The Braves have signed outfielder Eddie Rosario to a minor league contract, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports (X link). Rosario will report to Triple-A Gwinnett to begin his latest stint with the organization. The Braves also announced a set of other transactions, including the news that outfielder Eli White’s contract has been selected to the big league roster. Forrest Wall was optioned to Triple-A to make room for White on the 26-man roster, while left-hander Ray Kerr was moved to the 60-man to create a 40-man roster spot.
It didn’t take long for Rosario to catch on with a familiar landing spot, as his release from the Nationals was made official just yesterday. Washington designated Rosario for assignment on Monday and then officially parted ways with the veteran after nobody claimed him (or the roughly $950K in salary still owed to him this season) on waivers. Assuming Rosario is called up to Atlanta’s active roster, the Braves will owe him just the prorated portion of a Major League minimum salary, and that total will be subtracted from the $950K or so that will be covered by the Nats.
As per the terms of the minor league deal Rosario signed with the Nationals during the offseason, he was guaranteed a $2MM base salary upon having that contract selected to their active roster, and there was no suspense about the decision since the Nats had him in their Opening Day lineup. However, there weren’t many highlights of Rosario’s three months in the District, as he hit only .183/.226/.329 with seven home runs over 235 plate appearances. Even with the Nats largely shielding Rosario from left-handed pitching, his .182/.222/.349 slash line against righties served to crater his production.
Though Washington has stuck around in the wild card race, it was widely expected going into the season that Rosario was a veteran trade chip that the Nationals would look at flip by the deadline. Unfortunately, Rosario’s subpar production led the team to just release him with no return, and he’ll now return to Atlanta looking for a repeat of his magical 2021 season.
Rosario was also struggling through a rough 2021 campaign with Cleveland before the Braves picked him up at the trade deadline, and the rest became Atlanta baseball history. Rosario hit .271/.330/.573 with seven homers in 106 PA over the rest of the regular season just to help the Braves into the playoffs, and the hot hitting continued into October as Rosario captured NLCS MVP honors en route to helping the team win the World Series.
The Braves then re-signed Rosario to a two-year, $18MM free agent deal that contained a $9MM club option for 2024, but Atlanta declined that option last fall after Rosario couldn’t keep the momentum going. He battled vision problems during a miserable 2022 campaign, then rebounded for roughly league-average production (.255/.305/.455 with 21 homers in 516 PA) last year but the Braves still opted to pass on retaining Rosario’s services for another season. With these decent numbers coming just last year, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Rosario experience at least some kind of a revival in Atlanta, even if a repeat of 2021 is a lot to ask.
In another odd echo of 2021, Rosario has again been acquired in the aftermath of a season-ending torn ACL from Braves superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. Michael Harris II is also on the injured list recovering from a hamstring strain and recent acquisition Ramon Laureano has also been battling a back problem for the last week, leaving the Braves even more short-handed in the outfield. Assuming that Rosario won’t be in Gwinnett for too long, he can become a left-handed hitting complement to the righty-swinging White and Luke Williams, as Jarred Kelenic continues everyday duty in center field and Adam Duvall in right field. With Harris not expected back until after the All-Star break at the earliest, the Braves will try to make do with this group until Harris returns, or unless other reinforcements are brought in via trades or signings.
White is now in line for his first bit of MLB action this season, and his first since the Braves optioned him down to Triple-A in April 2023. White has appeared in each of the last four Major League campaigns, and all but six of his 136 career games in the Show came with the Rangers from 2020-22. He has batted just .181/.259/.288 in 406 career PA in the bigs, but White has been much better at Triple-A, including a .294/.402/.462 slash line for Gwinnett over 234 PA this season.
White’s brief career has unfortunately been defined by injuries, as his last three seasons have all been ended early by surgeries. After an elbow surgery in 2021 and a wrist surgery in 2022, White suffered a tore labrum in his left shoulder almost exactly one year ago, which led to yet another procedure and another abbreviated season for the outfielder. White’s all-fields defense and quality baserunning makes him a useful player for the outfield-needy Braves to have in at least a bench role, and his Triple-A numbers suggest that he could still have some late-bloomer potential at age 30.
It was announced two weeks ago that Kerr would be undergoing Tommy John surgery, so it was just a matter of time before the Braves moved him to the 60-day IL when a 40-man spot was needed. Kerr had a 5.64 ERA in 22 1/3 innings for Atlanta this season, and the timing of his surgery could mean that he might miss the entire 2025 season.
