No Roster is Safe: Braves Claim Eury Perez

Just when I allowed myself to think that there wasn’t going to be any more drama in the Braves roster… drama has been added.

The Braves, this Friday afternoon, have claimed center fielder Eury Perez from the Yankees, as reported by Ken Rosenthal.

Well, that adds a wrinkle now, doesn’t it?

Meet Eury

Yes – as the picture above suggests, he grew up as a member of the Nationals; the Yankees were his previous claimants – that happening in 2014. Here’s the basics:

He’s fast. Real fast. Like Grade 80 fast (the max). 268 career minor league steals with 74 times caught… not including the pick-off depicted above.
There’s word that he was used not only as a pinch runner in the past, but also a defensive replacement.
He hits. Not for power (at all)… but for average, which often still translates to extra bases, given that speed. Over his minor league career, he averaged .305 hitting with a .360 OBP.
Doesn’t walk a lot, but only a 14% career K rate, too. Bats RH/Throws RH.
Will soon be 25 years old (May 30).

Sounds like the same kind of player-type that we’ve been loading up on during the entire off-season. Contact hitter. OBP guy. Can run a bit… or a lot in this case.

Eury has had ‘cups of coffee’ in 2013 and 2014 with both the Nats and Yankees. Not nearly enough ABs to mean anything. The stats I see, though, suggest that he’s worth a decent look at the next level.

Which leads into the drama part…

So We Got a New CF… hmmmm

More from Tomahawk Take

There’s a couple of reasons I can think of for why the Braves did this.

1. Todd Cunningham was the only viable backup option for B.J. Upton… and Eury is clearly (by the stats) a better option. Claiming him will get him onto the unbelievably-bloated-40-man-roster, and given that, the Braves actually must intend to use him. Plus, I’d have to review the rules again, but Perez might be out of options.

2. This move might be putting Upton on notice.

Kevin Seitzer was supposed to be working with him ahead of Spring Training… no word on how that went, but if you’ll recall the “short leash” mentions from last month, if you’re gonna play carrot-and-stick, then there needs to be a stick involved. Todd Cunningham isn’t quite that.

Regardless of how you’d like to believe this move came to pass, one thing is now crystal clear: if B.J. Upton gets off to another tailspin start, the Braves will now have options.

So about that write-up from a couple of hours ago… the one that said our roster is now set?

Fuggidaboudit.

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