The Braves announced they’ve traded reliever Hunter Stratton to the Pirates for catcher Joey Bart. Atlanta designated backup catcher Sandy León for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The Braves had designated Stratton for assignment yesterday. He’ll replace Bart on Pittsburgh’s 40-man but won’t join the MLB team, as the Bucs optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Bart is on the 10-day injured list working back from an infection in his left foot. He hasn’t played an MLB game since May 9 but has been on a minor league rehab assignment for the past week. Atlanta will presumably activate him directly onto the big league roster, as they optioned third catcher Jair Camargo back to Triple-A Gwinnett this afternoon.
It’s a homecoming for the 29-year-old Bart, who grew up less than an hour from Atlanta and played his college ball at Georgia Tech. He was part of a run of high-end catchers for the Yellow Jackets over the past couple decades, spanning from Matt Wieters to potential #1 overall pick Vahn Lackey. Bart went second overall to the Giants in 2018, making him the highest drafted player in school history to date.
The draft pedigree certainly makes him the more well known of the two players in today’s trade. Bart hasn’t developed into the franchise backstop many scouts expected, however. He hit .219/.288/.335 over parts of four seasons in San Francisco. Between that lackluster production and Patrick Bailey’s emergence into a Gold Glove caliber defender, the Giants traded him to Pittsburgh at the beginning of the 2024 season.
That change of scenery initially seemed to spark Bart’s career. He hit .265/.337/.462 over 80 games and opened the next season as Pittsburgh’s starting catcher. His numbers backed up slightly the following year, as he posted a .249/.355/.340 line across a career-high 332 plate appearances. Bart opened this season in a split behind the plate with former first overall pick Henry Davis. The Bucs promoted Endy Rodríguez from Triple-A when Bart went on the injured list five weeks ago.
Rodríguez, himself a formerly touted young talent who lost most of the previous two seasons to injury, has seized the primary catcher role. He’s hitting .267/.413/.467 with three home runs through 76 plate appearances. The Pirates could’ve optioned Davis, who has a .138/.242/.285 line across 150 trips.
Davis’ results at the plate have been terrible, but he has hit the ball harder and showed stronger plate discipline in May than he had previously in his MLB career. It seems the Pirates expect that to translate into better numbers over time and didn’t feel he’d gain much out of going back to Triple-A. Even more importantly, Davis has developed a strong rapport with Paul Skenes and has caught all 15 of the ace’s starts this year. They clearly didn’t want to disrupt that routine.
Bart, who hit .259/.290/.379 in 21 games before the injury, is out of options and couldn’t be sent down without going through waivers. The Bucs are already burning a bench spot on a player with no defensive value in keeping Marcell Ozuna on the roster. They could’ve optioned Billy Cook and gone with three catchers, but they’d have left skipper Don Kelly with very limited positional flexibility.
They instead choose to swap Bart to an Atlanta team that has cycled through backup catchers since Sean Murphy broke his finger five weeks ago. They were also without Drake Baldwin for a few weeks but welcomed him back on Monday. It’ll be a Baldwin-Bart catching duo for the foreseeable future.
Pittsburgh is in desperate need of bullpen help, especially from the right side. Stratton isn’t a huge fix but provides a depth arm who can bounce between PNC Park and Indianapolis for the next couple seasons. He’ll be a familiar name to some Bucs fans, as the 29-year-old spent nearly a decade in the organization.
The Pirates drafted him in the 16th round back in 2017. Stratton debuted six years later and posted a 4.30 earned run average across 52 1/3 innings over parts of three seasons. Pittsburgh designated him for assignment last July and traded him to Atlanta for minor league outfielder Titus Dumitru and cash considerations. The Braves cycled him up and down from Gwinnett in the second half last year.
Stratton has spent all but two days in the minors this season. He has a 4.38 ERA while walking more than 14% of opposing hitters across 21 2/3 innings. Stratton has shown better control at the MLB level, where he has a 3.75 ERA over 60 career appearances. He’s working in the 96 mph range with his fastball while throwing a low-90s cutter and mid-80s slider — more or less the same repertoire he had during his first run with Pittsburgh.
