August 16: Dunshee went unclaimed on waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett, tweets David O’Brien of the Athletic. Since this is his first career outright, he’ll remain in the organization without carrying a 40-man roster spot. The Wake Forest product has the necessary minor league time to become a free agent in the offseason unless the Braves reselect his contract.
August 14: The Braves announced today that outfielder Michael Harris II has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, as was expected. Outfielder Eli White was optioned to Triple-A to open an active roster spot while right-hander Parker Dunshee was designated for assignment in a corresponding 40-man move.
Dunshee, 29, just had his contract selected last week, his first time on a big league roster in his career. In Thursday’s game, Charlie Morton had a rough outing, allowing eight earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. Dunshee was sent in for some mop-up duty and ate up 2 1/3 innings but allowed five earned runs in the process. He was optioned to the minors the next day, meaning he’s currently sitting on an unsightly 19.29 earned run average in his very brief MLB career.
The trade deadline has now passed, so Atlanta will be putting Dunshee on waivers at some point in the coming days. Perhaps some club will be intrigued by his solid results in recent years, major league debut notwithstanding. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has thrown 112 minor league innings with a 2.81 ERA. His 10.3% walk rate in that time is a bit on the high side but he has struck out 29.4% of batters faced. He has a full slate of options and essentially no service time.
He was drafted by Oakland and was a somewhat notable starting pitching prospect a few years ago but his results tailed off as he hit the upper levels of the minors. He’s been in more of a relief role recently which seems to have led to better numbers and could perhaps lead to an upcoming waiver claim.
Atlanta will be hoping that the return of Harris is the spark that incites a turnaround. They have been dropping in the standings throughout the summer and are currently 63-56. That puts them four games back of the Padres and Diamondbacks, who are tied for the top two Wild Card spots in the National League. Atlanta still has the final spot but the Mets are just two games back and there are several other clubs within striking distance.
Much of Atlanta’s struggles have been related to injuries. Ronald Acuña Jr. is out for the year after yet another ACL tear, this time in his left knee. Ozzie Albies has been out of action for about a month due to a left wrist fracture and Harris has missed two months due to a strained left hamstring. That’s on top of several notable injuries to the pitching staff.
All that has led the club to turn to veteran fill-ins like Whit Merrifield, Ramón Laureano, Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall. The first two have been passable this year but the other two have struggled significantly. Rosario has already been released but Duvall is still clinging to his roster spot despite a .178/.240/.315 batting line. Among big league players with at least 300 plate appearances this year, the only one with a worse wRC+ than Duvall’s 53 is Rosario.
Though Duvall is still holding onto his roster spot, Harris should be able to upgrade the team simply by taking his playing time. Before landing on the IL, Harris was himself struggling, having hit .250/.295/.358 for a wRC+ of 80. But he was hitting .295/.334/.494 for a 124 wRC+ coming into the year and even the slumping version of Harris would still be far stronger than Duvall’s season so far.
That’s a weird way to spell Adam Duvall
All I can think of is he must be considered a sort of leader or mentor. The life of a minor league pitcher is a whirlwind btw.
Yea remember when the Braves traded for Duvall from the Reds and he stunk it up for the rest of the season where he performed worse than he has this season? A year later he smashed 30 plus home runs in triple a and then was the RBI leader in the NL that year they won the World Series. He also hit 38 home runs batting .228 that year. Duvall has always been a streaky homerun hitter with a lower batting average. Where are all the people that wanted to trade Ozuna the past couple years. Many fans hate and want to get rid of folks when they are struggling but don’t say a word when they are playing well. Many times with streaky hitters with lots of pop, you have to wait their cold streaks which can last a very long time. Maybe Duvall is done at 35 but maybe he isn’t.
I know what you mean but I think, like with Rosario, the slump is so prolonged it’s looking more like he’s not gonna hit much this year at any point. I agree you have to wait guys like that out and they will get hot usually and even it out but it’s been around 120 games. To me offensively he’s always been borderline because all he does is strike out and hit homers. The impact of a black hole in the lineup is more glaring this year because the offense has been down. There is no more time to wait.
I get where you are coming from also. I just don’t want to see Duvall get designated and opt for free agency and sign with the competition like Rosario. Dude is the type that can bite you in the ass at some point if he gets hot. I was hoping entering the summer months the bats would get hot but that hasn’t happened most of the summer. Looks like Olson and Riley are starting to turn it around but the lineup has been disappointing to say the least which you are right. It amplifies Duvall’s even worse performance. Where would the Braves be tho if they traded Ozuna when he was cold for a season or two? Duvall has a big impact ability when on. Rather see him rot on the bench than get hot with a team competing with the Braves especially seeing how they already have depth issues.
That year was only 50 ab with team. He’s been given over 300 this year to figure something out.
Dumb dumb dumb. Duvall should have been DFA. Unreal.
Love these dudes for what they did in that special window, but didn’t need AA to get 3/4 of the band back together. But it’s fine I guess.
Bro doesn’t even get his pic on MLBTR; just a stadium…
The Braves will probably try a Duvall-Kelenic platoon for a week or two.
Loreano-Kelenic will be the platoon. Duvall will be pinch hitter only
Braves are getting their karma
Username tells us all we need to know.
^^^ who could be a fan of the hyena?
Are you suggesting the Braves have bad karma? They are not one of the evil teams around lol. Stupid yes, evil no.
How are braves getting their karma
Why Eli White? He has actually been pretty solid on both sides of the ball. Duvall felt like the odd man out in this situation. Laureano has been decent and has really been squaring the ball up lately. Duvall is kind of an anchor.
Seems it was White because he has a mil option. Rather see them keep White on the 26 man as well. Strong defense, speedy pinch runner. I’m going fishing tonight. Not going to be able to toss anchor w/out thinking about your Duvall reference, lol.
LOL Good luck tonight!
Duvall has anchor issues?
Yeah, I heard he takes anchor management classes.
Kinda surprised it wasn’t Duvall, but as stated, White had options and Dunshee wasn’t exactly lights out in his debut. Also, anyone that’s watched Duvall knows he can go off on a hot streak and hit 10 homers in a weeks time. Not likely the way he’s been hitting but you never know.
Also I wish MLBTR, CBSSports or ESPN Fantasy would update Albies status. I can’t get M Bowman or Tuscano to comment about it on X.
People finally realize how terrible Duvall is? Its been a fact since forever including the time I was begging the Braves to stop playing him in 2021.
C’mon Trade. In 2021 you were too busy ranting that the Braves couldn’t win the NLCS unless they traded for MadBum to notice anything the Braves were doing. Who can forget your name then—–“NoMadBumNoNLCS.” The screen name that was almost as off course as your current one.
Why are the lines at the ladys room at Braves so long? Waiting on Dunshee.