The Braves made a series of roster moves this morning, per a club announcement. The club designated infielder Charlie Culberson for assignment to create room on the 40-man and active rosters for newly-acquired infielder Nicky Lopez. Meanwhile, left-hander A.J. Minter was activated from the 15-day injured list. Minter claimed a roster spot that was vacated by right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver when he was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett last night.
Despite the fact that Culberson was selected to the Major League roster on June 30, he appeared in only one game with the Braves and tallied a single plate appearance on July 16, during which he delivered a base hit. He’s otherwise been on-hand as bench depth but hasn’t been plugged into a game. This is the second time this season Atlanta has designated the veteran utilityman for assignment; he cleared waivers, elected free agency and quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal last time around.
Culberson, 34, has also appeared in 24 Triple-A games this season, batting .204/.234/.255 through 107 trips to the plate. It hasn’t been a strong year on the whole, but he’s beloved in the Braves organization, from the clubhouse to the fanbase, for his prior stints there in 2018-20. During that three-year period, Culberson delivered roughly league-average offense on the whole and appeared at every position other than catcher and center field. His penchant for clutch hits and walk-offs endeared him to Braves fans during that time, and Culberson enjoyed a career-best season with Atlanta in 2018 when he hit .270/.326/.466 with a dozen homers in 322 plate appearances.
The Braves will have until tomorrow evening’s trade deadline to trade Culberson if they choose, but it seems likelier that they’ll hope to pass him through outright waivers. He’d have the ability to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency once again, but given how quickly he re-upped with the Braves on a new minor league deal last time around, the same sequence could play out following his second DFA of the season.
Keep your head up, Chuck
Good grief.
A reference to Charlie Brown. Classic.
Dang, are the Braves just messing with him? This all seems cruel at this point…
How is it cruel exactly?
He played one game all season anyld collected a MLB check for all those weeks he has been on the team. Don’t get me wrong I love Charlie but give me that gig lol. Plus he has a place with the Braves system as long as he wants.
1 ab while being on the team since may is pretty cruel dude.
Charlie is free to walk away.
This is how baseball works and he knows it. He’s not playing at all and is basically a player coach at this point. He knew once the deadline approached that his spot was gonna be up for grabs
Oh please…
Braves were doing him a favor. If Charlie retired today, he’d get an annual pension of $40,000 a year for life. While he has 11 years of being on an MLB roster, he still needs to be on a roster for 1,000 days to qualify for a $100,000 annual pension.
He’s played in 630-ish games over his career but I’m guessing he must still be short of the 1,000 days. The Braves decision to keep him on the roster even if he never plays, maybe a goodwill gesture by the team to help him reach the 1,000 game requirement.
It’s a rough sport when you get released while batting 1.000 this season…
Dfa’d
Was his Dad scheduled to throw out the 1st pitch again yesterday?
Getting Minter back strengthens their bullpen. Hopefully Lee and Chavez will also return in the coming weeks.
Anthopoulos was very clear last week when he stated that the trade deadline was the last chance to acquire depth for the remainder of the season. So, I’m not surprised he prefers Lopez to Culberson, in case one of the infielders gets injured.
Lopez is by far a superior defender. AA got him for next to nothing. I can see AA going after a rental low flyer SP, even with fried coming back. pushing a fifth starter AJSS/chirinos into the bullpen. Not sure chavez comes back this season.
Getting rid of Hearn is a blessing in of itself.
Thank the Brew Crew. They beat him into a walking Hearnia.
Chavez injury has been weird. Seems like a long time to miss for a bruise. Resting him for the postseason confirmed.
Yeah, Royals fans must be scratching their collective head over the Lopez trade. Then again, they have probably been beaten down so much by that front office in the last several years that they aren’t really surprised by anything anymore.
He didn’t get a double. He got an infield single.
Over under on Charlie resigning a minor league deal with the Braves within a few days?
He probably goes right through waivers without being claimed and then right back to the minors with the Braves. DFA is probably a professional courtesy to see if any teams want him ahead of the trade deadline. If not, we’ll (the Braves will) keep him if he wants.
Someone will claim him and immediately trade him to the “Royals”.
The saga continues
Oh boy. Here come the crying Braves fans who would rather see Culberson in the lineup than Ronald Acuna.
Whom are these individuals you speak of?
Oh there’s plenty of them. Just watch enough Braves’ social media accounts and they’re easy to find.
People are dumb, man. What can I say? Though I’m not sure I trust [X] brand’s social media engagements as a general sample of an overall fanbase. I don’t know a single person that thinks “You know, the Braves are winning, but if we could just swap that Acuna for Culberson and his hair, then we might really be winning.” Just haven’t heard it in my circles..
Obviously this was a bit of an exaggeration, but the fan base is ridiculously and nonsensically infatuated with Culberson. He’s a good dude and had some big hits a few years ago, but he’s Brooks Conrad 2.0. I follow a lot of Braves fan groups and they’re always over-the-top about everything related to Culberson. And the amount of Braves fans that dislike Acuna is equally disturbing. The hate hasn’t been as prevalent this year (probably because he’s front-runner for MVP) but the last few years it’s been crazy.
Nick is right. Lotta homer Braves fans think Culberson is on the same level as one of the starters. Yeah and the double standard with some fans and Acuna is equally bizarre.
Oh no, they’re coming! Armed with wireless keyboards! Hide your eyes!
Back to Frisco, Charlie..
Death, taxes, Charlie being DFA’d by the Braves.
And Adam Rosales getting traded back and forth between the Rangers and the A’s.
It hasn’t been a strong year? He’s batting 1.000!
Evwryone roots for Chuck!!