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Braves Sign Jesse Chavez To Minor League Deal

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Jesse Chavez is headed back to the Braves. Again. Atlanta announced this morning that the veteran right-hander has been signed to a minor league contract. He’ll head to big league camp for the final few days of spring training. Chavez spent the majority of spring training with the White Sox but was cut loose over the weekend. The Apex Baseball client will now head back to the Braves organization for what’ll be a fourth straight season (and a fifth overall).

Chavez, 40, has been excellent with the Braves in each of the past three seasons but struggled through shorter stints with the Angels and Cubs. Even accounting for rough showings in Anaheim and Chicago, however, he’s notched a tidy 2.81 earned run average in 137 2/3 innings over the past three seasons. Along the way, he’s fanned 26.2% of his opponents, issued walks at a strong 7.6% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a roughly average 42.3% clip (including a 51.7% mark last year). Metrics like FIP (2.97) and SIERA (3.33) generally agree that Chavez has been a highly effective reliever — one who’s often worked in multi-inning roles.

It was a rough spring for Chavez with the ChiSox. He tossed seven official innings and was tagged for ten runs (nine earned) on a dozen hits and two walks with eight strikeouts. That comes out to an 11.57 ERA, albeit in a tiny sample of work. Chavez also posted quality strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates (22.2%, 5.6%, 56%, respectively) and only allowed one homer while serving up a .458 BABIP, so take the spring ERA — as always — with a grain of salt.

The Atlanta bullpen is quite full at the moment, with only one reliever — left-hander Dylan Lee — who can even be optioned to Triple-A. The Braves are set to roll out a heavily veteran ’pen including Raisel Iglesias, A.J. Minter, Joe Jimenez, Pierce Johnson, Tyler Matzek and Aaron Bummer. Right-hander Jackson Stephens is out of minor league options and thus stands as a favorite to win the final bullpen spot.

That could ticket Chavez for early-season work in Triple-A Gwinnett, where he’d presumably be one of the first men up in the event of an injury. It’s at least possible he’ll overtake Stephens for that final bullpen spot, as Stephens has a limited big league track record and has walked seven hitters in 7 1/3 frames this spring.

Braves Release Charlie Culberson

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The Braves have released Charlie Culberson, as per the team’s official MLB.com transactions log.  Culberson rejoined the Braves on a minor league deal back in January, and was attempting to transition to pitching after 17 pro seasons (including 11 in the majors) as a utilityman.

This doesn’t appear to be the end of the line for Culberson’s career, as he told Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he will continue to seek out more playing opportunities.  Culberson turns 35 next month, though he indicated in another interview with Toscano last month that he wasn’t yet leaning towards retirement.

Culberson has a .248/.294/.386 slash line over 1312 career plate appearances, and he has played for five different teams at the MLB level since making his debut with the Giants back in 2012.  This includes 231 games over what is technically six different stints with the Braves, since Culberson has signed four separate minor league contracts with Atlanta over the last year.  The Braves twice designated Culberson for assignment and he chose free agency rather than an outright assignment, though Culberson quickly rejoined the organization on a new contract.

The transactional shuffles were part of an odd year overall for Culberson, who played in only 27 games with Triple-A Gwinnett and in exactly one game at the Major League level.  Atlanta’s tendency to rarely rest its star players meant that Culberson simply didn’t have much opportunity to get playing time, despite several months on the Braves’ active roster.  This made 2023 a “tough” season for Culberson, as he told Toscano, and it partially inspired his decision to try pitching as a different way of providing value to a big league roster.

Culberson has made eight mop-up appearances (totaling 7 1/3 innings) as a pitcher over the years, in addition to his much lengthier resume at all four infield positions, as a left fielder, and a handful of games in right field.  He has topped 100 plate appearances in only six of his 12 Major League seasons, though Culberson did get 271 PA and 90 appearances as recently as 2021 when he playing for a rebuilding Rangers team.

Over three Spring Training appearances this year, Culberson made three appearances on the mound and was charged with six earned runs over two innings of work.  Obviously there were going to be some bumps in the road for Culberson as he pursued his new position, and it remains to be seen if he’ll continue to experiment with a pitching career or if he might return to his familiar utility role if another team needs some position-player depth.  While another contract with the Braves wouldn’t be a surprise if the Georgia native wants to stay close to home, Culberson’s desire to actually play seems to be clashing with Atlanta’s loaded roster.

