{"id":74366,"date":"2024-05-24T17:51:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T21:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=74366"},"modified":"2024-05-24T17:51:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T21:51:42","slug":"braves-sign-joey-wendle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/24\/braves-sign-joey-wendle\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Sign Another Former Mets Utility Infielder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Braves want to be the New York Mets so bad. The team seemingly can&#8217;t stop picking up infielders that the Mets get rid of. The latest instance is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wendljo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Wendle<\/a>, whom the Braves signed to a major league contract on Friday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Luis Guillorme, Zack Short and now Joey Wendle have joined the Braves in the first third of the season. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Cn9Ypi5BJK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/Cn9Ypi5BJK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Healey (@timbhealey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timbhealey\/status\/1794040729502617998?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Wendle signed with the Mets during the offseason on a one-year, $2 million deal. However, the utility infielder struggled and was designated for assignment last week. No team claimed him (or his contract) off waivers, and the Mets released him on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the Wendle signing, Atlanta announced that lefty reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kerrra01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ray Kerr<\/a> was recalled from Triple-A. Additionally, the team optioned infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=willilu01,willia008luk&amp;search=Luke+Williams&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Williams<\/a> and placed right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithaj01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AJ Smith-Shawver<\/a> on the injured list with\u00a0a strained left oblique.<\/p>\n<h2>Atlanta Braves Sign Joey Wendle To A Major League Deal<\/h2>\n<p>Wendle, 34, is the third former Mets utility infielder that the Braves will deploy this year. Atlanta signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/guilllu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Guillorme<\/a> in the offseason, then <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/10\/angels-add-three-infielders\/\" target=\"_self\">traded him to the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> this month before acquiring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/shortza01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zack Short<\/a> from the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves have cycled through other backup infielders too, including Williams, due to injuries and underperformance. Second baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/albieoz01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ozzie Albies<\/a> missed time with a fractured toe earlier this season, and third baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rileyau01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Riley<\/a> hasn&#8217;t played recently due to an intercostal strain.<\/p>\n<p>When the team is healthy, the Braves backup infielder shouldn&#8217;t expect to play that much. A lack of playing time is a tough role to adjust to, and the Braves will sign Wendle hoping the wise veteran can adapt to it better than their other options have so far.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Tigers score the first run of the game in the 10th inning with an error by Joey Wendle and the Mets. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1VOfWk7vmZ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1VOfWk7vmZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Baseball GIFs (@gifs_baseball) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gifs_baseball\/status\/1774975993767137439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But for what it&#8217;s worth, Wendle struggled in a limited role in New York. In roughly six weeks, the veteran made just 37 plate appearances in 18 games. Plus, he struggled both offensively (.222\/.243\/.250) and defensively at three infield spots.<\/p>\n<p>Wendle clearly just did not provide the value that the Mets needed, or expected, from him. New York moved on fairly quickly, and Atlanta can do the same if he fails to play well. The Braves only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time he spends on the roster. This means that signing Wendle is a low-cost move that could end up solidifying the roster if he bounces back.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 John Jones-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Braves want to be the New York Mets so bad. The team seemingly can&#8217;t stop picking up infielders that the Mets get rid of. The latest instance is Joey Wendle, whom the Braves signed to a major league contract on Friday. Luis Guillorme, Zack Short and now Joey Wendle have joined the Braves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":74376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1071,35],"tags":[6439,977,2196,4595,143,5209],"class_list":["post-74366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-mlb","category-news","tag-aj-smith-shawver","tag-austin-riley","tag-joey-wendle","tag-luis-guillorme","tag-ozzie-albies","tag-ray-kerr"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}