Atlanta also takes some money off Pittsburgh’s books. Stratton has yet to qualify for arbitration and would make around the league minimum for any time he spends on the MLB roster (less while in Triple-A). Bart is making $2.53MM, around $1.3MM of which is owed through season’s end. The Braves take that on, plus a 20% overage fee because they’re above the luxury tax line. Bart will be eligible for arbitration for a final time next offseason.
The trade pushes the veteran León off the roster after a six-week stint. He’ll go on waivers in the next couple days, where he’ll presumably clear and be released. León has appeared in 21 games this year and has four hits, all singles, while striking out 18 times in 44 plate appearances. He’s a respected defender and game manager but provides so little offensively that he has been an organizational depth player for the past few seasons.
Image courtesy of Scott Galvin, Imagn Images.
Braves back to collecting catchers?
I love this as a Braves fan. Stratton is trash and we turned him into an ok catcher.
I love this as a Pirates fan. Bart is awful, and they cant roster both Davis and Bart; Stratton can be somewhat useful again out of the pen
Davis’ offense is horrible
Stratton stinks
It’s just not respectable or dignified to deem another human being as “trash”.
@IS-o-a-b,
Agreed, but the British somehow manage when using the term ‘rubbish’; ex., ‘Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede is absolute rubbish.’
Remember in the off-season when everyone was saying the braves needed to deal Murphy because they were essentially stacked at the position? I know Murphy being injured has been 2/3 of the problem but my point is they sure haven’t had the easy depth people expected at the position.
Smart Braves fans know dealing Murphy would have been bad.
Last time we won the World Series i think we used like 6 or 7.
6 7, 6 7!
And Acuna was out with an injury, just like this year! Who will this years Rosario and soler be?
Jo Adell and Jeremy Pena
solid for ATL
Bart’s career wRC+ vs lefties is 106….he should only play vs lefties while Baldwin DH’s vs lefties. Huge upgrade over the Leon/Wynn/Tromp debacles.
Leon was good at controlling the running game and was a big help in developing Baldwin (Baldwin said). But Bart is an upgrade. It would surprise no one if Leon re-signs with Atlanta and becomes a coach in waiting.
Solid for both teams. Fills positions of need. Pittsburgh knows exactly what they are getting in Stratton and Braves get a serviceable backup in Bart.
Good move for ATL.
Joey Bart was definitely not the next Buster Posey
From mlb.com:
From the moment he was taken with the second overall pick of the 2018 Draft, Joey Bart has been viewed as Buster Posey’s heir apparent. With Posey announcing his retirement in November, Bart finally is poised to succeed the franchise icon behind the plate and begin a new era in San Francisco.
That says he was the next (Giants catcher after) Buster Posey.
Yeah, but you don’t draft a “just taking over the position” guy at #2 overall. They must have had bigger expectations because they only drafted Posey at #5 overall.
And as the mlb.com excerpt says Bart was beginning a “new era”
Their games arent similar but I remember a hype train with Bart just for it to get replaced by a Bailey train and now there is a very small Susac train
Cardinals also had this with Contreras replacing Molina and Yepez replacing Pujols
Who says you can’t make trades in June????
“The next Buster Posey” doesn’t necessarily mean another franchise icon, just at least the heir apparent, which he was.
Yepez was never intended to replace Pujols, not even as the DH that Pujols was in his last season. Yepez was just one of several players who the Cardinals cycled through the OF/DH spots early in the 2023 season trying to figure out the best fits, while Goldschmidt was still at 1B.
You certainly can make trades in June, but almost all of them including this one only involve players on waivers and minor leaguers. June trades like the one for Devers last year are extremely rare.
Giants fans seemed to think so when he was drafted
Posey is, quite easily, the best catcher in the history of the franchise, from the 1800s. Whoever followed him was likely gonna disappoint.
Braves got the better end of that deal unless someone in PIT can magically unlock the effective pitcher within Stratton, and we wish you all the best with that.
I honestly don’t hate this move for either side. I’m still kind of high on Titus Dumitru whom the bucs got for Stratton the first time around.
Titus is probably going to be one of Ben’s position player projects who never turn out.
Not a knock on him,nor Ben,although he should never have waived Stratton in the first place.
Hunter was a decent seventh reliever who they could have really used this year.With several teams needing catchers,and Bart being a decent one,and a good hitter against lefthanders,I was surprised that they gave him up when they could have gotten Stratton for much less.
Maybe Titus Dumitru.
Stratton’s injury in 2024 was severe and possibly the reason why Cherington gave up on him.
