The Braves have re-signed Carlos Carrasco to a new minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The transaction logs also indicated that catcher Jair Camargo has been outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett.
Carrasco, 39, was designated for assignment earlier this week. Since then, he has cleared outright waivers, elected free agency and signed a new minors pact. It’s the cycle that Carrasco and Atlanta have been following all year. He has already been added to the roster six times this year. Each time, after a short stint on the roster, he is designated for assignment and the whole process starts all over again.
It’s an arrangement that clearly works for both sides, or else it wouldn’t keep happening. For the team, the appeal is obvious, as Carrasco effectively gives them a 41st man on their 40-man roster. He is occasionally added, absorbs some innings to spare the other arms, then gets bumped off for a fresher arm.
For Carrasco, he would presumably prefer a steadier job, but it seems no club is willing to give him one. If such an opportunity were out there for him, a team could claim him off waivers. This setup may not be ideal but it at least gives him occasional hits of big league pay and service time.
Around all the transactions, Carrasco has largely been serviceable in his work for Atlanta, though his most recent outing tainted the waters. He finished June with a 3.68 earned run average in 14 2/3 innings on the year but then allowed five earned runs in two innings against the Mets on Sunday. That bumped his season-long ERA to 5.94. He’ll now head to Triple-A Gwinnett but it shouldn’t be shocking if he is selected to the roster again in the near future.
Camargo, 27, was added to the roster a few weeks ago. Atlanta was playing a doubleheader and he gave the club a third backstop alongside Drake Baldwin and Sandy León. Baldwin started the first game and then served as the designated hitter in the second while León caught. Camargo entered that game for León and hit a double but was optioned back to the minors after. He was designated for assignment earlier this week when the club called up José Azócar to cover for Eli White‘s stint on the paternity list. Azócar himself was designated for assignment today when White came back.
Like Carrasco, Camargo has cleared waivers. But unlike Carrasco, this is Camargo’s first career outright. He also has less than three years of big league service time, so he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency.
Atlanta now has Baldwin and Joey Bart as the big league catching tandem. Camargo can join guys like León and Maverick Handley as non-roster Triple-A depth. Camargo has a .125/.222/.250 line in a tiny sample of nine big league plate appearances. He hasn’t hit much in the minors either but has a decent reputation as a defender.
Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images
