Austin Wynns was DFA'd by the A's, picked things up in Triple-A with the Angels, and landed with Atlanta — the latest chapter in a catcher pipeline that just won't quit.
The Athletics and Atlanta Braves have a ton of overlap when it comes to their catchers. It all started when the A's traded Matt Olson to Atlanta, with Shea Langeliers being the key piece coming back. Not long after, the A's traded Sean Murphy to the Braves, adding a second layer.
This season more overlap has been added, with Jonah Heim being designated for assignment on May 4 and then traded to the green and gold. He's served as Langeliers' backup since.
With the arrival of Heim, that also pushed veteran backstop Austin Wynns off the roster when Langeliers came off the paternity list after a 3-for-39 (.077) start. Wynns was DFA'd and ended up signing a minor-league deal with the Los Angeles Angels. This week, the Braves ended up acquiring Wynns for cash and designating Chadwick Tromp for assignment.
Wynns is back in the big leagues, this time with the best team in baseball.
While he'd struggled at the plate this season, the 35-year-old catcher picked things up with the Angels in Triple-A, going 10-for-30 (.333) in eight games. He also added two doubles and two homers in that span, leading to a .955 OPS.
With Drake Baldwin landing on the IL back on May 19 with a strained right oblique muscle, Atlanta's starting catcher has been Sandy León about half the time, predominantly against left-handed starters. León has started nine of the team's 15 games (including Thursday) since Baldwin went down. Tromp had started the other six.
If that trend continues, Wynns' numbers against right-handers will certainly come into play while he's on Atlanta's roster.
Over the course of his career, Wynns has been fairly even against lefties and righties, batting .231 against southpaws and .230 against right-handers. That said, 16 of his 19 career homers have come against right-handers and his wRC+ has been 20 points higher (75 to 55). Last season in particular he was great against righties, batting .313 with a .352 OBP and a 160 wRC+ ( 100 is league average) in 72 plate appearances.
Defensively, Wynns is somewhat comparable to Tromp, with Tromp holding a slight edge in framing and Wynns leading in blocking and caught stealing rate. The big separator, aside from potential upside with the bat from Wynns, has been his more aggressive ABS challenge rate.
Tromp had five total challenges this season in 12 games, and was correct just once, for a 20% success rate. Wynns has challenged a lot more often, finding success on 13-of-23 attempts, good for a 57% rate.
With Baldwin set to potentially return when the club returns to Atlanta in the middle of June, this will be a brief audition for Wynns to earn a role with the club moving forward. That, or an audition for his next big-league opportunity.
