Braves Lose Todd Cunningham to Waiver Claim

Mar 6, 2014; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves center fielder Todd Cunningham (20) bats in the fourth inning against the Washington Nationals at Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

MLB.Com’s Mark Bowman informed us this afternoon via Twitter that the Braves outfielder Todd Cunningham is now a member of the Angels.

Cunningham was selected by by the Atlanta Braves in the 2nd round of the 2010 amateur draft and signed shortly after for a reported $674.1K.   Following that short season Baseball America (subscription required) named him the Braves #20 prospect.  The BA scouting reports quotes then Braves Scouting Director Tony Demacio as saying “ . . . that Cunningham was drafted for his bat.”   While he had a consistently high OBP throughout his minor league career the power everyone expected to develop never materialized.

He received his initial call-up in July of 2013 but appeared in only six games getting to the plate once each game. He had two more games like that in August but ended the year back at Gwinnett.

The 2014 season at Gwinnett saw his bat at it’s best. In 120 games Cunningham hit  .287/.347/406/.754 including 28 doubles and eight homers but saw no action in Atlanta.

Although he started the season with Gwinnett he was in Atlanta from May 15 through  June 14th as the Braves struggled to find a viable outfield but couldn’t claim a spot for his own.

Even in AAA his power seemed to drop off and his 97 games produced just a .261/.325/.337/.663 line with just two homers and 13 doubles . His time in Atlanta was an even more disappointing .221/.280/.267/.547.

The Braves transaction page tells us that immediately after the season ended the Braves began realigning their roster recalling Eury Perez, Mauricio Cabrera, Joey Terdoslavich, and Tyrell Jenkins from Gwinnett on October 5th.  Today they assigned Ryan Kelly, Sugar Ray Marimon and Ryan Lavarnway  outright to Gwinnett.  They also apparently tried to pass Cunningham through waivers  today and the Angels claimed him.

Cunningham was a hard working, well liked player who never quite became what our scouts expected him to be when drafted. All of us here on the Take wish him well with the Angels.