The Marlins announced Thursday that they’ve claimed outfielder Forrest Wall off waivers from the division-rival Braves. Wall has been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. Miami already had an open 40-man roster spot, so no corresponding moves were necessary.
The 28-year-old Wall hit .241/.313/.241 in a small sample of 32 plate appearances with Atlanta this season. He’s seen big league time with the Braves in two straight seasons now but has been primarily a reserve player who’s been up due to his speed. He’s gone 8-for-12 in stolen base attempts but had greater success and more prolific base-stealing numbers in the minors.
Looking past that quick look with the Braves, most of Wall’s 2024 season has been spent in Triple-A Gwinnett. He’s slashed .279/.380/.411 with a 12.1% walk rate, 25.1% strikeout rate and a dozen steals in 51 games. Wall typically draws walks at a high clip in the upper minors and makes opponents pay with his wheels. He’s a career .268/.354/.387 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons, and he’s swiped 152 bases in 353 games there. He’s played all three outfield positions and also has more than 2100 professional innings at second base.
Wall still has two minor league option years remaining beyond the current season, so if the Fish want to keep him on the roster, he can be a piece of their outfield puzzle for a few years to come. Wall doesn’t have much power but clocks into the 93rd percentile of big leaguers in terms of average sprint speed, per Statcast. Miami’s long-term outfield picture is rather thin at the moment, so bringing in a versatile OBP- and speed-focused outfielder with options left makes some sense — particularly if they trade center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. or (less likely) one of Bryan De La Cruz or Jesus Sanchez in the coming days.
Very good claim by the Marlins.
He just felt like running
To me that’s a sign Jazz is on his way to Pittsburgh gives them a guy to go out and play CF for the rest of the year.
Marlins are holding some interesting trade chips
Should be able to get some things for Jazz, Bell & Scott maybe throw Puk in there as well as a chip
Maybe a sign Jazz is going but not specifically Pittsburgh…
Maybe he’s gonna be the one that saves Mi(ami). Because after all, he is Forrest Wall.
Say goodbye to Jazz. He’ll be coming to the Braves.
For supposedly being fast he made tons of outs on the bases while a Barve. Prime grade trash player.
Looks like your spelling is as good as your judgement of Wall, makes me want to barve…
Furthers the apparent tradition of getting all the 2nd baseman, 10 years running…
I remember when he was drafted; kid could hit, but had zero arm
Glad he made it out of the Braves. Not a fan at all of the way we are handling players right now, so hoping he gets a real shot. He deserved better and played better than any OF we have on roster right now outside of Kelenic.
Duvall – toast and his defense doesn’t even pass the metrics test now
Rosario – toast
White – playing terrible
Williams – playing terrible
Laureano – zilch
Martinez – terrible
No reason to DFA Wall over any of the trash above. Glad he got out.
Martinez shouldn’t be on your list. He was DFA a couple of weeks ago.
Welp. Apologies Steve. Martinez was DFA, but he wasn’t claimed on waivers and accepted an outright to Gwinnett. Thought he was gone.