Braves Option Bryce Elder; Reynaldo Lopez To Open Season As Fifth Starter

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The Braves announced Monday morning that they’ve optioned right-handers Bryce Elder and Huascar Ynoa to Triple-A Gwinnett. That follows last week’s option of righty AJ Smith-Shawver and closes the book on Atlanta’s fifth-starter competition. Offseason signee Reynaldo Lopez will open the season as the team’s fifth starter behind Spencer Strider, Max Fried, Charlie Morton and Chris Sale, tweets Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

While it’s looked quite likely for some time now that Lopez would get the spot, it’s nonetheless a scenario that would’ve sounded outlandish after the conclusion of the 2023 season. Elder faded down then stretch in the final couple months of the ’23 campaign but was an All-Star last July. Smith-Shawver rose from High-A to the big leagues in a matter of months last season. Lopez, meanwhile, moved to the bullpen early in the 2021 season with the White Sox and has worked as a reliever for the bulk of the past three seasons.

However, even at the time the Braves signed Lopez to a three-year, $30MM contract, they made clear that the plan was going to be to stretch the right-hander out as a rotation option. Atlanta scouts and evaluators are clearly bullish on the right-hander’s power arsenal and feel it can indeed still hold up in a starting capacity. Lopez started 73 games for the ChiSox from 2018-20, so he’s no stranger to the role, but the vast majority of his MLB success has come since moving to short relief stints.

Thus far in camp, he’s at least looked the part of a viable rotation piece. Spring stats should always be taken with a grain of salt, but through 16 2/3 frames Lopez hasn’t done much to hurt his chances. He’s posted a sharp 2.16 ERA with a 21% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 45.2% grounder rate. Elder has been tagged for 11 runs on 15 hits and six walk with 13 strikeouts through just 12 innings. Ynoa, who’s still making his way back from 2022 Tommy John surgery, was slowed early in camp by some shoulder soreness and only made his spring debut on Saturday, tossing one inning. Were it not for the shoulder issue, perhaps he’d have been more firmly in the mix this spring, but he didn’t have the chance to build up and will open the season as a depth option in Gwinnett.

Once Smith-Shawver was optioned a week ago, the competition was largely down to Elder and Lopez. It might seem surprising to push an All-Star out of the rotation in favor of a converted reliever, but after a brilliant start to his 2023 season, Elder limped to a dismal 5.75 ERA with just a 15.1% strikeout rate against a 10.4% walk rate over his final 72 innings of the year (14 starts).

Lopez, over the past three seasons, has pitched to a 3.14 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 39% ground-ball rate through 189 innings, most of which has come in a relief setting. He pushed his average fastball velocity up to a career-high 98.4 mph in that role last season, though he’ll likely see that number dip a bit over longer stints as a starter.

Lopez posted a 3.91 ERA in 32 starts for the ’18 White Sox but did so with shaky strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates that prompted metrics like FIP (4.63) and SIERA (4.92) to cast a much less favorable light on his work. The secondary numbers indeed served as a portent for regression; from 2019-20, Lopez was torched for a 5.52 ERA in 210 2/3 innings, thanks largely to pedestrian K-BB numbers and a sky-high 1.88 HR/9 mark.

If Lopez is able to break out as a starter, the three-year, $30MM contract he signed could well look like a bargain. If not, he’s proven over the past few seasons that he can be an impact late-inning reliever, so he could always be shifted back into a one-inning role and deepen an already excellent Atlanta bullpen that features Raisel Iglesias, Joe Jimenez, A.J. Minter, Pierce Johnson, Tyler Matzek, Dylan Lee and Lopez’s former White Sox teammate Aaron Bummer.

Braves Sign Adam Duvall

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The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve signed veteran outfielder Adam Duvall to a one-year, $3MM contract. The CAA client will return for a third stint with Atlanta. The Braves’ 40-man roster had multiple open spots, so a corresponding move was not necessary.

