The Braves re-signed outfielder Peter Bourjos to a new minor league contract after releasing him over the weekend, the team’s Triple-A affiliate announced. Outfielder Jaff Decker was released to open a spot. Bourjos is represented by Dishman Sports Group. He’ll remain on hand as a depth option for the Braves after opening the year on their big league roster.
Bourjos, 31, hit just .120/.185/.160 in a minuscule sample of 27 plate appearances, starting only two of the 18 games in which he appeared for Atlanta. He’ll head to Triple-A Gwinnett for now and could eventually give the team another right-handed-hitting option to pair with lefties Ender Inciarte and Nick Markakis in the outfield. Preston Tucker is currently Atlanta’s fourth outfielder behind Markakis, Inciarte and wunderkind Ronald Acuna Jr., though Tucker has never played center as a pro and has seen his production at the plate plummet after a hot week to open the season (.192/.222/.327 in his past 54 PAs).
As for Decker, the 28-year-old opened the season with a .271/.407/.458 batting line through 59 PAs, though that came with a lofty .429 BABIP and a 32.2 percent strikeout clip. Strikeouts haven’t typically been an issue for him (career 20.1 percent), however, and he’s also displayed a keen eye at the top minor league level with a 12.7 percent walk rate. Decker, a former supplemental-round pick of the Padres (No. 42 overall, 2008), is a career .268/.364/.402 slash in parts of six Triple-A seasons.
His last contract was a $1 million major league contract? Why release him, pay the $1 million? Then re-sign him to a minor league deal, cobsidering the $1 million was guaranteed?
Bourjos has 5+ years MLB experience, so he has the power to refuse any assignment and gets the 1M, no matter what. Why release him, pay the 1M, only to re-sign him to a minor league deal, it doesn’t make sense
Yea. I think the Braves are still paying him though
Yep, the Braves were going to have his legs broken if he didn’t re-sign.
Nah, pretty sure they were the only team actually interested and he had to begrudgingly accept a minors deal. His career is nearly over, he’ll probably be playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish or in the Mexican League before long.
What league do you play in? Other than your slow pitch softball beer league?
Temporary roster space maybe?
Believe it had more to do with the fact that since he has been sent down before, he can elect free agency. He likely wanted to see if he could land a ML opportunity somewhere else (where the other team didn’t have to pay a portion of his $1 million), so he got his release. Once the ML opportunity never came, which is obviously no surprise, he came back to the Braves on a minors deal.
The $1 million is already a sunk cost at this point.
“Why release him, pay the 1M, only to re-sign him to a minor league deal, it doesn’t make sense.”
Makes perfect sense. On a minor league deal he doesn’t take up a 40-man roster spot.
And in other Braves news, 20 year old rookie, Mike Soroka, polishes off the Mets in his ML Debut!!
The rookie went toe to toe against Syndergaard, and outdueled the Mets Ace to get the W!!
6IP, 5H, 1R, 0BB, 6K in only 80 pitches, what a phenomenal debut for the kid!!
He’s mature beyond his years, and in the Mets stadium, he made a big statement in his debut..Soroka will be the next Braves rookie to make a major impact at the ML level…
21 and younger, Albies, Acuña Jr., and now Soroka!! The NL East has now been put on notice!! Here comes the baby Braves 2.0!! lol
The ‘05 Baby Braves won one division title and ultimately only McCann was a productive regular for the majority of his career. I think these are the real Baby Braves.
Double. Triple. 2 runs. RBI tonight. All of you and the media can rip him all you want, but he’s an asset when used the right way.. They gave the guy no legit chance after a good spring. I loved the d-bag on SB NATION who said He had “rumored defensive acumen?” I guess that guy never has watched Bourjos play defense?
He’s a stellar defender.. but there’s a reason why he doesn’t have a full time gig. It’s quite amazing that he’s had as many ABs as he has considering he hasn’t even had an OBP over .300 for 5 years.
To call him what he is – a great glove, bench bat, is fair.
I understand that, but the writer of this article used the word, “rumor”, implying he’s not really a good defender.
One of the problems with 13 man pitching staffs is there’s no room for defensive specialists anymore. Every team had a couple of guys like this, Now you are either a backup catcher or a multi-position utility guy if your on the bench now.
This is why teams are bad and manager’s get fired. They think a fringe pitcher is more important than defense. That 13th pitcher is used in mop up duty about 15 times a season with no real effect. A great defender with speed could be used 100 times a season.