<img alt="Miami Marlins v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RxtRIqmpF3LEnGtxDgwp3EpLAB0=/0x0:5184x3456/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73693906/1400491080.0.jpg">
Photo by Brett Davis/Getty Images
The 2021 All-Star didn’t see action with Atlanta during his time on the Braves active roster. A fun little quirk almost every year: Players who suited up for the Atlanta Braves but never actually played for the Atlanta Braves. Each season this decade, there seems to have been a player or two who get called up to the big league club but never see action in a game for the Braves before being sent back down the minor leagues or released. These guys become part of a hyper-niche club of players to accrue service time with Atlanta but not log an appearance.
As we look back at the players who were on the active roster with the 2024 Atlanta Braves, we start with one of the above-referenced players: Joey Wendle. Signed on May 24, 2024, it seemed plausible that Wendle would add more upside as a veteran reserve utility player when he replaced Luke Williams on the active roster.
Three days later, Atlanta designated Wendle for assignment in a flurry of roster moves that saw outfielder Ronald Acuńa, Jr. hit the IL and catcher Sean Murphy return after being injured on Opening Day. That was it for the budding partnership between Wendle and the Atlanta Braves, and maybe the end of his big league career as well.
How acquired
The Braves signed Wendle to the active roster four days after he was released by the New York Mets, with whom he’d signed as a free agent prior to the 2024 season. Wendle had spent 2022 and 2023 with the Miami Marlins after four seasons with the Rays and two in Oakland.
What were the expectations?
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Atlanta suffered through a never-ending rash of injuries that started on Opening Day and didn’t stop for the entire season. Among other things, that rash included losing Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley for roughly a third of the season, each. Atlanta was light on infield depth coming into the season, given their tendency to play the regulars more-than-regularly, and struggled to find capable fill-ins until the season’s last six weeks. Given the play-every-day mantra of the team, if healthy, it is easy to assume that all four presumed starting infield starters would have probably played in 160 games; alas, that did not come to pass.
Wendle was the second utility player the Braves brought into the organization to plug a hole in May, after picking up Zack Short after he was designed for assignment by the Boston Red Sox and dumping off-season free agent signing Luis Guillorme via trade early in May.
At the time, the signing seemed like a possible upside play given that Wendle’s career, through 2022 season, featured a 99 wRC+ and 10.1 fWAR over about 2,000 PAs (a well above average rate). Though he had cratered immensely in 2023 and in 37 PAs with the Mets, his acquisition could have been a chance to see if the Braves could tap back into what had made Wendle an All-Star with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2021.
2024 results
With Atlanta? Nothing. Wendle didn’t make it into a game before being given his walking papers after three days.
As a result, his overall 2024 results remained awful: -0.2 fWAR in 37 PAs, with a 41 wRC+ and, for the first time in his career, a below average defensive contribution (in a tiny sample).
What went right?
Not much. After refusing his assignment to Triple-A Gwinnett, Wendle elected free agency but did not sign with affiliated team after doing so.
What went wrong?
What looked to be a down year with the Marlins in 2023 may have been the beginning of the end for a player who saw action in 667 games during parts of nine MLB seasons. The now-34-year-old didn’t hit much before or after his birthday in late April while with New York. Choosing to head back on the open market rather than get at bats with the Gwinnett Stripers, Wendle didn’t find a new professional baseball home was out of baseball by Memorial Day.
One minor note is that Wendle made a career out of solid defense and hitting just enough — through 2022, he had a 99 wRC+, but a substantial xwOBA overperformance (.292 xwOBA, .311 wOBA). In 2023-2024, not only did his xwOBA crater even further, but he stopped benefiting from outhitting it, which basically exposed him as unplayable.
2025 outlook
There might not be a 2025 outlook for Wendle, at least when it comes to playing in MLB. It is possible a team might give him a shot as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training in 2025 if he opts to try and keep playing. While it doesn’t appear that Wendle has officially retired, his brief time with Atlanta could be the end of a career that saw him finish fourth in the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year vote with the Rays thanks to a 4.0 fWAR season, and collect an All-Star appearance in 2021 in a season where he exceeded 3 fWAR.
