The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Braves sign catcher Stewart to one-year deal
Veteran adds depth, defensive ability at key position.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. — The Braves signed veteran catcher Chris Stewart to a one-year major league contract Wednesday, a nonguaranteed deal that provides more depth at a key position on a team that’s counting heavily on the development of its young pitchers.
Stewart, who’ll turn 36 next week, is a quality defensive catcher and pitch-framer who has a .230 career batting average with nine homers in 449 games over parts of 11 major league seasons, the past four with the Pirates.
The Braves opened a spot on the 40-man roster by putting rehabbing reliever Grant Dayton (elbow surgery) on the 60-day disabled list. Their hope is Stewart would accept an assignment to Triple-A after spring training if there are no injuries and he’s not needed on the major league roster.
“It’s not a clean fit right now; we’ll see how things develop,” Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos said, emphasizing that there had been no change in the status of Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki as the team’s primary catchers. “If there’s no spot for (Stewart) at the end of six weeks, hopefully he’ll be willing to stay with us in some capacity.”
Flowers, 32, had surgery on his left wrist and forearm after the season, but is fully recovered and has no restrictions in spring training.
Anthopoulos reiterated when asked about Flowers’ surgery that it had no influence on the decision to sign Stewart.
“No, zero,” the GM said. “That’s why I wanted to make it clear. He wasn’t coming on a minor league deal, so this is what it took to come here.”
Stewart hit a career-worst .183 with no homers and a .463 OPS in 144 plate appearances over 51 games last season with Pittsburgh but was a productive hitter as recently as 2015, when he hit .289 with eight doubles in 159 at-bats.
Gift for Gohara: Luiz Gohara was surprised to find a large, rectangular brown package waiting when he arrived at the Braves’ clubhouse at Champion Stadium on Wednesday, a gift for the rookie left-hander from his famous agent, Scott Boras.
He tore it open and smiled as he pulled out its contents: A large, color photo on canvas of Gohara pitching during his first major league win Sept. 13 against the Nationals. There was a hand-written note from Boras in the bottom right-hand corner.
“I don’t know how I’m going to get it home on the plane to Brazil,” Gohara said, laughing softly, clearly proud and pleased by the gesture.
That win against Washington was just the second major league outing for Gohara, who allowed one earned run, six hits and no walks with six strikeouts at Nationals Park.
Acuna reports early: Top prospect Ronald Acuna reported to spring training Wednesday, four days before position players were due to report.
Acuna, 20, is the consensus top prospect in baseball and will compete for the starting left field job at spring training.