Braves Re-Sign Luke Williams To Minor League Deal
The Braves have re-signed Luke Williams to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett and entered tonight’s game as a pinch runner.
It’s an unsurprising development. Williams is clearly liked by the club as a depth piece but he is out of options, leading to frequent transactions. Williams was added to the roster a few days ago while Michael Harris II went on the paternity list. When Harris came back a few days later, Williams was designated for assignment, cleared waivers and elected free agency. It’s a familiar cycle for him. He was claimed off waivers in the summer of 2023 and, since then, this is the third time he has become a free agency and then quickly re-signed.
Williams hasn’t hit in the majors, with a .212/.272/.280 line in 350 plate appearances. But he provides defensive versatility, with experience at every position on the diamond except catcher. He can also steals some bases, swiping 25 bags in 31 attempts in his big league career.
Atlanta doesn’t have a ton of optionable position player depth on the roster. The only guy on the 40-man who isn’t already in the majors or on the injured list is Nacho Alvarez Jr., who has a .182/.325/.212 line in Triple-A so far this year. If someone on the active roster suffers an injury, Williams will be a candidate to rejoin the big league club.
Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images
Luke Williams Elects Free Agency
Utilityman Luke Williams elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Braves, relays Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He cleared waivers and has multiple career outright assignments, allowing him to return to the market.
There’s a decent chance that’s just a formality and a precursor to a new minor league contract with Atlanta. Williams has bounced on and off the Braves’ roster for the past three-plus seasons. He received a brief call over the weekend while Michael Harris II was on paternity leave. Williams is out of minor league options and was surely aware he’d be the cut once Harris returned to the team.
The call-up gave Williams a few days of major league pay. He appeared in two games, once as a defense substitute and one as a pinch-hitter. He drew a walk against Kolby Allard in his only plate appearance. Williams has taken 350 trips to the plate in the big leagues. He’s a .212/.272/.280 hitter, though he has stolen 25 bases.
Braves Designate Luke Williams For Assignment
The Braves announced today that outfielder Michael Harris II has been reinstated from the paternity list. In a corresponding move, infielder Luke Williams has been designated for assignment. Atlanta’s 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38.
Williams was only selected to the big league roster this past weekend when Harris went on paternity leave. He appeared in two games with Atlanta and took one plate appearance, drawing a walk in that lone trip to the batter’s box.
This is now four straight seasons in which Williams, 29, has suited up for Atlanta. He’s a clear favorite of the organization, even if his production in the majors hasn’t amounted to much. The 2015 third-rounder (Phillies) has totaled 350 plate appearances in the big leagues but sports just a .212/.272/.280 batting line. He’s a versatile defender with a decent track record in the upper minors, however.
Williams has played all four infield positions, all three outfield spots and even taken 11 innings of mop-up relief in his big league career. His career line in Triple-A is weighed down a bit by an especially rocky showing there last season, but he’s still a lifetime .255/.333/.401 hitter at the top minor league level, including a .282/.344/.495 slash in 55 games in 2024.
This is the fourth DFA of Williams’ career (not counting the original 2023 waiver claim that sent him from L.A. to Atlanta, as he wasn’t formally designated for assignment prior to being placed on waivers). The Braves have successfully passed him through waivers unclaimed on three separate occasions since first claiming him from the Dodgers. He’ll be placed on waivers or traded within the next five days, and the outcome of his DFA will be known within the next seven days, at maximum. (Waivers are a 48-hour process.) Williams will have the right to reject an outright assignment if he clears waivers, but even if he does, recent history tells us there’s a good chance he’d re-sign with the organization and head back to Triple-A Gwinnett anyhow.
Braves Select Luke Williams
The Braves announced a quartet of roster moves today, including the news that Michael Harris II has been placed on the team’s paternity list. Utilityman Luke Williams‘ contract has been selected from Triple-A Gwinnett to take Harris’ spot on the active roster, and Atlanta moved left-hander Danny Young from the 15-day IL to the 60-day injured list to create a 40-man roster spot. Right-hander Daysbel Hernandez was also reinstated from the 15-day IL and optioned to Gwinnett.
Williams has played for five different teams over his 221 career big league games, but he has spent the better part of the last three seasons (and his last 80 MLB games) with Atlanta. Though he has hit only .151/.213/.209 over 95 plate appearances in those 80 games, Williams has been utilized in a super-sub role, seeing time at all four infield positions, in left field, and even a few pitching appearances in a mop-up capacity.
