The Braves have claimed Chuckie Robinson off waivers from the Dodgers, according to a report from David O’Brien of The Athletic. Robinson was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett rather than added to the active roster, and right-hander Daysbel Herandnez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room for Robinson on the 40-man roster.
Robinson, 30, has just 52 games in the majors under his belt since he made his big league debut with the Reds back in 2022. It’s not hard to see why he hasn’t gotten much playing time in the majors to this point, as he’s a career .131/.161/.192 hitter in the big leagues across 138 plate appearances. That performance leaves him with a wRC+ of -4, meaning that he’s been 104% worse than a league average hitter at the plate. While the standards for offensive contributions from catchers are less rigorous than they are for other positions on the diamond, Robinsion is a non-factor at the plate even by the standards set by pitchers in the years prior to the NL adopting the DH rule.
Given his lackluster offensive abilities, it might seem like a shock that Robinson would get any sort of attention at the big league level at all. He carves out a niche for himself by being an extremely well-regarded defender behind the plate. He’s considered a strong game caller and even was heralded by Baseball America as a top defensive catcher back in 2020. That elite glove has been enough to make Robinson a fairly attractive candidate to be a fill-in depth catcher behind a given club’s regular tandem. This year, Robinson broke into the majors with the Dodgers because Will Smith and Dalton Rushing were both injured, leaving Robinson to join Ben Rortvedt in the club’s catching tandem for a time. He similarly helped to fill in for injured starting catcher Tyler Stephenson with the Reds during his debut season of 2022.
Now that Robinson is in Atlanta, it seems likely he’ll be tasked with helping to back up Drake Baldwin and Sandy Leon for the last few weeks of the season. The Braves have one of the best catching tandems in baseball when healthy, with Baldwin and Sean Murphy sharing time behind the plate, but Murphy recently underwent surgery that left the club without a third-string catcher behind Leon on the 40-man roster. Had Leon or Baldwin suffered an injury, the Braves would’ve been forced to turn to Jason Delay (who is not currently on the 40-man roster) or find an option outside the organization. It’s unclear if the Braves have interest in keeping Robinson in the fold in some capacity headed into the offseason or if he’s simply a fill-in depth piece brought in to help shore up the catcher position while Murphy is rehabbing. Even if that ends up being the case, Robinson’s strong defensive reputation should make it fairly easy to find a minor league deal with one organization or another.