I was hoping that they would get him back,and give credit to Ben for doing so.
I see an article that the Yankees really need a catcher.
If Endy is as good as he has been and remains injury free then they had to get rid of Bart as he was extra.I would have sent Henry down for a couple of weeks to get his new swing in tow and that would have given Ben time to shop Bart unless of course he has already done so and Atlanta was the only taker.
And I am sure that Nutting is happy to get rid of the $1.3M.
For better or worse, Henry Davis is Paul Skenes’s personal catcher, so even if he hit .000, he’d be on the roster. Bart became expendable once Endy started hitting.
I remember when Bruce Kimm was the only catcher that Mark the bird Fidrych would use for Detroit. The Tigers kept 3 catchers on the roster until Mark got hurt and then Bruce was traded to the Cubs.
Greg Maddux kept Eddie Perez in the league a lot longer than he would have ever lasted on his own. He got an 11 year career out of not an 11 year career worth of talent and then parlayed that into a fine coaching career. If you are a mediocre catcher, the best thing you can do is make friends with the star pitcher.
Wieters
Mauer with power
Lol
Have liked what I’ve seen from Endy this year, so think clearing the runway for him is a good idea. With the demands of becoming MLB caliber behind the dish, Catchers often have long winding development paths.
I like the move for Atlanta for a similar reason, even at 29 Bart could still take a big leap forward. Regardless hes already shown he can be competent backup.
I’m still a Henry Davis believer but the bucs may have egg on their faces when the dust settles from this one
egg on their faces has become a Cherington staple
I think this is such a minor trade both ways there’s not really much chance of any egg on any faces, which is fine.
Henry Davis couldn’t break eggs with his bat. He should be sent down to find out how to hit and Bart/Endy should be in Pitt.
But, that’s over with now.
They could promote Flores and send down Davis
Now this is a good backup catcher! Very nice trade for us
Pirates shed a little salary and most likely gain a roster spot or pick up a reliever
Yaz, Dubon, and Bart all in ALT. 2020 Giants living large
Bart’s a solid backup. Could have used him on the Yanks.
Bravos will end up squeezing water from a stone here.
Is this the biggest in season trade of the year so far?
The Catcher in the Bye! 👋
Bye to Jonah Heim 👋
Bye to Chadwick Tromp 👋
Bye to Austin Wynns 👋
Bye to Maverick Handley 👋
Bye to Sandy Leon 👋
Bye to Jair Camargo 👋
Now serving number 7.
Say hello to Joey Bart
Welcome to the Matrix!
@ALBD Wow that is an amazing list. Somebody in Atlanta was just not content with the backup catching situation. 7th or 8th time is a charm perhaps?? Maybe they need a proper catching coach/development staff. This reaks of ineptitude and blunders and failure at the minor league developmental level. It’s akin to Sean McVey of the Rams continuing to ignore Special Teams year after year even though it bites him in the a$$ year after year.
The only one catcher on that list that came from the system is the reigning rookie of the year. The one before him is a top catcher playing in Sacramento. What are you on about
I worded that poorly…Baldwin won the rookie of the year. Contreras is an all star and doing well with Milwaukee. Langeliers is a top catcher out in Sacramento. Those are the last three catchers the Braves actually developed. They have no problem drafting and developing catchers
I think the Bucs have had to shed salary so they can make an additional trade for another bullpen arm. It would be a huge bonus if they could fix Stratton as well as taking Bart’s money of the roster .
Maybe this is a just a preliminary
deal in order to get to the
Paul Skenes Negotiations!
Can’t say I can complain too much about trading Bart. I complained about Bart all the time with his defense and game calling, said we needed to get a reliever any way possible right now even though the trade market is dead, and this is the outcome. Bart was probably closer to a DFA than he was to getting back anything significant anyway.
What is the verdict on Henry Davis?? A mistake to draft so high? A failure of development by Pirates staff?? A talented athlete who lost the passion for excellence?? A between the ears issue, i.e. Jarred Kelenic???? Low Baseball IQ player???
A mistake to draft high and a failure of development. No loss of passion – he’s one of the hardest working players around. He turned himself into a plus defender. Pitchers love throwing to him, rave about his prep and game-calling, and he’s always been great at controlling the running game. Not elite defensively, but pretty good for a guy drafted as a hit-first player.
