Atlanta Braves roster changes for today’s double-header

Normally, teams can bring in a 26th player for double-headers, but today the Braves need a little more help.

The Atlanta Braves have called up catcher David Freitas from AAA Gwinnett today to make his major league debut, catching the second game today against Philadelphia.

This is happening specifically because Tyler Flowers will be sidelined for 10 days after getting plunked again (for the 18th time) in Monday’s game against the Phillies.

Yes – O’Brien says “foul tip”, but he did get hit on the hand as well.  So… maybe both incidents?

Apparently the doctors think there’s more to this than usual, for 10 days is now the minimum that Flowers will be on the shelf.

Flowers isn’t the major league leaders in HBP – that’s Josh Harrison (22), with Anthony Rizzo (20) right behind him.  But FLowers certainly leads in rate of HBP, having his 18 plunks in just 87 games (vs. 125/129 for those leaders).

David Freitas was not on the 40-man roster prior to today, and there was a corresponding move related to his addition:

There are now 40 players (who count) on the Braves 40-man roster.

But wait!  That’s not all!  That 26th man mentioned above?  That will be Jason Hursh, who will be sipping his 5th cup of coffee from the major league club today.

O’Brien also mentions that catcher Freitas was slated to be called up for roster-expansion time shortly, but the Flowers’ injury merely accelerated that process.

Frietas is 28½ and was originally drafted by the Nationals in 2010’s 15th round out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He’s originally from Wilton, California.

He’s had an interesting transaction history that I’ll let the Braves Options Guy (via our friends at Knockahoma Nation) relate to you:

After 2015, Freitas became a Cub briefly, and the Braves picked him up in January for just this sort of situation.

Next: Did Rosenthal go too far?

So since there’s a game starting in 5 minutes or so, I guess I oughta wrap this up.  Go Braves!