The Braves announced that catcher Drake Baldwin has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Fellow catcher Austin Wynns has been outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett. That opens an active roster spot for Baldwin and suggests the club put him on waivers a couple of days ago without initially removing him from the roster. The 40-man roster count drops to 39. Wynns has the right to elect free agency though the club didn’t say whether or not he will exercise that right.
Wynns, 35, is a journeyman depth catcher. Over the years, he has suited up for the Orioles, Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Reds and Athletics. He has a .228/.273/.342 line in 840 major league plate appearances. That’s well below league average but teams presumably value his work on defense and working with pitchers.
Atlanta has been shuffling catchers for quite a while. Both Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin hit the IL in May, Murphy due to a finger fracture and Baldwin with an oblique strain. They added Sandy León and Chadwick Tromp to the roster in order to cover for those two. Wynns was acquired from the Angels earlier this month, bumping Tromp off. Now that Baldwin is back, they will go with León as the backup. Wynns got one hit in 14 plate appearances while on the team.
Wynns finished last season with the A’s. He and that club avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.1MM salary. He was later designated for assignment and released. He signed a minor league deal with the Halos, who then traded him to Atlanta.
Since Wynns has at least five years of big league service time, he has the right to reject outright assignments in favor of electing free agency while keeping his salary commitments in place. If he exercises that right, any club could sign him for the prorated league minimum salary. That amount would be subtracted from what the A’s pay, as they are still on the hook for the rest of the money.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
