Braves 40-Man Roster Moves: Buchter, Perez
First Act by John Hart as Int-GM
Late on Friday, the Braves made a roster transaction: out-righting pitchers Ryan Buchter and Carlos Perez off of the team’s 40-man roster.
Here’s how the roster currently looks:
- PITCHERS: 17 active, 1 on the 15-day DL, five on the 60-day DL
- CATCHERS: 4
- INFIELDERS: 9 (for the record, Emilio Bonifacio is listed as an ‘infielder’)
- OUTFIELDERS: 6
That adds up to 37 names that count against the ’40’, plus 5 that do not. Once the season ends (I am not clear on whether that means September 29th for Atlanta, or the end of the post-season for everyone), then the players on the 60-day DL must either be released or folded back into the ‘regular’ 40-man list.
Of those on the 60-day list, Gavin Floyd is a free agent at year’s end. Additionally, so are both Gerald Laird and Ryan Doumit. So the Braves’ roster count will automatically drop to 34 once their contracts expire, then increase again to 38 with the addition of the others on the extended DL. That’s as of today.
Expect additional moves in the coming weeks as teams prepare for locking up their preferred minor league free agents to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft late this Fall.
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Atlanta Braves pitcher Ryan Buchter (78). Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Buchter was expected to compete for a bullpen role at the beginning of 2014. Control troubles kept him in AAA… and that has been his bugaboo throughout his minor league career. He strikes out a lot of batters, but when you also walk them at a rate of 2 every 3 innings, managers can’t trust you to put out a fire, and that’s why Buchter has still had just 1 major league inning thus far (striking out 1 and walking 1, of course). Removal from the 40-man roster is telling for the 27-1/2-year-old: this does signal a drop in the pecking order for future considerations, if any. He’ll have to earn it back.
Carlos Perez is almost 23 and has progressed very slowly through the system since becoming a Brave in 2009. Like Buchter, he is also a lefty pitcher. In 2014, Perez was diagnosed with a viral infection in April, and never returned to the mound. When healthy, he was a ‘top 10 prospect’ at one point (2011), but has struggled with command, a transition to relief, and other issues that have kept him off the field. Since throwing 126 innings in 2011, his work since then hasn’t exceeded that mark in all of the past 3 seasons combined.