Less than one month after Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos indicated that the team was not planning to platoon newly acquired outfielder Jarred Kelenic in left field, Anthopoulos now tells the Braves beat the opposite: the righty-hitting Duvall will pair with the left-handed Kelenic in left field (X link via Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

The change in plans is likely attributable to multiple factors, including a presumable drop in Duvall’s asking price and also Kelenic’s struggles thus far in spring training. The once-ballyhooed prospect, whom the Braves effectively paid around $26MM to acquire (between eating bad contracts and the associated luxury-tax hits), is off to a 2-for-30 start with four walks and seven punchouts this spring. Kelenic has struggled against lefties throughout his still-young career, evidenced by a .189/.255/.311 slash (61 wRC+) and 29.9% strikeout rate against them.

Duvall, 35, has played with five teams in his career but spent more time with Atlanta than any other club. In parts of five prior seasons, he’s batted .224/.285/.464 — numbers that generally align with his career marks. He’s a strikeout-prone slugger whose paltry walk rates lead to low batting averages and poor OBP marks, but Duvall offsets those flaws with plus power and typically plus defensive grades in the outfield corners. Though he’ll be in a platoon role in this latest Braves stint, he has roughly even splits in his career: .232/.301/.469 (101 wRC+) versus left-handed pitching, .232/.287/.473 (97 wRC+) against right-handers.

Duvall spent the 2023 season with the Red Sox and was the game’s hottest hitter for the first ten days of the season before fracturing his wrist on a diving attempt in the outfield. He missed exactly two months and returned to post .223/.273/.474 slash that’s right in line with his career marks. Duvall swatted 21 homers in just 353 plate appearances with Boston — the best power output of his career on a rate basis — but also fanned in more than 31% of his plate appearances for a third consecutive season.

The Sox surprised many onlookers when signing Duvall to serve as their primary center fielder, and defensive metrics were down on his performance there. It’s reasonable to expect a bounceback in a less-demanding and more familiar left field setting, where Duvall has logged more than 68% of his career innings.

Despite the modest price tag, Duvall was relatively popular in terms of the number of teams showing interest in him this winter. The Red Sox, Angels, Twins, Blue Jays, Padres and D-backs were just some of the clubs connected to him, though many went in other directions. Minnesota seemingly preferred a truer backup center fielder and acquired Manuel Margot. Arizona took a more prototypical lefty masher in Randal Grichuk. San Diego was connected to Duvall as recently as Monday, but it’s possible Duvall simply preferred to return to the organization he knows best. Given his history with the club and given that the Braves are one of the largest postseason favorites in the entire sport, it’d be hard to blame him.

Because the Braves are already well into the second tier of luxury-tax penalization and are a second-year offender of the CBT, they’ll be taxed at a 42% clip on Duvall’s signing. That comes to a modest $1.26MM slap on the wrist and brings the total cost of acquisition on Duvall to $4.26MM. Per RosterResource, the Braves are now up to just over $273MM in luxury obligations. If they cross the $277MM mark, they’ll be taxed at a 72.5% rate on subsequent additions and see their top pick in next year’s draft dropped by ten spots.

Braves Release Jordan Luplow

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The Braves announced they’ve released veteran outfielder Jordan Luplow to pursue other opportunities. He’d been in camp as a non-roster player after signing a minor league pact in January.

Luplow is a right-handed hitting outfielder who’d been competing for a bench job in camp. Atlanta signed Adam Duvall to a $3MM pact this afternoon to play that role instead. Carrying both Duvall and Luplow would have been a bit redundant, so the Braves decided to let the latter get an early jump on his next opportunity.

The Duvall signing wasn’t a reflection of Luplow underperforming in camp. To the contrary, the well-traveled outfielder has posted impressive numbers this spring. He was off to a .280/.379/.560 start through 29 plate appearances. Luplow had collected two homers and a double among his seven hits. He walked four times against only five strikeouts. Yet the organization has a long history with Duvall, who lingered in free agency deep into the offseason despite hitting 21 homers with a .247/.303/.531 slash for the Red Sox a year ago. Adding him to the bench at such a modest price tag was something the front office didn’t want to pass up.

Luplow shouldn’t have any issue finding another minor league opportunity elsewhere. He has tallied more than 1000 trips to the plate over the past seven seasons between six teams. Luplow got into 39 MLB contests a year ago, hitting .208/.322/.325 between the Blue Jays and Twins.

