Braves hold moving day
Catcher Brett Cumberland is promoted, while a pair of Atlanta draft picks join the team.
Catcher Brett Cumberland is promoted while a pair of Atlanta draft picks join the Rome team.
The Rome Braves didn’t look quite the same when they started the second half of their season on Thursday night.
The team announced a number of changes to its roster Thursday, including Brett Cumberland being promoted to the Class A Advanced Florida Fire Frogs and Yeudi Grullon being released.
Among the players joining the team as they began a four-game series at Asheville were Jordan Rodgers and Austin Bush, both of whom were drafted by the
Rome Braves last week.
Cumberland’s call-up should come as no surprise to the Rome
fans who have watched him down the stretch of the first half. The California catcher hit eight
home runs and recorded 39 RBIs in his final 29 games with the club.
A 15-game hitting streak during the middle of that run helped Cumberland earn a SAL Player of the Week honor, and he was selected to the SAL All-Star Game.
He represented the Rome Braves at the game Tuesday along with Randy Ventura, Cristian Pache and Brandon White.
The release of Grullon comes after the infielder spent the better part of a year and a half in Rome.
After batting .219 and being assigned to Danville twice in 2016, Grullon saw his batting average drop to .175 through 57 at-bats this season.
Rodgers was drafted in the sixth round out of the University of Tennessee. Rodgers was named All-SEC first team with the Volunteers while recording nine home runs and batting .322 in a breakout senior season for the third baseman.
Bush is a first baseman taken in the 15th round out of UC-Santa Barbara.
The 6-foot-6, 265-pound senior knocked in 20 home runs this past season while hitting .303. He helped the Gauchos reach the College World Series in 2016.
Both players started in Rome’s 7-1 loss to Asheville on Thursday evening. While Rodgers recorded a walk in his final at-bat, Bush recorded an RBI double in the first inning to score Rome’s only run of the game.
In other roster news, Alan Rangel was brought back up from Danville, while Jaret Hellinger was sent down in his place.
Rangel started two games for Rome in early June, while Hellinger has pitched only six times this season with Rome with an ERA of 9.49.