The hitting is confounding. Good bat speed and exit velocity lead to a lot of towering infield pop ups. He’s easy to root for, just hasn’t been able to fix his swing at the major league level. He hits a ton in AAA.
A mistake of Biblical proportions.
Ignorant-I am still a Henry fan,but they could not have gone forward with your number one catcher hitting 135.
I had heard that they changed his swing this year,which is the reason why a brief AAA stint would have been helpful as I mentioned in a previous post.
He dominated AAA pitching in the past.
Marooned was basically right in his assessment.The difference is that the Pirates desperately needed a catcher,and Henry was a fine hitter in college.They went under on his bonus so that they could sign Bubba Chandler.
That seems to be working out.
The Pirates pitching development has been very good,but the hitting development has been very bad.
I have many criticisms of Cherington but he has drafted very well.
Davis literally destroyed MiLB pitching, got called up and hit 2 homers off of Ohtani while the Bucs tried to turn him into a right fielder. Now he’s become a stellar defensive catcher and a complete black hole at the bottom of the lineup.
He was never worthy of the #1 overall, but he shouldn’t be this bad. He has to overhaul his entire approach/stance/swing or he’ll be a future journeyman at best.
DFA Designated For Atlanta
Stratton has already been optioned a couple times this season. Does that mean Pittsburgh can only shuttle him 3 more times between the big league team and the minors this season? Or does the limit reset to 5 since he’s changing teams?
FINALLY!
We get Leon off the MLB roster.
Nice trade. A .250 hitter out of Bart is much preferred to Leon’s .077!
Should have traded riley and strider for pirates season tickets
Not a fan of this move. I was hoping Bart would come back so Davis could be sent down to AAA so he could relearn how to hit. Pirates are saying that they are ok with Davis being the worse hitting catcher in MLB. Keep hoping Davis turns it around but don’t see it happening in Pittsburgh.
This is why the pirates are the pirates. Keeping a kid who can’t hit his weight vs a catcher who gives you professional at bats. Davis needs to go, so of course he’ll stay.
Davis bats last for a reason and it’s not his outstanding offense
They keep him because he has an accurate arm and is excellent at handling the pitching staff
Obviously the Pirates think the ability to play defense/call games is more important than the ability to occasionally hit. Bart stinks as a catcher as he doesn’t call a good game and has a terrible arm. He has had one half of one season where he showed a good bat in his entire major league career. Davis absolutely stinks as a hitter but every Pirate pitcher compliments him for his game prep and sequencing of pitches and he is one of the best at throwing out runners. Hence he stays. By the way, I don’t think Davis will ever be much of a hitter, even though the GM thinks he will come around.
He can’t even hit the weight of an Ethiopian
I think most A ball players could hit better than Sandy Leon but somebody had to be behind the plate with the injuries. Surprised they couldn’t squeeze anything else out for Bart I feel like the return is very light.
They had no way of keeping Heim once Murphy was healthy enough to return. They couldn’t option him to the minors, and they had no way to know that Murphy would get injured a few days later when his finger was fractured by a bat.
I see this as a good move for the Braves. I wonder if the Pirates could have gotten more for Bart.
I wonder what the Braves will do when Murphy is ready to return. But that decision probably won’t come for another month. In the meantime, Bart should be a vast improvement hitting wise over Leon, Tromp and Wynns.
One of the most overhyped busts of all time, joseph “the bust” bart. Everyone that called him “the next buster posey” has no business evaluating talent and should be fired.
The Pirates traded the wrong catcher. Davis is a horrible hitter. He’s a sunken cost. You’re never getting the first overall pick/superstar you thought you were getting. What you got is a minor league bat. Accept it and move on. He’s dead weight.
You do realize that catchers do more than just bat? He has greater value as a catcher than Bart or Endy. He has less value as a batter. Trade off. Ideally you get a catcher who handles the pitching staff well, is great on defense and hits well, but the number of Johnny Benches, Buster Poseys, etc are quite limited so you compromise.
That’s fair, but you can’t keep Hank and his 45 OPS+ on the field half the time. He has 18 hits this year. 18.
You do realize that a catcher that can’t hit has limited value? Otherwise the Pirates wouldn’t protect him by only running him out once every 5 days. They know he’s such an atrocious hitter that he is a detriment to the team–or he’d play. Funny that with all of the things he does well that the Pirates will only run him out there to catch for Skenes. Surely a talented catcher like Davis should see more time behind the play the if you were right, eh?
