The Braves are in agreement with José Azocar on a minor league contract, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The fleet-footed outfielder will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Azocar had a brief stint on Atlanta’s MLB roster this year. He signed a big league deal on May 30 and spent a little over two weeks on Brian Snitker’s bench. He was limited to two appearances, both as a late-game substitute, and flew out in his only at-bat. The Venezuela native also got into 12 games with the Mets earlier in the year. He made five starts and went 5-18 (all singles) with a pair of walks and a stolen base.
Aside from his couple weeks on Atlanta’s bench, Azocar spent the rest of the year in the Mets organization. He returned to New York on a minor league contract after the Braves cut him loose in mid-June. He played out the season at Triple-A Syracuse, batting .241/.314/.352 in just under 300 plate appearances. Azocar stole 17 bases in the minors but had his third consecutive below-average offensive season. He owns a .276/.318/.416 line over parts of five Triple-A campaigns and is a career .244/.290/.319 hitter in 418 MLB plate appearances.
Azocar isn’t going to provide much at the plate, but he’s a plus-plus runner who can play all three outfield positions. Defensive Runs Saved has rated him as an average defender in a little more than 1000 career innings. Statcast’s Outs Above Average is a little more bullish, grading him four runs above par. Most of the defensive value comes from his 2022 rookie season in San Diego, when he appeared in a career-high 98 games.
Atlanta has four established outfielders in Ronald Acuña Jr., Michael Harris II, Mike Yastrzemski and Jurickson Profar. They have a few out-of-options players (Mauricio Dubón, Eli White and Vidal Bruján) who could provide some speed off the bench if they make the team. Bruján’s split contract makes him a candidate to run through waivers at some point, but Azocar would remain sixth on the outfield depth chart. He’s unlikely to break camp barring an injury to someone ahead of him during Spring Training. It’s likely he’ll head to Triple-A Gwinnett to start the season.
Pretty neat that Sugars first career homerun came off a pitcher named Sweet.
Wishing him the best!
Weiss wil probably run the late innings game differently with more Bench players
Wow Atlanta gets a lot of padres players lately.
Profar, HSK, Suarez, and Azocar
Somebody do something cool please
Dumpster diving!
Good luck to Sugar.
He’s a gamer
This guy stinks!
There is no “if” Dubon makes the team, other than a trade or injury.
Big news on the hot stove!
What a boring offseason…
Go find a different hobby
They seem to get more boring every year. Just a few good trades here and there big ticket free agents still out there in February with a lot of minor league signings every day.
Surprised Snit got him into a couple games.
Snitker supervisor glued his bench players to the pine every game.
At least Weiss seems wise enough to realize you can’t play every starter every single inning all season long, and has AA building him a little depth this offseason.
Most likely he won’t see Atlanta …
Yes. If the Braves are good this year, which I expect they will be, I don’t see him getting more than a handful of AB’s. Maybe during one OF injury and a simultaneous paternity leave. Or in a 20 inning ballgame.
A Sugar sighting!