The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve signed left-hander Angel Perdomo to a one-year, split Major League contract. To open space on the 40-man roster, Atlanta passed recently acquired first baseman Evan White through waivers and assigned him outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. The Braves claimed Perdomo off waivers from the Pirates in early November but non-tendered him later in the month. He’ll now return to their 40-man roster.
White’s outright comes as little surprise; the Braves’ acquisition of him was always a financial mechanism to facilitate their trade for Jarred Kelenic, and it was obvious that no team would place a claim on White, given the remaining $17MM he’s owed under his previously signed contract extension with the Mariners. White technically has enough service time (three-plus years) to reject the assignment but not enough to do so while retaining the remainder of his salary (which requires five years). As such, he’ll surely accept the assignment and head to Triple-A Gwinnett to begin the 2024 campaign.
Perdomo, 29, posted a 3.72 ERA in 29 innings for the Pirates in 2023 and did so with a gaudy 37.6% strikeout rate against a 9.4% walk rate. Had he been healthy, the Pirates surely would’ve hung onto him, but Perdomo hit the injured list with an elbow injury in August. He ultimately required Tommy John surgery and is slated to miss the 2024 campaign as a result. Even if he spends the entire season on the 60-day injured list, he’d still finish out the 2024 season with two-plus years of service time, meaning Atlanta could potentially control a healthy Perdomo from 2025-28, if all goes well.
More to come.