He plays more than just a catcher for Skenes
Endy and Davis split the catching duties
It would have been great if the Bucs got a more reliable BP arm for Bart but that wasn’t going to happen at this point in the season. They were under the gun with Bart anyways and had to make a decision. Thank God ENDY is hitting decent now. Hank was going
nowhere because he is basically the best thing next to Livy in his BFF Skenes eyes
This is confusing – a decent catcher for a multiple DFA reliever. They could have done better. I still believe that Henry Davis is redeemable – I’d try slowing his swing a bit by using a heavier bat, as he’s always ahead of the pitch. He often scorches the ball but right at the 3rd baseman or left fielder.
Stratton gives the Bucs an optionable depth reliever but doesn’t fix the bullpen problems. They need a reliable setup guy and/or an actual closer.
This helps both teams but is overall minor. Bart is fine as a backup catcher, but he has trouble staying healthy. Still probably the best backup option for Atl until someone gets healthy.
Endy deserves a shot at starting now but he gets injured more than Bart. I can’t really tell defensively who’s better. Endy has very little time with the staff and needs to build a rapport.
Henry Davis is still baffling. On pace for maybe the lowest babip of all time. Everything he’s doing is better than last season but results are putrid. Swinging at the wrong pitches? Poor contact? Some bad luck obviously.
Stratton, I have no idea if he’ll be effective or not. Still a familiar arm and someone else they can throw at the problem of finding a righty reliever worth a damn.
Seen Endy in action recently at PNC vs the Fish. Like what I saw, he takes charge. Lean and athletic. If the Bucs can ever get Henry to hit, they would have an excellent DH/C platoon presence ⚾ As a side note, the Marlins look like a good, young team. Don’t trade Sandy as he still has it. Not like in the past, but he’s now a gritty battler veteran pitcher ⚾
Best news I have heard in awhile getting Bart for a DFA player. Should have kept Heim but I dig this move a lot.
I get Cherington’s desperation to acquire even an average RH pen arm, but Bart would’ve fetched something better at the deadline.
The biggest issue with the 2026 Pirates isn’t the players (although the pen has stunk), it’s the insistence of the FO and Kelly to not win the game right in front them because of what tomorrow’s game may need, along with putting development over wins. This team should be a few games over .500 right now, not just one.
Perfectly said. Thumbs up
I agree. Kelly’s blunders cost the pirates 5 games. And Flores should be up here with Rodriguez. Davis cannot continue.
Bucs-They have probably lost six or seven games for the reason that you mention.
They are slaves to the computer.
Tomorrow never comes.
Unfortunately this attempt to bolster the bullpen doesn’t matter as long as Kelly is managing. After the 3 required batters he fails to recognize that the pitcher doesn’t have it that night. By the time he walks out there the lead is gone or a close game is now a blowout. Anyone who brings in Carmen when you are down 6-1 is clueless. Apparently he has no plan B if the original plan is not working out.
I think that Kelly has some good points but unfortunately this is a bad one.
That is always a tough call for a manager- when to get someone warmed up.
I think that it may be influenced by what could be the brain which is the computer managing pitching loads,including warming up.That directive may be from Cherington,and it may be there to minimize the chance for arm injuries.
It was not all that important when the Pirates were a bad team.It may not be as important now as their bullpen stinks.
But I agree with you on the Carmen instance.He has pitched fairly well and why waste him if you have let the game get out of hand.
I have to believe if it is evident to us that it should be evident to him.
Unless there is something written in stone- thy shall not go against the computer.
It is always a difficult decision but one that a manager gets paid to make.
he obviously made the same mistake in last night’s game when it was realized that Mason didn’t have it, no one was warming up in the bullpen
his lineup certainly didn’t help either. Getting called out on strikes is a common practice with this offense. What ever happened to guarding the plate?
This is a great move given the current state of the Braves catching situation. Specifically how poorly anyone not named Baldwin has been hitting … this will feel like a huge offensive upgrade for our backup catcher lol
Hope it’s a good trade for both teams. Both good guys and change off sceneries (well, sort of: Hunter back to Pburgh and Joey back to his roots in Georgia). Looking forward to how they do.