Harris figures to be back in a few days after celebrating the new arrival to his family, so Williams will likely find himself designated for assignment in short order. Williams is out of minor league options, which is why the Braves had to outright Williams a few times last season in order to send him back to Triple-A.
Young had Tommy John surgery last May, and subsequently isn’t expected to be available to pitch until at least July. The Mets non-tendered Young in November and the Braves signed the southpaw to a split contract, with an eye towards eventually moving him to the 60-day IL once a 40-man spot needed to be opened. Hernandez began the season on Atlanta’s 15-day IL due to a sebaceous cyst in his throwing shoulder, and he’ll now continue to work at Triple-A until a need develops in the big league bullpen.
Braves, Luke Williams Agree To Minor League Deal
The Braves reunited with utility player Luke Williams on a minor league contract, according to the MiLB.com transaction log. He had elected minor league free agency upon being outrighted off Atlanta’s roster at the end of the season.
Williams is back for what’d be his third full season with the organization. The Braves claimed him off waivers from the Dodgers halfway through the 2023 season. They shuttled him on and off the MLB roster over the next couple years. He has generally been the last man off the bench, working as a multi-positional substitute and their usual position player pitcher in mop-up spots.
A former third-round pick of the Phillies, Williams has played parts of five seasons in the majors. He got into 39 contests last year but was only penciled into the starting lineup four times. He batted .129 with a couple doubles in 31 at-bats. The righty-hitting Williams is now a .212/.270/.280 hitter over 349 MLB plate appearances. He owns a .255/.334/.400 slash over five years in Triple-A.
The Braves clearly appreciate Williams’ willingness to play any role off the bench. They signed Jorge Mateo to a $1MM deal to work as a backup infielder behind Mauricio Dubón while Ha-Seong Kim is on the injured list. Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin will split the catching duties. Fifth outfielder Eli White is out of options. If the Braves don’t want to expose him to waivers, they’d have one bench spot available. Nacho Alvarez Jr. has the inside track as the only other backup position player on the 40-man roster.
Jarred Kelenic, Three Others Elect Free Agency
October 2nd: Kelenic, Díaz, Dunning and Williams have officially elected free agency, according to David O’Brien of The Athletic.
October 1st: The Braves have begun offseason roster housekeeping. Atlanta announced they’ve outrighted five players — outfielder Jarred Kelenic, right-handers Alexis Díaz and Dane Dunning, catcher Sandy León, and utility player Luke Williams — off the 40-man roster. They’ll all be minor league free agents in the next couple weeks.
Atlanta had 11 players finish the season on the 60-day injured list. They’ll all need to be activated or placed on waivers within five days of the end of the World Series. This clears five spots, and three more will open when Raisel Iglesias, Marcell Ozuna and Charlie Morton reach free agency. Ha-Seong Kim will need to decide on his $16MM player option. They’ll need to drop at least two more players (three if Kim doesn’t opt out) within the next few weeks.
These were all relatively easy cuts, though it marks an unceremonious end to Kelenic’s disappointing time in Atlanta. The Braves took a lot of dead money off Seattle’s books to acquire the former top prospect during the 2023-24 offseason. He hit .231/.286/.393 with a near-30% strikeout rate across 449 plate appearances in 2024.
Atlanta signed Jurickson Profar to replace him as the starting left fielder. With Ronald Acuña Jr. rehabbing ACL surgery and Profar getting suspended for a failed PED test, Kelenic had another shot early in the season. He batted .167 and played his way off the MLB roster by the third week of April. Kelenic’s only MLB appearance after that was as a pinch runner on July 30.
Things were equally bleak in Triple-A. The 25-year-old hit .213/.286/.309 with only four homers while striking out at a 27.6% clip with Gwinnett. Kelenic has never found sustained MLB success but had reliably hit Triple-A pitching until this year. As a former sixth overall pick, he’ll get minor league offers, but it’d be a surprise if he commands a major league contract.
The Braves grabbed Díaz off waivers from the Dodgers in early September. They had roster space to burn and wanted a look at a former All-Star closer who had recorded 28 saves with Cincinnati just last season. Díaz had an uphill path to a 2026 bullpen spot and certainly didn’t do much to convince the Braves to keep him around. He walked five batters and gave up five runs (four earned) in 2 2/3 innings. Díaz had a nightmare season between three teams, giving up 17 runs over 17 2/3 big league frames. He also struggled to a 5.61 ERA across 25 2/3 Triple-A innings.