While he has posted below-average numbers over the past two seasons, Luplow has a decent track record in favorable platoon situations. He has popped 33 home runs in 565 career plate appearances against left-handed pitching. Luplow has reached base at a .338 clip with a very strong .495 slugging mark versus southpaws. He hasn’t had anywhere near the same level of success against righty pitching, posting a .197/.287/.343 slash when matched with same-handed hurlers.

Braves Option AJ Smith-Shawver

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The Braves announced this morning that they’ve optioned right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver to Triple-A Gwinnett, thus ending his bid for a spot in the team’s Opening Day rotation. He’ll begin the season in the upper minors and serve as one of the team’s first lines of defense should an injury occur on the starting staff.

It’s not an entirely unexpected move. The top spots in the Atlanta rotation are set in stone, with Spencer Strider, Max Fried, Charlie Morton and Chris Sale all assured roles heading into camp. That left the fifth spot to a likely battle between Smith-Shawver, Bryce Elder and offseason signee Reynaldo Lopez, whom the Braves plan to stretch back out as a starter after spending the last couple seasons in a bullpen role.

Lopez’s contract made him a favorite to begin with, but the fact that he’s yielded just one run and three hits with a 7-to-2 K/BB ratio and 53% grounder rate in eight spring innings surely hasn’t harmed his chances. Smith-Shawver, by comparison, has been tagged for seven runs on a dozen hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts in 7 2/3 spring frames. Elder, a 2023 All-Star, has had similar struggles to Smith-Shawver in his small sample of spring innings. In 7 2/3 frames, he’s been charged with six runs on the strength of 10 hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts. It might seem surprising to push an All-Star out of the rotation in favor of a converted reliever, but Elder did wilt in alarming fashion down the stretch in ’23, posting a 5.75 ERA with just a 15.1% strikeout rate against a 10.4% walk rate over his final 14 starts/72 innings.

The composition of the Opening Day rotation is in some ways immaterial — particularly for a Braves club that’ll enter the year as an overwhelming postseason favorite. In all likelihood, each of Lopez, Smith-Shawver and Elder will start games for the Braves this season. Injuries limited Fried to just 77 2/3 innings last year, while Sale has pitched only 151 innings over the past four seasons combined. Morton has been a workhorse, ranking sixth in the majors in games started and 11th in innings pitched dating back to 2018 — but he’s also entering his age-40 season.  Injuries are an inevitability among big league pitchers, so the Braves will likely have to tap into their impressive collection of depth arms — headlined by Elder and Smith-Shawver — at various points in 2024.

While the Smith-Shawver demotion clearly isn’t a means of manipulating his service time, it’s still worth noting that the decision could have implications in that regard. The 21-year-old made his MLB debut in 2023 and started five games (plus one relief appearance), pitching to a 4.26 ERA with a 20-to-11 K/BB ratio in 25 1/3 innings. He picked up 50 days of service last season, meaning he’d reach a full year of MLB service with another 122 days on this year’s roster (roughly two-thirds of the season). If he reaches that full year of service, Smith-Shawver would be controllable through the 2029 season. If he spends fewer than 122 days on the roster, he’ll be controllable through the 2030 season.

Smith-Shawver soared from High-A to the majors in 2023, pitching to a combined 2.76 ERA across three minor league levels before making that MLB debut. Baseball America ranks him as the game’s No. 42 prospect. He’s ranked 63rd at FanGraphs and 69th at MLB.com.

Offseason In Review: Atlanta Braves

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The Braves made a couple early-offseason strikes to bolster the pitching depth and install a former top prospect as their new left fielder. Their biggest move came right around the New Year with the acquisition and extension of a one-time ace whom they’re hoping will get back on track in 2024.

Major League Signings

Option Decisions

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

While the first few weeks of the offseason were generally fairly quiet around the league, the Braves struck early. They began their work before the offseason technically began. Within two weeks of being bounced in the NL Division Series, Atlanta kept one of their free agents off the market.

The Braves inked Pierce Johnson to a two-year, $14.25MM extension, keeping the deadline pickup in the high-leverage mix after a dominant second half. The bullpen investment continued in early November. Joe Jiménez inked a three-year, $26MM pact (on a rare Atlanta extension that didn’t include a team option at the end) days before he would’ve been able to explore the open market.