Shocker! Who figured he would go back to the Braves org? Surely no one!
He’s back!
i was hoping not
This doesn’t move the needle at all. I don’t like the team sending Forest Wall down, for crying out loud, give Wall a chance. Stop shuffling these outfielders around like a cheap deck of cards. many of the present team can’t hit their weight, they can’t hit their wives weight.
Well, this signing isn’t intended to move the needle; it’s a minor league pact that creates insurance in the case of more injuries or underperformance as an attempt to keep the team afloat. I don’t understand why fans think every transaction needs to move the needle. Would you rather make no move at all and not have insurance for your other insurance? Maybe just play a hobo from the nearest freight train when your next outfielder goes down?
Players are going to hit even less than their wives’ weight if you don’t patch the hole.
I don’t think it creates insurance as much as it is a replacement for Duvall who will likely platoon sometime soon. They will likely get another outfielder but for now I think that’s the plan.
Smacky. Why you bringing race into it
Because he is a m°ron who still has some delusional belief that the south or Braves fans in general are racist. In reality I would say the metro Atlanta area has less white racists then just about anywhere in the country. They used to literally tell people this stuff in textbooks. An older woman told me how growing up in Wisconsin or somewhere she wondered what was wrong with southerners to be so racist. She moved here and realized her own place of origin was the racist one. And why not? People have lived together in the south for much longer and the diversity is much higher than most places. So it’s kind of obvious. If only it weren’t for media btw. Only reason we think about this. And media only can speak about it because their audience is generally ignorant and easily led like cattle.
A part of me is upset I actually even responded. But he’s throwing Braves fans and citizens under the bus. They are so darn racist they hail Rosario’s name every time he appears after 3 years.
Smacky doesn’t limit his bigotry to racism. He’s also posted countless ageism slurs on the site. He muted me last year when I pushed back against his bigoted garbage. He should be banned. Flagging/reporting his comments has done no good. Don’t get why he and several others like him are allowed to keep posting here. Smacky and his gang aren’t on the site to engage in baseball discussion. There are other places they can go to vent their anger and bigotry.
As usual it is the person calling folks racist who is the bigoted one.
There you go Braves fans, you guys predicted it.
A crappy player. Perfect for the Braves
Lord… we all saw this coming … smh..
It’s no risk on a minor league deal but still.. save every penny and use it on better options
Atlanta Braves Baseball: turning chicken s*** into chicken salad since ’66
AA’s checklist:
Duvall – check
Rosario – check
Pederson:
Soler:
BAND
BACK
TOGETHER
AA is playing 6D Yahtzee.
Wow big surprise the one team that NO ONE would have expected woweeee
Thank the gods that Eli White got promoted.
Need some thunder in the lineup.
This team is insufferable to watch and I stopped watching since April. No surprise.
For whatever it’s worth, the year they won the World Series, they had a .547 winning percentage during the regular season.
They currently have a .553 winning percentage. Just because they aren’t running away with the league lead doesn’t mean they’re bad.
Also, take a look around the majors. Most teams are struggling far worse then the Braves.
“Is insufferable to watch..stopped watching”…You came here just to tell us you’ve “stopped watching” the Braves?…Good thing they’ve got millions of fans worldwide and really don’t care if you “watch” or not. I’m pretty sure the Braves will survive and thrive without the eyeballs of one prima donna fan.
lol “insufferable to watch”…fans from most other teams would love to have the Braves’ record…and players. Talk about spoiled.
who cares about record?! The team is broken and needs a complete retool. The good news is the Braves have a reason to trade Fried now. Long overdue.
You probably laughed when Snitker got hit in the jimmy with a foul ball too!
I haven’t watched a game since April. I didn’t even bother looking at the highlight of him getting hit nor do I care. The most exciting thing about this team will be the deadline so by 25, this team will be different
Trade Acuna is a douchebag!
I have a feeling this is more a final stand for Rosario’s career than it is the Braves thinking he might be a part of the solution. The other options are so putrid for the next month, he may get a call-up in a week or two just because the other options aren’t great anyways, but he’ll really have to hit well for the first time since that ‘21 run to have any kind of leash.
That he waited as long as he did to sign a minors deal with a projected bad team and then said team both didn’t think he was good enough to keep to either A. help sneak into the postseason or B. Flip at the deadline for a lotto ticket should tell you what the league thinks of him.
Meantime, it probably doesn’t hurt ticket sales in Gwinnett.