Díaz made $4.5MM this year in his first trip through arbitration. He would’ve made something close to or matching that if he were tendered a contract. That’s an easy pass for the team coming off the season he had. Díaz has never had strong command, and his velocity and strikeouts have dipped since his excellent first two MLB campaigns. The 29-year-old could also be in minor league deal territory.
The Braves acquired Dunning from the Rangers in July. It was a salary dump for Texas and one of a number of buy-low fliers that Atlanta took as members of their pitching staff kept dropping to injuries. Dunning was an up-and-down reliever for the Braves and gave up 12 earned runs in 10 innings. León, a longtime third or fourth catcher, finished the season on the MLB roster after Sean Murphy underwent hip surgery. He appeared in five games and went 1-12. Williams got into 45 contests as the last man off the bench and designated position player pitcher in blowouts. He hit .129 and owns a career .212/.270/.280 slash over 349 plate appearances.
Braves Select Luke Williams, Place Jake Fraley On Injured List
The Braves announced a pair of roster moves this morning. Outfielder Jake Fraley was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained right oblique muscle in a move backdated to September 11. To replace Fraley on the roster, Atlanta has selected the contract of infielder Luke Williams. The team already had a vacancy on its 40-man roster, so no additional corresponding move was necessary to accommodate Williams.
Fraley, 30, began his career as a second-round pick with the Rays back in 2016. He was swapped to Seattle in the Mike Zunino trade in 2018 and spent parts of three seasons with the big league Mariners before being shipped to the Reds as part of the return for Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez prior to the 2022 season. Fraley had blossomed into a solid enough platoon bat by that point, and in 373 games from 2021 to 2024 he hit a respectable .254/.340/.416. He finished just shy of a 20/20 season in both 2023 and ’24, with 18 homers and 21 steals in the former campaign followed by a 19-homer, 20-steal effort in the latter.
Taken together, that all paints a picture of Fraley as a perfectly solid contributor to an MLB club. He suffered a bit of a slump this year, however, and hit just .232/.332/.387 for the Reds this year with numbers that got progressively worse as the season continued. That led to Cincinnati designating him for assignment, and the Braves jumped at the opportunity to claim him off waivers given their struggles to find adequate production in the outfield this year.
Fraley’s role ended up being a fairly minor one, however, as Jurickson Profar‘s return from his early-season suspension and Michael Harris II‘s late-season resurgence at the plate largely pushed him out of the conversation for regular playing time. He’s made just nine appearances for Atlanta this year, hitting .304/.333/.348 across 24 trips to the plate. He’ll now miss at least the next week due to this oblique strain, though with the Braves out of the postseason and minimal time left in the regular season it’s possible his 2025 campaign has now come to an end.
Replacing Fraley on the active roster is Williams, who played in 38 games for the Braves earlier this year before being outrighted to the minors. Now in his fifth MLB season, Williams bounced between the Phillies, Giants, Dodgers, and Marlins before settling with Atlanta in a depth role for the 2023 season. He’s a career .213/.271/.281 hitter who offers virtually no value with the bat, but does possess a solid, versatile glove that allows him to play quality defense all over the diamond as needed. Williams will join Eli White, Vidal Brujan, and Nick Allen in the bench mix as the Braves head into the final weeks of the season.
Braves Outright Luke Williams
Infielder/outfielder Luke Williams has been sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He has the right to elect free agency though the log doesn’t indicate he has done so.
Williams, 29, had spent parts of 2023 and all of 2024 as a versatile depth piece for Atlanta. However, he exhausted his final option season in 2024, which squeezed him to the edge of the roster. He was passed through waivers and outrighted in March of 2025, just before the season began.
He was called back up in early May and spent over three months on the active roster, but without much playing time. He got into 44 games but only stepped to the plate 33 times, mostly being used as a pinch runner or defensive replacement, in addition to some mop-up work on the mound. He stole five bases but slashed just .133/.182/.200 when he did get to hold the bat.
He landed on the injured list in late August due to an oblique strain. Shortly after being reinstated, he was designated for assignment to open a roster spot. He could have elected free agency this week but will seemingly stay with Gwinnett. According to the log, his outright actually occurred on September 6th. Since he hasn’t elected free agency in the intervening four days, it seems fair to conclude he won’t do so.
If he’s not added back to the roster by the end of the season, he’ll have another chance to elect free agency at that time. He has just a .213/.271/.281 line in his big league career but has a decent Triple-A slash of .257/.339/.418 going back to the start of 2022. He can steal a few bases and has experience at every position on the diamond apart from catcher.
Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images
Braves Release Cal Quantrill, Designate Luke Williams
The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve released right-hander Cal Quantrill and designated infielder/outfielder Luke Williams for assignment. That duo’s roster spots will go to outfielder Jurickson Profar, who’s returning from the paternity list, and righty Daysbel Hernandez, who has been recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett.
Quantrill’s time with Atlanta will last all of two weeks. The Braves claimed the righty off waivers from the Marlins on Aug. 21, absorbing the remaining $715K on his $3.5MM salary in the process. They’ll end up getting just two starts for that roll of the dice; Quantrill allowed three runs on five hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings against the Mets on Aug. 23 before being shelled for nine runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Phillies five days later. His Atlanta stint concludes with a grisly 13.50 ERA in eight innings.
It’s been a rough year on the whole for the veteran Quantrill, whose Braves struggles pushed his ERA to 6.04 in 117 2/3 innings. That unsightly endpoint masks what was a decent run midseason. Quantrill struggled immensely in April but posted a 3.55 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate in 14 starts from May 1 through the end of July.
A team in need of innings could sign Quantrill for the final three weeks of the regular season and would only owe him the prorated minimum, but there’s also a chance this will be the end of his season. He’ll be a free agent this winter regardless, but with a 5.39 ERA dating back to 2023, he’ll likely be limited to minor league offers in free agency.
Williams, 29, has been with the Braves since they claimed him off waivers in June 2023, but he’s spent the bulk of his time in Gwinnett. Atlanta has given Williams a total of 94 plate appearances in the majors, during which he’s slashed .153/.215/.212. (He’s also held opponents to four runs in 10 innings of mop-up relief.)
A third-round pick of the Phillies back in 2015, Williams has never hit much in the majors. He’s a career .213/.271/.281 batter in 348 turns at the plate but carries a steadier .259/.338/.406 slash in parts of five Triple-A seasons. Williams has primarily been a third baseman since turning pro but has more than 300 innings at each of the four infield positions and in both outfield corners.
Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Williams will head to outright waivers. Assuming he clears, he’ll be able to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency by virtue of the fact that he’s previously ben outrighted in his career.
Austin Riley Undergoes Season-Ending Core Surgery
The Braves announced today that third baseman Austin Riley has undergone core injury surgery, which will end his season, though he is expected to return for spring training 2026. He is already on the 10-day injured list. He’ll be transferred to the 60-day IL once the club needs his 40-man roster spot.
The club also announced their previously-reported claim of right-hander Cal Quantrill, with righty Dane Dunning optioned in a corresponding move. They also activated outfielder Jake Fraley, another waiver claimee, and recalled left-hander Dylan Dodd. In corresponding moves for those two, they optioned right-hander Connor Seabold to Triple-A and placed infielder Luke Williams on the 10-day IL due to a strained left oblique, retroactive to August 19th.
In the short term, the Riley news isn’t a huge deal for Atlanta. They are playing out the string on a lost season. They are 58-69 and 9.5 games back of a playoff spot. As mentioned, Riley was already on the injured list, having landed there earlier this month due to an abdominal strain. Losing him for the rest of 2025 doesn’t mean much.
The more notable concern is the long term. This the second straight year that Riley will finish on the injured list. In 2024, his last appearance was August 18th, when he was hit on the hand by a pitch. He suffered a fracture and wasn’t able to return down the stretch.
From 2021 to 2023, Riley appeared in at least 159 games each season. He slashed a combined .286/.354/.525 for a 136 wRC+ over that time. FanGraphs credited him with at least 5.1 wins above replacement in each of those campaigns.
His contributions since then have been more modest. Last year, even before the hand fracture, he wasn’t at his best. He had a .256/.322/.461 line and 114 wRC+, still 14% above league average but not up to his previous standard. This year, he has twice gone on the injured list due to abdominal issues and has now gone under the knife. He will finish the year with a .260/.309/.428 line and a 103 wRC+.
Atlanta has seen a number of players struggle or get injured this year, which has naturally made the team worse. A lot of those players, including Riley, have been locked in by long-term extensions. That means the club can’t do much apart from hope that their guys bounce back and perform better going forward. Riley’s ten-year, $212MM contract runs through 2033, so he’s still a huge part of the club’s future. Ideally, getting over this issue and coming into 2026 healthy will get him back on track, though time will tell if will come to pass or not.
Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images