President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos and his staff didn’t stop there. They orchestrated the first offseason trade of significance with the White Sox, sending five players to Chicago for lefty reliever Aaron Bummer. It’s a bet on Bummer’s velocity and strong strikeout and ground-ball rates despite his 6.79 ERA from a season ago. Atlanta subtracted back-of-the-roster depth in parting with rotation candidates Michael Soroka and Jared Shuster and infielders Nicky Lopez and Braden Shewmake. No one from that group projected to play a significant role early in the 2024 season, making that an easier call for the front office.

With that level of early investment in the bullpen, it came as a surprise when the Braves dipped into free agency for yet another power arm who has spent the past couple seasons as a reliever. Reynaldo López inked a three-year, $30MM pact. That price point isn’t too surprising in itself, but the subsequent revelation that the Braves will allow him to compete for a rotation spot was unexpected. López struggled as a starting pitcher early in his career with the White Sox. He has been far better in relief over the last few seasons, yet it’s still fair to question whether he has the level of command necessary to be an effective starter.

López is battling the likes of AJ Smith-Shawver, Bryce Elder, Huascar Ynoa and top prospect Hurston Waldrep for the final spot in the starting five. That’s a high-octane collection of depth arms behind one of the sport’s strongest front fours. Spencer Strider and Max Fried are back in their customary top two rotation spots. The Braves exercised a $20MM option to keep Charlie Morton for his fourth season in Atlanta.

There was never a question they’d add one more established starter behind the Strider, Fried and Morton trio. The source of intrigue was which pitcher that would be. The Braves were tied to Georgia native Dylan Cease in trade rumors early in the winter but balked at the White Sox’s asking price. Ultimately, they turned to a pitcher few expected to be traded: Chris Sale.

Sale narrowly topped 100 innings over 20 starts for the Red Sox last season, his first time hitting the century mark since 2019. A pedestrian 4.30 ERA belied a much more impressive 29.4% strikeout rate and 13.2% swinging strike percentage. The stuff that had made Sale an ace earlier in his career seems mostly intact. Yet there’s risk in betting on a pitcher who turns 35 this month and has missed extended stretches over the past three seasons because of Tommy John surgery, a broken finger, a wrist fracture, and last year’s bout of shoulder inflammation.

Between that injury history and a hefty $27.5MM salary, it seemed unlikely the Red Sox would find a taker for Sale. Atlanta got around the latter concern by convincing Boston to eat $17MM. With another $10MM of the salary set to be deferred, Sale essentially cost the Braves nothing this year financially. Getting the Sox to pay down that large a portion of the salary required parting with one of Atlanta’s top young players.

While Vaughn Grissom has technically exhausted his prospect eligibility, he was essentially Atlanta’s best young position player who was not already a key piece of the major league roster. The 23-year-old has hit .287/.339/.407 in scattered big league looks over the last two seasons. He’s coming off a .330/.419/.501 showing in Triple-A. Grissom could be an average or better MLB second baseman as soon as this year. His path to playing time on the Truist Park infield has long been blocked, so it seemed the Braves would cash him in for rotation help at some point.

Atlanta doubled down on the dice roll on Sale by reworking his contract. They signed him to a restructured two-year, $38MM deal not long after the trade. That reduced the team’s luxury tax obligations in the short term and tacked on a club option for the 2026 season while guaranteeing the lanky southpaw a $22MM salary for ’25 — a year that had previously been covered by a team option.

That completed the big work on the pitching staff. As has been the case for a few offseasons, the Braves entered the winter with a mostly settled group of hitters. Eight members of last year’s primary lineup are back. The one unsettled position was left field. Atlanta declined a $9MM option on Eddie Rosario, leaving that as the sole lineup spot which they needed to address.

While the Braves loosely floated the possibility of moving Grissom to left field before his inclusion in the Sale trade, they took that off the table at the Winter Meetings. Atlanta leveraged financial space to take a change-of-scenery look at former top prospect Jarred Kelenic. The left-handed hitter was a disappointment in Seattle, where he hit .204/.283/.373 over parts of three seasons.

