The Braves have claimed Chuckie Robinson off waivers from the Dodgers, according to a report from David O’Brien of The Athletic. Robinson was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett rather than added to the active roster, and right-hander Daysbel Herandnez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room for Robinson on the 40-man roster.
Robinson, 30, has just 52 games in the majors under his belt since he made his big league debut with the Reds back in 2022. It’s not hard to see why he hasn’t gotten much playing time in the majors to this point, as he’s a career .131/.161/.192 hitter in the big leagues across 138 plate appearances. That performance leaves him with a wRC+ of -4, meaning that he’s been 104% worse than a league average hitter at the plate. While the standards for offensive contributions from catchers are less rigorous than they are for other positions on the diamond, Robinsion is a non-factor at the plate even by the standards set by pitchers in the years prior to the NL adopting the DH rule.
Given his lackluster offensive abilities, it might seem like a shock that Robinson would get any sort of attention at the big league level at all. He carves out a niche for himself by being an extremely well-regarded defender behind the plate. He’s considered a strong game caller and even was heralded by Baseball America as a top defensive catcher back in 2020. That elite glove has been enough to make Robinson a fairly attractive candidate to be a fill-in depth catcher behind a given club’s regular tandem. This year, Robinson broke into the majors with the Dodgers because Will Smith and Dalton Rushing were both injured, leaving Robinson to join Ben Rortvedt in the club’s catching tandem for a time. He similarly helped to fill in for injured starting catcher Tyler Stephenson with the Reds during his debut season of 2022.
Now that Robinson is in Atlanta, it seems likely he’ll be tasked with helping to back up Drake Baldwin and Sandy Leon for the last few weeks of the season. The Braves have one of the best catching tandems in baseball when healthy, with Baldwin and Sean Murphy sharing time behind the plate, but Murphy recently underwent surgery that left the club without a third-string catcher behind Leon on the 40-man roster. Had Leon or Baldwin suffered an injury, the Braves would’ve been forced to turn to Jason Delay (who is not currently on the 40-man roster) or find an option outside the organization. It’s unclear if the Braves have interest in keeping Robinson in the fold in some capacity headed into the offseason or if he’s simply a fill-in depth piece brought in to help shore up the catcher position while Murphy is rehabbing. Even if that ends up being the case, Robinson’s strong defensive reputation should make it fairly easy to find a minor league deal with one organization or another.
Going by chuckie in the big 2025 is awesome
Leon insurance? Okay.
Why’s this guy suddenly so valued
Dude, don’t say bad things about Chuckie. Do you not watch movies?
Late bloomer
ATL has a 36-year old backup catcher (Leon) getting playing time. Today is AAA’s last day of play, so just insurance for nothing.
He has another option year next season. I’m guessing that’s why he was claimed so they can stash him in AAA as depth.
Was he DFAed? Last I heard he was on optional assignment to AAA.
Yes, he was optioned on 9-16 when Rushing was reactivated. Did he have enough service time to decline the assignment? Or did the Dodgers release him as a courtesy?
I just heard on the radio that Chuckie’s in love…(that’s probably none of our business, actually, switching radio stations, FM to AM).
Been there, done that.
Seems strange that the Dodgers would let a catcher go after the Will Smith injury news. Who is next man up now if Rushing or Rortvedt gets hurt?
He was optioned last week, before Smith went on the IL.
Optioned yes, but he was still in the LA organization and could have been recalled in the event of injury (and would have been eligible to play for them in the postseason if a catcher gets hurt).
Looks like the next man up now would be Chris Okey with all of 14 MLB at bats, but maybe the Dodgers decided Okey was better insurance than Robinson at the position.
Chris Okey
Suggestion: remove extra verbiage and you can probably condense this article by about half. Would make it easier to skim through the articles
No, mlbtr has to write every players life story, not what they can contribute
Maybe you should stick to twitter.
Nonchalanto
It doesn’t exist, it’s called X.
But the twits that use it still exist.
X is the 24th letter in the Latin alphabet.
Another Dodgers Fan
So obviously you’re using it then.
Mc Griff,
I’ve actually never even had it installed on any of my devices, let alone bothered using it.
Mostly because of the previously mentioned twits on there.
Another Dodgers Fan
It sounds like you’ve done your research, given the fact that you’ve never used it, but you know everything about it.
I know a lot about a lot of things I don’t use, like, or want.
Well this is confusing. Evidently AA’s plan is claim any player with a pulse?
Robinson still has 1 more option year after this season. He can be the AAA depth option behind the plate in 2026.
Im thinking the cutoff point to where MLBTR doesn’t chalk something up to “a low BABIP” is when the WRC+ is in sub-zero territory.
Braves should trade Chuckie back to la in lieu of will smith’s injury
The return of Gruden
Nacho and Chuckie sounds like the beginning of a little league movie plot
It could be one of those word games.
Add “fastball” and “mouse”.
The thing in common is that they are associated with “cheese”.
The Braves have gotta be the first team to have 2 Black American catchers on their MLB roster since integration. If am missing an obvious duo, apologies. That’s pretty cool.
An obvious miss would be the 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers who had Roy Campanella and John Roseboro.
Some players like Drake used to be allowed to play because people were okay with “foreigners” (wink wink) playing as long as they weren’t past a certain shade. Truly we have come far as a culture yet we do lose sight sometimes of how recent such prejudices were consciously widespread and tolerated/even promoted by some.