<img alt="Miami Marlins v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RxtRIqmpF3LEnGtxDgwp3EpLAB0=/0x0:5184x3456/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73693906/1400491080.0.jpg">
Photo by Brett Davis/Getty Images
The 2021 All-Star didn’t see action with Atlanta during his time on the Braves active roster. A fun little quirk almost every year: Players who suited up for the Atlanta Braves but never actually played for the Atlanta Braves. Each season this decade, there seems to have been a player or two who get called up to the big league club but never see action in a game for the Braves before being sent back down the minor leagues or released. These guys become part of a hyper-niche club of players to accrue service time with Atlanta but not log an appearance.
As we look back at the players who were on the active roster with the 2024 Atlanta Braves, we start with one of the above-referenced players: Joey Wendle. Signed on May 24, 2024, it seemed plausible that Wendle would add more upside as a veteran reserve utility player when he replaced Luke Williams on the active roster.
Three days later, Atlanta designated Wendle for assignment in a flurry of roster moves that saw outfielder Ronald Acuńa, Jr. hit the IL and catcher Sean Murphy return after being injured on Opening Day. That was it for the budding partnership between Wendle and the Atlanta Braves, and maybe the end of his big league career as well.
How acquired
The Braves signed Wendle to the active roster four days after he was released by the New York Mets, with whom he’d signed as a free agent prior to the 2024 season. Wendle had spent 2022 and 2023 with the Miami Marlins after four seasons with the Rays and two in Oakland.
What were the expectations?
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Atlanta suffered through a never-ending rash of injuries that started on Opening Day and didn’t stop for the entire season. Among other things, that rash included losing Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley for roughly a third of the season, each. Atlanta was light on infield depth coming into the season, given their tendency to play the regulars more-than-regularly, and struggled to find capable fill-ins until the season’s last six weeks. Given the play-every-day mantra of the team, if healthy, it is easy to assume that all four presumed starting infield starters would have probably played in 160 games; alas, that did not come to pass.
Wendle was the second utility player the Braves brought into the organization to plug a hole in May, after picking up Zack Short after he was designed for assignment by the Boston Red Sox and dumping off-season free agent signing Luis Guillorme via trade early in May.
At the time, the signing seemed like a possible upside play given that Wendle’s career, through 2022 season, featured a 99 wRC+ and 10.1 fWAR over about 2,000 PAs (a well above average rate). Though he had cratered immensely in 2023 and in 37 PAs with the Mets, his acquisition could have been a chance to see if the Braves could tap back into what had made Wendle an All-Star with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2021.
2024 results
With Atlanta? Nothing. Wendle didn’t make it into a game before being given his walking papers after three days.
As a result, his overall 2024 results remained awful: -0.2 fWAR in 37 PAs, with a 41 wRC+ and, for the first time in his career, a below average defensive contribution (in a tiny sample).
What went right?
Not much. After refusing his assignment to Triple-A Gwinnett, Wendle elected free agency but did not sign with affiliated team after doing so.
What went wrong?
What looked to be a down year with the Marlins in 2023 may have been the beginning of the end for a player who saw action in 667 games during parts of nine MLB seasons. The now-34-year-old didn’t hit much before or after his birthday in late April while with New York. Choosing to head back on the open market rather than get at bats with the Gwinnett Stripers, Wendle didn’t find a new professional baseball home was out of baseball by Memorial Day.
One minor note is that Wendle made a career out of solid defense and hitting just enough — through 2022, he had a 99 wRC+, but a substantial xwOBA overperformance (.292 xwOBA, .311 wOBA). In 2023-2024, not only did his xwOBA crater even further, but he stopped benefiting from outhitting it, which basically exposed him as unplayable.
2025 outlook
There might not be a 2025 outlook for Wendle, at least when it comes to playing in MLB. It is possible a team might give him a shot as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training in 2025 if he opts to try and keep playing. While it doesn’t appear that Wendle has officially retired, his brief time with Atlanta could be the end of a career that saw him finish fourth in the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year vote with the Rays thanks to a 4.0 fWAR season, and collect an All-Star appearance in 2021 in a season where he exceeded 3 fWAR.
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