won their first post season game in 91 but went all the way to WS.
Older fans learned from that experience and it’s why we think pitching first (before offense).
That should say no excuse for NOT closing that series out obviously.
Don’t forget that the 1990 Pirates also won the NL East but lost to the Reds.
Win tonight then The 17-24 Pirates come to town. Riley got moved up a slot in the order 2 bombs last two nights, Freddie tied with Acuna for NL leader in HR. Morton on the mound against depleted Mets lineup.
Sorry I just need some positivity today.
The Pirates may be 17-24 but we’re 19-23. That’s not much better.
Riley is batting in the 290s. I figured the power would come around once he worked at making better contact and not chasing pitches. Riley should bat ahead of Swanson. And lots of chatter exists about Acia.
I’d like to see Riley moved up to the 4 hole. It’s not ideal for the kid to bat cleanup just yet in his career, but Braves have no one better for the spot at present.
Riley is an excellent example of a kid who is studying the game and working hard to become a fine ML hitter. You have to pull for a guy like that.
I never make predictions but here’s an exception. Braves will win tonight. I like Braves offense and starting pitcher better. I like their pen better but I think Acuna will break out of a funk. There’s some positivity.
As to the season, I can’t be too optimistic, sry to say, with this pen. There’s 2 or 3 good guys out there but not enough even with Greene returning in at least a month.
I hope AA puts more emphasis on pen next season and Braves get a chance to play lots of kids in second half. I’d like to see Davidson and Wilson get plenty of starts no matter what. I’d like to see what we have in Acia, and I’d like to see Waters up late in the year.
My hope is that we have a DH next year, move Ozuna to DH and maybe put Waters in LF or bring in a big bat for LF.
What a weak move in my opinion. I’d like to have Jacob Stallings for whatever reason.
Braves are garbage right now. All around
Why send Davidson down, he had a decent game, defiantly deserved another start.
He isn’t going to pitch for several days. They need another bullpen arm instead of having Davidson just waste a roster spot.
This is the way to extend bullpens. Once a guy is “pitched out” and has options send him down bring up someone that was signed as depth. If the depth pitcher stinks then DFA him and call up the pitcher that was optioned but probably never left the team. When deciding to keep the depth pitcher that was brought up the guy optioned for rest can replace an injured player or another pitcher that ends up optioned or DFA. Seems like a lot of the depth pitchers are free agents signed to minor league contracts that have major league experience but never succeeded in MLB. Check Luke Farrell on baseball reference. Was recently called up by the Twins.
Braves up by one on a three game losing streak. Welcome in Luke Jackson and guess what he blows the lead. Fire Snitker for this bullcrap
Every time Luke Jackson comes into the game, He always lets all of the Inherited baserunners score. He has a low ERA but he is not helping the Braves AT ALL!!!
Get rid of the guy
Yeah, don’t let that low ERA fool you. Luke Jackson is straight garbage. Snitker loves him though. Dude had a 6.85 era last year and was the first reliever to get issued a contract by the braves
I actually don’t blame Luke this time. Minter made a horrendous throwing error and then couldn’t throw a strike. Then Snitker left him in too long when it was obvious that he had lost it. Luke gave up a bloop single that barely even made it to the outfield. I’m putting that inning on Minter, not Jackson.
Thank you, we finally win a game!!! Now time to carry this over to the Pirates series! Go Braves!!!!!!
Mathis > Bob Ueker
Ueker > Me
Damn that’s why I never even got a minor league contract.