The Braves assigned veteran infielder Charlie Culberson to the minors earlier today but Culberson rejected the assignment and elected free agency, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. Culberson had been designated for assignment last week to make room for catcher Chadwick Tromp on the club’s roster.
Culberson’s stint with the Braves this season was an odd one. The 34-year-old veteran signed a minor league deal with the Braves this past offseason and saw his contract selected back in May, but did not make a single appearance for the Braves in nearly a month on the active roster. Considering Culberson found himself unable to make it into a game in the majors with Atlanta even as a member of the 26-man roster, it’s far from a surprise that Culberson has departed his hometown organization in hopes of securing a minor league deal in elsewhere.
Since being selected by San Francisco in the first round of the 2007 draft, Culberson has suited up for the Dodgers, Rangers, and Rockies during his career in addition to the aforementioned Giants and Braves. Overall, the veteran of ten major league seasons sports a career .248/.293/.386 slash line in 1,311 trips to the plate.
Primarily a third baseman, Culberson also offers experience at shortstop, second base, first base, and left field that could make him an interesting veteran utility option for an infield-needy club looking to add depth to their upper minors. That being said, Culberson struggled in 107 trips to the plate with the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett this season. In 24 games with the club, the veteran infielder slashed just .204/.237/.255, a weak performance that could cause interested clubs to prefer internal depth options to Culberson’s services.
As for the Braves, the club currently sports no reserve infielders on the active roster as they carry a bench of Tromp, Travis d’Arnaud, Sam Hilliard, and Kevin Pillar. That leaves them likely to require an active roster move should any of Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, Orlando Arcia, or Matt Olson require a day off. Should that come to pass, the club has Braden Shewmake, Vaughn Grissom, and Luke Williams in Triple-A as infield options who are already on the 40-man roster.
Bring him back to us.
Andrew Friedman get on it.
As I said last time his name was brought up:I hesitate to call him lucky considering he never got in a single game but when you have under a 500 OPS in the minors and are called up for over a month, making big league salary, you are kind of lucky to even be there to begin with. That said, I’m sure he wants to play baseball and get a chance to show he’s worth some playing time potentially. And in fairness to the Braves there was never any need for him to be plugged in. There were no injuries and he was last in the depth chart. It’s hard enought to get at bats for D’arnaud and Pillar who actually earned them with their play
He talked earlier, when he got called up, how playing for the AAA team was allowing him to live at his Atlanta area home and see his kids everyday. Sucks b/c they need to get Arcia a day or two off. Dude didn’t get regular playing time for 4 years and now, other than the wrist, missed an inning. It’s starting to show, idk about the numbers but the eye test sees it.
It doesn’t suck because they aren’t in any way prevented from giving someone a day off as a result of him not being here. There are lots of players who could be plugged in that were able to muster something higher than a sub-500 OPS in AAA. The Braves don’t seem to think he needs some days off or they would call up or obtain one of those guys to give him the off days. He was killing it a week ago. Idk if I see what you’re seeing. He already had a month almost away, granted he had to rehab.
Who’s the backup infielder they could’ve played had they chosen too? Ozzie and his weak, inaccurate arm is the back up SS and Rosario is the backup for every other infield position.
They let Freddie and Dansby walk for nothing, they don’t care about your feeling or wants and needs.
@Smacky
Who is the “they” that let FF & DS walk? They(FF & DS)) made their own decisions and left of their own accord. I detest when I hear “they let so and so walk”. If FF and DS wanted to be Braves all they had to do was know how to sign their name with a pen. Instead, FF blamed his agent, he could have signed what was offered if he wanted to be a Braves lifer, it was all on him, and he was warned by legend Larry, and DS didn’t sign what was offered.
And what exactly is it you’re seeing to make you think that?
They did him dirty. I don’t blame him..Like they couldn’t wait a day to call up a 3rd catcher? DFA him while his dad is scheduled to throw out the first pitch. That is just gotta bring some bad karma the Braves way down the line.Good luck on a deal charlie.
I see a few obvious blowout wins where he could have subbed in for the last half inning. It is disrespectful to do that to a guy—bring him up and don’t use him, let alone for a month.
Snickers likes to throw Olson, Riley, Albies, and Acuna out there every single game. A little time off wouldn’t hurt any of them and it might even help keep them healthy or rested for the playoffs (assuming they get there).
Murphy didn’t play for a week. You can’t go a week with 1 catcher – that’d be insane. You’ve lost the big picture.
Check me on this, but he is l/was right on the verge of 10 years in the majors, which would trigger his max pension. Big Braves fan, but would’ve been nice to see him play some late game outfield D, or at least keep him up one extra day.
The aborted dad ceremonial first pitch thing is a bummer, but I’m sure there on field pr staff and the front office of any team aren’t in super communication lock step. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
He’s only at slightly over 7 years of service.
I’m too, but at the same time it’s baseball. Weird stuff happens all the time. I mean, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t surprised considering he hadn’t played for the month + he’d been up. The timing is bad but you can’t play a game with 1 catcher. They didn’t IL Murphy b/c they thought he’d be able to play again in less than 10 games. He ended up missing 7 games.
There’s a lot of people who make a lot of money that’d like to keep having said job. I don’t understand how this is such an injustice considering they rightfully let Freddie and Dansby go for nothing.
The only reason they brought him up was b/c they’d rather have Shewmake playing (poorly) everyday than rotting on the bench like Charlie was. It’s business, never personal.
They let FF/Dansby go for nothing? They received 2 comp picks for turning down the QO, no?
I hope he does secure a major league deal in elsewhere. Maybe he could be a writer as I’m sure he could make similar mistakes.
He did TV for Sports South or whatever it’s called during the playoffs last year
Hope he signs with the Pirates. He’ll fit right in with the other ten or twelve infielders here who can’t hit.
Tomorrow the Braves are not bringing back Charlie? Thats too weird and strange.
Baffled that so many Braves fans think Culberson is so great.
They’re delusional if they think he’s great or if they were wrong for DFA’ing him, in lieu of the alternatives. Proves why many armchair GMs couldn’t hack it playing an actual GM and making the tough moves for the good of the team. Nevermind having to cut a guy they’d just signed to a 1 year/$700K deal a month prior and not having played 1 ML game.
His release was purely a business move and I get that, but still…
Charlie deserved better.
That Braves are better than this.
Not signed in off season—-
Signed by ATL two days before opening day after being released by Rays towards end of spring training
I’d love to see him in a Dodger uniform.
He’ll be back with Gwinnett by noon yay
He’ll go to the Yankees and begin to rake out of absolutely nowhere. They have a knack for reclamation projects.
Yeah, if they could get something out of Willie Calhoun, they can get something out of anyone
More infield depth for the angels. He can platoon at third every time Rendon goes on the IL.
There’s still a possibility that Charlie winds up with the Braves.
He checks around, doesn’t find a better situation, goes back to Braves.
That could have been summarized in less words, Nick. And there’s no need to use big words like “aforementioned.” It’s not the right setting to use big words. Just keep it simple. You’ll gain a larger following.