Catcher James McCann signed a minor league deal with Atlanta and has spent most of the year playing for Triple-A Gwinnett. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the deal contains a rolling opt-out clause. Similar to Craig Kimbrel’s earlier deal with Atlanta, this means that any club can offer McCann a big league job at any time. If one does, Atlanta would have decide to call him up or let the other club have him.
“The big thing is that rolling opt-out,” McCann said to Rosenthal. “That was part of our agreement with the Braves, knowing their situation and knowing the potential of being blocked to the big leagues there. They respected the 10 years that I’ve accrued in service time and gave me the opportunity to opt out, similar to (Craig) Kimbrel.”
As McCann alluded to, he doesn’t have a great path to playing time in Atlanta. They have Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin sharing the catching duties at the big league level this year. Murphy is having a nice bounceback season, all things considered. He was injured a lot in 2024 and struggled when in the lineup. This year, his 30.6% strikeout rate is a concern but he has nine home runs and a 10.2% walk rate. His .222/.325/.459 line translates to a 118 wRC+, with solid defense to boot. He’s also under contract for three more years after this one, guaranteed $15MM annually.
Baldwin is just a rookie but is having a great season. His 7.3% walk rate is a bit low but he has seven home runs and is only striking out at a 15.3% clip. His .291/.343/.488 line translates to a 132 wRC+. His defensive grades are also solid. The club also has Jason Delay on the 40-man roster as a depth guy with options remaining.
That makes the opt-out clause a sensible one for McCann, who has been doing his best to earn another major league opportunity. He has stepped to the plate 138 times for Gwinnett this year with a .281/.319/.484 line and 110 wRC+. He’s getting a bit of help from a .333 batting average on balls in play but has launched six homers already this year.
McCann has been an effective big leaguer at times but has struggled in more recent seasons. He hit .276/.334/.474 for a 114 wRC+ over 2019 and 2020. He also got some competent grades for his glovework in that time, allowing him to tally 3.4 wins above replacement in 149 games, per the calculations of FanGraphs.
That got him a four-year, $40.6MM deal with the Mets but he couldn’t maintain that level of production over the course of that contract. Traded to the Orioles halfway through, he hit .224/.279/.352 over the four seasons of that pact, leading to a 77 wRC+.
After that performance, he had to settle for a minor league deal. He has been performing well so far this year but it seems no club has been compelled to give him a major league job yet. He’ll have to keep plugging away and hope that some club finds a use for him at some point. It’s theoretically possible that could come in Atlanta. With the club falling back in the standing and Baldwin performing well, they might try to trade Murphy this summer. Or an injury could arise for one of those two, though that’s also possible of all the other catchers in the majors.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images