Rosario put up solid numbers last year for the Braves 21 home runs, 74 runs batted in, 24 doubles. batted .255. The major reason the Braves declined his option was that he was not very good defensive. Those are not that bad of numbers.
Something also to be said about playing for an organization that you are comfortable with. The Braves seem to get the best of players that sign with them. Well I am not expecting Rosario to be a starter for Atlanta, I do believe that he has a good chance of eventually being the 4th outfielder with a start here and there, and some pitch hit duties.
Regardless; these are low risk high reward possible moves that teams need to make during the year
Yup. Look at Profar. He was pretty much done last year. When Preller signed him, everyone yawned and wondered what AJ’s obsession with him was…but meanwhile, Profar was saying he just loves San Diego so much that it was the only place he wanted to play..and he’s been arguably one of the best players in baseball this year.
Not saying the same will happen with Rosario, but it’s a similar low risk/high reward signing for an imperfect player..and sometimes, you just catch lightning in a bottle.
Why does it feel like that past couple years the braves front office doesn’t know what they are doing with their roster???? Could it be because the starters play 90% of all games? Serious question just seems weird how their roster is always changing
I don’t know how you would think that, 2021, 2022, 2023 the Braves won the division. Last year they had the best record in baseball. A baseball season is only 162 games of usually 3 hours or less so not like playing your starters daily should be a crazy task.
I think 90% of the MLB teams would take the Braves front office.
They literally added two of the front runners for Cy Young for peanuts. Good lord..a couple of guys have rough offensive 1st halves, and everyone goes insane.
@Dwayne The Braves have done an unbelievable job locking up the core position players for years to come. They have had roster turnover due to injuries and trimming the fat. They traded away a bunch of 40-man roster glut to add specific needs.
While the Rays do an unbelievable job with the little resources they have, the situation they re on is not something to be envious of. If there is a team(s) to be envious of it is ATL or BAL. ATL has done an amazing job locking up young talent and acquiring talent that other teams have started to shun. As for the O’s, just have to give kudos to their scouting and coaches in farm system. They re just pumping out young talent right now.
Non risk move; if it can hit some he probably sees some playing time. Rosario always seemed to have big hits for Atlanta even last year I remember a grand slam in the top of 9th in Arizona that was huge for Atlanta.
The Braves major league bench players were so non lacking in power last week that the Braves had to pitch hit Zack Short with winning runs on top of 9th. Would have much rather had Rosario in that situation.
Not a big headline move.
Remember though in 2021 when the Braves traded for Rosario he was struggling with the Twins…. Maybe just maybe this move is a Jesse Chavez type situation….or he doesn’t rebound and the Braves end up releasing him. Either way there isn’t any real risk with bringing Eddie back!!
He was struggling for the Indians in 2021.
You’re right it was the Indians aka Guardians
Thanks for the update on Ray Kerr.
What’s the status of JOE KERR ??
or his brother Wayne?
I can’t believe you pulled that old one out.
Have you after all, no shame?
Batman and Robin know what’s up.
Well of course they did.
If Laureano can get healthy and keep hitting the ball the way he was hitting it in his limited appearances, and Rosario can contribute a little, and then get Harris back at the bottom of the order, things will look a whole lot greater. Unfortunately, I see White, Wall, Williams as AAA players. The 7,8,9 are hitting about .216 collectively as opposed to ’23 they hit above .250. They would’ve been better off putting Ozuna at left(I know his defence is not great) and giving Gurriel a go as DH(experienced bat), but I know that’s not happening, so Rosario it is if he can show something with the bat. I’m unsure what’s happening when you have Duvall, Laureano, Rosario, and Anderson all playing for one position once Harris is fit again, and Harris’ numbers are also down.
This is ultimate desperation. Lighting striking twice.
Ya’ll are over-analyzing this minor transaction WAY too much. This post shouldn’t have 60+ responses lol.
It’s a minor league deal for outfield depth, no biggie.
It’s ironic how Eddie Rosario’s career seems to have a recurring theme with the Braves—struggling elsewhere, only to find redemption in Atlanta. After being released by the Nationals for hitting just .183, he’s now back with the Braves, the team where he found magic in 2021. It feels like déjà vu, with Rosario once again being brought in following Ronald Acuña Jr.’s season-ending injury. Maybe the Braves should just keep Rosario on standby for every mid-season crisis—they might as well rename their Triple-A team the “Rosario Revival Squad.”
Rosario will get old eventually, and the skills will inevitably regress to nothingness. Not every reclamation project is Jesse Chavez.