Aug. 3: Culberson has rejected his outright assignment in favor of free agency, reports Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He’s now free to sign with any club, although it’s certainly possible that he’ll return to the Braves on a new minor league contract — just as he did back in June, following his last DFA and subsequent outright.
Aug. 2: The Braves announced this afternoon that utilityman Charlie Culberson was outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett. He went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment on Monday.
Culberson has had a very atypical season. The Braves have carried him on the MLB roster for around two months over a pair of stints. Remarkably, he’s only appeared in one big league game during that stretch — singling as a pinch-hitter on July 16. Culberson is clearly a well-liked figure in the Atlanta clubhouse, but they’d had little desire to get him onto the field around a star-studded infield.
The Braves acquired Nicky Lopez from the Royals last week to serve as a glove-first depth infielder. That pushed Culberson off the roster for the second time this season. Last time, he elected free agency but quickly returned to the organization on a minor league contract. He’ll again have the right to test free agency after clearing waivers.
Culberson has struggled in a limited look with Gwinnett this season, hitting .204/.234/.255 in 34 games. He’s appeared in 11 MLB seasons as a bench player. He’s a career .283/.311/.429 hitter against left-handed pitching but has a .218/.278/.349 line versus righties.
Well if he doesn’t come back he’ll have a real shot at MVP with his 1.000 batting average.
Look Charlie is not a victim he got to collect a major league check for many weeks and only having played in 1 game and got a hit in his only AB. He has a place in the organization when he retires and we would all be so lucky to be in the position Charlie is in. But if you looked at his past few seasons and even this season in the minors he just isn’t playing good enough to be on a major league roster and in the unfortunate event that an infielder went down to serious injury we would have a huge void to overcome. Nicky Lopez has elite defensive abilities can play multiple positions and at this point can run the bases better than Charlie.
Im just posting this because everytime an article is on Charlie some people try to make it sound like he was done so wrong and the fact is this is a business and there are no sentimental spots on a major league roster.
He went unclaimed. That should tell all the Charlie fans that ATL is doing this man a favor by offering him multiple contracts.
Agree, He will be back up on September and is probably a future coach with them.
Don’t think he will be back up in September we need to figure some other players out for post season and Charlie won’t be a post season player
I’d expect that eventually Charlie will be offered some type of coaching job in the organization. Everyone I’ve spoken with who played with him also talks about what a great guy he is.
> some people try to make it
> sound like he was done so wrong
Charlie was DFA’d the morning of Father’s Day when his father was set to throw out the first pitch of the game that day to Charlie.
sportingnews.com/us/amp/mlb/news/charlie-culberson…
Sure, business, need on the roster for a catcher with Murphy’s injury, whatever. Spin it however you want. They did him and his father wrong with that move.
So the Braves should have played a man down because of the father set to throw the first pitch out?? Not how the game is
No.
Running a Team 101: Don’t pick the guy for pre-game festivities that is your first choice to go when there’s a roster move that has to be made. If he was that guy, pick anybody else!
They could have still celebrated him and his Father that day better anyway.
It’s a a shame when they let emotional crybabies comment on MLB traderumors…but, how else would we know what Hemlock is thinking.
Also he had access to the pre and post game food spreads.
Charlie’s grandfather Leon Culberson was also a MLB player and actually had very similar offense numbers to what Charlie has had so far. Just some useless trivia.
Thanks for the info, I didn’t realize that. Career OPS+ of 100, exactly average.
Yawn
True that fellas. Let’s burn one.
Leon Culberson and Johnny Pesky were responsible for Enos Slaughters’s “mad dash” that decided the 1946 World Series!.
Charlie Culberson, Mark Lemke, Willie Harris, Eric Hinske, Brooks Conrad (minus the multi error playoff game) will always be some of my favorite Braves. Guys that just play hard and overachieve at times and put winning first. Kevin Pillar re-signs next year he’ll probably be on the list.
How does one put winning first?
You take a walk, bunt, put the ball in play and move the runner, you make the play and sacrifice your body for the team. You play hurt, sick, ride the bench, pinch hit, come in late as a defensive sub. You do whatever it takes to win instead of swinging for the fences trying to pad your numbers for your next contract.
I think Charlie will move on. The Nicky Lopez trade was the final nail in the coffin.
Unless, of course, he plans to coach in the Braves system in the future.
Agree there is no path to playing time he is way down the list now on Braves players a lot of players would have to get hurt for him to ever play here again this season. He is at the end of his playing career
Maybe hes trying to get a free ring out of this? Wouldn’t be surprised is they resigned him to a minor league deal after he chose free agency.
If they win the WS, he earned a ring the first day he was on the ML roster. There wouldn’t be a need for the multiple designations/re-signings.
So, can his dad stop warming up for sure now?
Forever Giant! Traded for Marco Scutaro and we know what he did in 2012!
Had a nice 2017 postseason.
Any other team I try for another opportunity. With Atlanta I hang around and just wait to collect my ring
This is a baseball site Slider.
I think Slider must have compromising pictures of Tim Dierkes. Other trolls with a similar level of obnoxiousness seem to get banned eventually, but this infestation continues.
Related, I wish they would fix the Mute button on this phone app.
He put his heart into it. Sorry, Charlie.
Hopefully this guy signs elsewhere this time and this weird Atlanta thing comes to an end. He clogs up a roster spot worse than some commentors clog up the comment section on this site.
Charlie Culberson, you are a Los Angeles Dodger (again)