Kelenic is coming off a career-best offensive showing, as he turned in a decent .253/.327/.419 batting line over 416 plate appearances last year. It wasn’t an entirely positive season, though. He struck out at a borderline untenable 31.7% rate, continuing the issues making contact that have plagued him throughout his career. Kelenic also missed a couple months with a self-inflicted foot fracture sustained when he kicked a water cooler in frustration after a strikeout.

Controllable for five seasons and a year away from arbitration, Kelenic himself isn’t costing the Braves much for the upcoming campaign. They did take a good chunk of dead money off Seattle’s books. The Braves added $24.5MM in salary on Marco Gonzales and Evan White. The actual return — reliever Jackson Kowar, acquired weeks earlier from the Royals for injured starter Kyle Wright, and mid-level pitching prospect Cole Phillips — wasn’t exorbitant. Kelenic will get an opportunity to play every day in left field, which isn’t surprising considering the amount of salary and luxury tax fees they took on to get him.

The Kelenic trade kicked off a series of additions in which the Braves ate underwater contracts to acquire depth pieces of interest. They offloaded Gonzales to the Pirates for nothing more than $2.75MM in savings on his $12MM contract. White went to the Angels in a bizarre move that saw Atlanta take on the deals of infielder David Fletcher and catcher Max Stassi. The Braves added an extra $6MM to the books, ostensibly to add Fletcher in the glove-first utility role which Nicky Lopez had played down the stretch.

Atlanta ate all but the league minimum on Stassi and flipped him to the White Sox for nothing, while they ran Fletcher through outright waivers. The latter remains in the organization in a non-roster capacity and could still get to the majors this year, but the subsequent signing of Luis Guillorme to a $1.1MM free agent deal makes him a bit redundant. The Fletcher/White swap seemed unnecessary in the larger context of the offseason.

The Braves made one more trade of this ilk in mid-December. Atlanta absorbed $4MM on Matt Carpenter’s salary to bring in hard-throwing reliever Ray Kerr from the Padres. The Braves released Carpenter (he subsequently signed a big league deal to return to the Cardinals), but Kerr is an intriguing lefty bullpen arm who can still be optioned to the minors. That’s a plus for a team that has seven relievers — Raisel Iglesias, A.J. Minter, Jiménez, Johnson, Tyler Matzek, Bummer and Jackson Stephens — who cannot be sent down without clearing waivers. All but Stephens are locks to be in the MLB bullpen if healthy.

It’s debatable whether the series of maneuvers at the back of the roster improves the Braves enough that it was worthwhile. It at least highlights the kind of flexibility afforded the front office by constructing a team with such a strong core. The Braves made a couple other small-scale changes.

They dealt veteran middle reliever Nick Anderson to the Royals, acquired fifth outfielder J.P. Martínez from the Rangers, and took minimal fliers on injury rehabbers Penn Murfee and Ángel Perdomo as forward-looking bullpen moves. It amounts to a lot of tinkering in an offseason that’ll be defined by the Sale, Kelenic and (to lesser extents) López and Bummer acquisitions.

Most of last year’s star-studded group is back. The catching tandem of Sean Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud remains in place. Ditto the starting infield of Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Orlando Arcia and Austin Riley. Defending NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. dodged a scare with his right knee and should be in the Opening Day outfield beside Michael Harris II and Kelenic. Marcell Ozuna is under contract for one more season at designated hitter.

Maintaining perfect continuity is impossible for any team. The Braves parted with Rosario, Wright, Soroka, Grissom and a couple ancillary veteran contributors in the bullpen. Longtime third base coach Ron Washington was finally poached for another managerial opportunity after years of speculation. He’s now in charge of the Angels dugout.

Despite that handful of departures, the Braves again head into the season with one of the strongest teams in the majors. They’re still firmly in their championship window, though the more immediate concern will be snagging a seventh straight NL East title. Next offseason will bring more questions, particularly about the long-term state of the rotation with Fried trending towards free agency.

 

Braves Sign Skye Bolt To Minor League Deal

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The Braves recently signed outfielder Skye Bolt to a minor league contract. He made his Spring Training debut as a defensive replacement in today’s exhibition matchup with the Tigers.

