The Nationals have designated Triple-A catcher Dan Butler for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Jonathan Papelbon, tweets Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com.
The Nationals picked up Butler from the Red Sox in a minor January trade that sent left-hander Danny Rosenbaum to Boston. Butler has a solid, if unspectacular track record at the Triple-A level and got a brief cup of coffee with the Sox in 2014, but he hasn’t performed up to his standards in 2015. This year, in 253 plate appearances at Syracuse, Butler is hitting just .231/.315/.312. Those numbers fall well shy of the .248/.329/.416 Triple-A batting line that he carried into the season.
