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Atlanta Braves trade for DFA’d Houston OF Preston Tucker

By Alan Carpenter

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 10: Preston Tucker #20 of Houston Astros rounds the bases after hitting a home run in the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on April 10, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 10: Preston Tucker #20 of Houston Astros rounds the bases after hitting a home run in the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on April 10, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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This probably wasn’t the outfield addition that you were waiting for… but there’s some roster movement for the Braves this afternoon.

On Friday, the Astros designated OF Preston Tucker off their 40-man roster.  Today he has changed clubs.  The Atlanta Braves have announced the acquisition of Tucker in exchange for basic considerations:

Tucker, the brother of top Astros’ prospect Kyle Tucker, lost his 40-man spot to make room for newly signed reliever Hector Rondon.

The elder Tucker sibling (he’s 27-1/2) was selected by Houston in 7th round of the 2012 amateur draft out of the University of Florida, and had been slowly crawling his way through the ranks ever since.

Tucker actually debuted with the Astros’ big club in 2015 and got roughly a half year of playing time, hitting .243 with 13 homers and a 0.4 fWAR.

His second turn didn’t go as well:  in 48 games and 144 PA’s, Tucker hit just .164.  Defensive metrics haven’t liked his work in the field, either.

There is some potential for upside here:  after being relegated to AAA for all of 2017, he hit .250 with 24 home runs in 569 PA’s while lowering his K-rate to a respectable 17.9% and raising his walk rate over 11%.

Still, the lefty-hitter’s OPS was just a notch under .800 for the year in the minors.

It’s not clear whether the Braves would want to try and use Tucker as AAA depth, as a platoon option with Lane Adams (should another OF spot open up) or… just what, but he is an inexpensive ‘Plan B’ (or C, or D) option that Atlanta will have in their back pocket.

But for whatever reason, realize this:  the Braves opted to DFA reliever Luke Jackson to make room for Tucker.

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It was just over a year ago when pitchers Tyrell Jenkins and Brady Feigl were sent to Texas to acquire Jackson, and Jackson had some moments (good and bad) with the major league club in 2017.

It’s possible that they could sneak Jackson through to Gwinnett, but with the relief market as it is, that’s fairly risky given that he’s inexpensive… and that it creates yet another relief hole that will need to be filled.

All that adds up to suggest to me that Tucker was genuinely wanted – even if just for his left-handed bench bat.

Next: Maybe the waiting period is over?

We’ll see if anything else materializes, but that’s the news for now:  Tucker in, Jackson out.

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