Braves Outright Jay Flaa
The Braves announced they’re passed reliever Jay Flaa through waivers and assigned him outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. The 29-year-old doesn’t have the requisite service time to reject an outright assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization.
Flaa is a longtime Orioles farmhand who made his big league debut with Baltimore earlier this year. The O’s waived him after one appearance, though, and the Braves claimed him in mid-May. He’s spent the majority of his Braves tenure with Gwinnett, appearing in 13 games and totaling 14 innings of relief. Flaa’s allowed seven runs (six earned) with the Stripers, striking out a stellar 22 hitters (33.3%) but issuing an alarming 10 unintentional walks (15.4%).
Over parts of two Triple-A seasons, Flaa has pitched to a 5.22 ERA with a 21.1% strikeout rate and a 12% walk percentage. He’ll serve as high minors right-handed depth for an Atlanta bullpen that has disappointed this season. The Braves now have a pair of vacancies on their 40-man roster after placing Ronald Acuña Jr. on the 60-day injured list over the weekend.
Braves Select Abraham Almonte’s Contract
The Braves have selected the contract of outfielder Abraham Almonte from Triple-A Gwinnett. In corresponding moves, right-hander Jay Flaa was optioned to Triple-A, and a 40-man roster spot was opened when Huascar Ynoa was moved to the 60-day injured list.
A veteran of eight MLB seasons, Almonte now looks to add a ninth campaign to his record after signing with the Braves last October. While Almonte technically signed a Major League contract, it wasn’t a guaranteed deal, and Atlanta already outrighted him off its 40-man roster near the end of Spring Training and Almonte chose to remain in the organization.
Almonte has played for five different teams over his career, hitting .237/.298/.370 over 1151 plate appearances. A part-timer and platoon outfielder for much of his tenure, Almonte hasn’t seen much action over the last two seasons, appearing in 24 total games with the Diamondbacks and Padres since the start of the 2019 season. However, Almonte’s ability to play all three outfield positions will add some depth to an Atlanta bench that is short on true outfielders.
Braves Claim Jay Flaa
The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Jay Flaa off waivers from the Orioles, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. The move fills Atlanta’s 40-man roster.
Flaa, who’ll turn 29 in a month, was selected to the big league roster for the first time in his career last month. The Orioles’ sixth-round pick in 2016, he made his MLB debut on April 27, tossing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief with a pair of walks and a strikeout.
That was Flaa’s lone appearance before the Orioles designated him for assignment in order to open a roster spot for waiver claim Brandon Waddell. While Flaa has struggled in a total of 56 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level, he was excellent at both Double-A and Class-A Advanced while rising through the Orioles’ system. He’s tallied 260 1/3 professional innings since being drafted out of North Dakota State University, working to a 3.49 ERA with an above-average 26.7 percent strikeout rate but a somewhat bloated 11.2 percent walk rate.
Flaa’s fastball sat 93.2 mph in his lone MLB appearance, and he also showed a slider and splitter that day. Because he was selected to the MLB roster for the first time this year, he still has all three minor league option years remaining.
Latest Roster Moves From Twins, Orioles
The Twins announced a trio of roster moves today. Right-hander Cody Stashak has been optioned to Triple-A, while Derek Law takes his place in the bullpen. Law had to be added to the 40-man roster, so infielder Travis Blankenhorn was designated for assignment.
After proving himself a solid option out of the bullpen for the Twins with 40 innings of 3.15 ERA baseball from 2019-20, Stashak has stumbled badly to start the season. Stashak is still missing bats at a good clip, striking out a robust 36.5 percent of hitters, but his walk rate has skyrocketed to 13.5 percent as well. Fielding Independent Pitching suggest decent work with a 4.20 FIP, but in terms of real world production, Stashak has allowed 10 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings.
If this is the end of Blankenhorn’s Twins’ tenure, it will be a somewhat ignominious one. The 24-year-old appeared in one game this season, pinch-running in extra-innings and scoring a run. He’d go on to make an error in the bottom of the inning on a play that would have ended the game. The A’s beat the Twins a batter later when Luis Arraez followed up Blankenhorn’s blunder with a throwing error of his own. Blankenhorn was a third round draft pick of the Twins in the 2015 draft, and he obviously has more to offer a Major League club than he’s had the opportunity to show this season.
If someone puts in a claim for Blankenhorn, it’ll be the second player lost on waivers by the Twins this week. The Orioles claimed left-hander Brandon Waddell off waivers from the Twins today, per Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). He has been assigned to Triple-A. Waddell was designated for assignment by the Twins yesterday to make room on the 40-man roster for Trevor Larnach.
In order to make the claim, the Orioles designated Jay Flaa for assignment, notes Roch Kubatko of MASNsports. Flaa logged 1 1/3 scoreless on April 27th for the Orioles in his only big league action of his career.
Orioles Select Jay Flaa’s Contract
The Orioles have selected the contract of right-hander Jay Flaa, the team announced. The Orioles already had an opening on their 40-man roster, and room was created on the 26-man active roster when left-hander Zac Lowther was optioned to the alternate training site.
A sixth-round pick out of North Dakota State in the 2015 draft, Flaa has a 3.41 ERA and 26.75% strikeout rate over 258 2/3 minor league innings. Working as a reliever in all but three of his 165 professional games, Flaa has been able to miss some bats but he has also had some control issues, posting a below-average 11.25% walk rate. As the Orioles continue to explore and audition multiple pitchers during their rebuild, Flaa will get a chance in the team’s bullpen, and is on track to make his Major League debut at age 28.
Lowther made his own debut just yesterday, tossing an inning of scoreless relief in Baltimore’s 8-1 victory over the Athletics. Lowther will now head back to the alternate site after his cup of coffee in the bigs, as the southpaw was only called up prior to Sunday’s game.