Bolt, 30, is looking to get back to the majors for the first time since 2022. The North Carolina product appeared in parts of three big league campaigns with the two Bay Area franchises between 2019-22. Bolt saw the majority of his action with the A’s in the final of those seasons, hitting .198/.259/.330 over 42 games. He carries a .156/.205/.266 batting line over 187 big league plate appearances overall.

As one would expect, Bolt has turned in better numbers in Triple-A. The switch-hitter owns a .298/.388/.483 slash over four seasons at that level. That has mostly come in favorable hitting environments in the Pacific Coast League. He wasn’t as effective with Milwaukee’s top farm team a year ago, posting a .257/.359/.367 line in 64 contests.

Bolt has above-average speed befitting his name. He’s capable of playing all three outfield positions and has generally drawn a decent number of walks in the minors, albeit without much power. It’s very unlikely he snags an Opening Day roster spot, but he’ll add a depth option at Triple-A Gwinnett.

Atlanta’s starting outfield of Jarred Kelenic, Michael Harris II and Ronald Acuña Jr. is entrenched, yet their top depth options are light on MLB experience. Forrest Wall and J.P. Martínez, the other outfielders on the 40-man roster, have combined for 32 big league games. The Braves have added a handful of non-roster players to potentially push for a fourth outfield role. Leury García, Jordan Luplow, Eli White, Luis Liberato and Luke Williams are all in big league camp.

Ronald Acuna Jr. Expected To Be Ready For Opening Day

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March 5: The Braves announced this morning that Dr. ElAttrache confirmed the team’s diagnosis of irritation in Acuna’s right meniscus. The team still expects the reigning NL MVP to be ready for Opening Day and further announced Tuesday morning that Acuna will “gradually increase baseball activities” as he builds toward that goal.

March 2: An MRI revealed that Ronald Acuna Jr. has some irritation in his right meniscus, according to multiple Braves beat writers (including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Justin Toscano).  Acuna is expected to be ready for Opening Day, though he will visit Dr. Neal ElAttrache in two days for further examination of his knee.

Everything seems precautionary at this point, and naturally Acuna and the Braves want to be as careful as possible given Acuna’s injury history.  Acuna suffered a torn right ACL in July 2021 and didn’t return to action until late April 2022, with Acuna’s relatively down numbers (.266/.351/.413 over 533 plate appearances) during the 2022 season indicating that he wasn’t quite back to 100 percent after the long layoff.

Needless to say, Acuna was back in full form for an all-timer of a 2023 season.  The outfielder hit .337/.416/.596 with 41 homers and league-leading totals in hits (217), runs (149), and stolen bases (73).  With the latter statistic, Acuna became the first player in baseball history to hit 40 homers and steal at least 50 bases in a season.  Acuna was a unanimous choice as NL MVP last November, and the Cooperstown trajectory is in view considering that Acuna is still only 26 years old.

More will be known about Acuna’s status after his consult Monday, and it could be that the meniscus issue indeed just costs Acuna a bit of Spring Training time.  There stands a chance that Acuna might be placed on the 10-day injured list to begin the season if Atlanta feels he needs a bit of extra ramp-up time to make up for the lost spring work, which could open the door for Forrest Wall, J.P. Martinez, Eli White, or non-roster invites Jordan Luplow or Luis Liberato for some early-season playing time.  The Braves’ lineup is so stacked that missing even a superstar of Acuna’s caliber wouldn’t be a big problem in the short term, but obviously the team needs Acuna fully ready as it pursues its second World Series title in four years.

Josh Donaldson Announces Retirement

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Third baseman Josh Donaldson announced his retirement today on The Mayor’s Office (YouTube link). Back in November, he expressed an openness to playing one more year under the right circumstances, but it now seems the Bringer of Rain has decided it’s time to hang up his spikes.

Donaldson, now 38, took a winding path to the major leagues and was a late bloomer, but he nonetheless reached incredible heights as a big leaguer once everything aligned.

While playing third base at Auburn University, he began to learn how to catch. The Cubs then selected him as a catcher with the 48th overall pick in the 2007 draft. In July of 2008, he was traded to the Athletics, one of four players going to Oakland in exchange for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin.

As he climbed the minor league ladder with his new club, his bat was considered ahead of his glove, an understandable situation given that he was relatively new to catching. He made his major league debut in 2010 but hit just .156/.206/.281 in his first 34 plate appearances.

He was stuck in the minors in 2011 and then spent 2012 being shuttled between the majors and the minors, gradually spending more time at third base over that stretch. His breakout season finally came in 2013, when Donaldson was 27 years old. Now done with catching for good, he got into 158 games for the A’s that year as their everyday third baseman. He hit 24 home runs and drew a walk in 11.4% of his plate appearances, only striking out at a 16.5% rate. His .301/.384/.499 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 147 and he got strong grades for his defense at the hot corner, leading to a tally of 7.3 wins above replacement from FanGraphs and 7.2 from Baseball Reference. He finished fourth in American League MVP voting.

Donaldson followed that up with a similarly excellent season in 2014 and the A’s made the postseason for a third straight year, but made a quick playoff exit all three times. The club decided to undergo a huge roster overhaul that winter, a frequent occurrence for the club and its persistent financial concerns. Going into 2015, the club traded away guys like Brandon Moss, Jeff Samardzija and also flipped Donaldson to the Blue Jays for a four-player package.

His first season in Toronto would eventually prove to be the best of his career. He launched 41 home runs and slashed .297/.371/.568 for a wRC+ of 154. The Jays won the A.L. East that year and Donaldson launched another three home runs in that year’s playoffs as the Jays advanced as far as the ALCS. He was graded as worth 8.7 fWAR and was voted as that year’s A.L. MVP, just ahead of Mike Trout.

He would go onto to have another excellent season for the Jays in 2016, hitting 37 home runs that year as they advanced to the ALCS yet again. He scored the winning run in the ALDS by dashing home from second on a fielder’s choice to secure an extra-inning victory over the Rangers.

But in 2017, injuries started to crop up, which would go on to be a key issue in the rest of his career. He was still excellent that season, slashing .270/.385/.559 while hitting 33 home runs, but was limited to 113 contests due to a calf strain. He and the Jays agreed to a $23MM salary for 2018, his final year of arbitration control. Since the Jays had fallen to fourth place the year prior, there were some trade rumors around Donaldson that winter but he ultimately stayed put.

He spent much of that year on the injured list due to shoulder and calf issues. With the Jays out of contention at the August waiver deadline, he was flipped to Cleveland for Julian Merryweather. Donaldson only played 16 games for Cleveland after that deal as he continued battling his injuries.

He finally reached free agency that winter, but with a limited amount of momentum. Thanks to his late-bloomer trajectory, he was going into his age-33 season and coming off an injury-marred campaign. Alex Anthopoulos, who acquired Donaldson when he was making decisions for the Blue Jays, had become the general manager in Atlanta prior to the 2018 campaign. He gave Donaldson a one-year “prove-it” deal worth $23MM.

Josh DonaldsonDonaldson bounced back tremendously with Atlanta, getting into 155 games, walking in 15.2% of his plate appearances and hitting .259/.379/.521 for a 131 wRC+. He then rejected a qualifying offer from Atlanta and then signed a four-year, $92MM deal with the Twins. Issues with his right calf cropped up again in 2020, as he only played 28 games during that shortened season, but was able to get into 135 contests the year after and launch 26 home runs in the process.

With two years still left on that deal, the Twins flipped him to the Yankees alongside Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ben Rortvedt, with Gio Urshela and Gary Sánchez going the other way. Donaldson was healthy enough to get into 132 games in 2022 but his production tailed off. He only hit 15 homers and struck out at a 27.1% clip, leading to a line of .222/.308/.374. He spent much of 2023 on the injured list and was released at the end of August, joining the Brewers for the stretch run before returning to free agency this winter.

It wasn’t a storybook ending but Donaldson nonetheless managed to weave together quite a career. Despite not truly breaking out until the age of 27, he still managed to get into 1,384 games and rack up 1,310 hits. That latter figure includes 287 doubles, 12 triples and 279 home runs. He had matching tallies of 816 runs scored and runs batted in, stealing 40 bases in the process. He received an MVP award, three All-Star selections and two Silver Sluggers. His fiery personality which drove him to succeed also rankled some people around the game, as he often quarrelled with umpires, coaches and fellow players, but that combination of his talent and prickly character will likely lead him to being one of the more memorable players of his era. We at MLBTR salute him on his many accomplishments and wish him the best in whatever comes next.

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