Braves Rumors: Charlie Culberson goes AWOL, Albies injury, Shuster concern

Braves Rumors: Where in the world is Charlie Culberson?

Despite barely playing for Atlanta this season, Charlie Culberson re-signed with Gwinnett on a minor-league deal after he opted out of his contract with the Braves when he was DFA’d. Admittedly, I thought the saga was finally over when the Braves let Culberson hit free agency, but boy was I wrong.

Gwinnett placed Culberson on something called the development list, which allows minor-league players to head to an alternate site, but remain on the active roster. Mitchell Barbee described it quite well for The House That Hank Built:

"“Turns out, the Development List is for healthy players in the minor leagues to go to an alternate site and train at a team-approved location instead of playing in games with the team. The player can also stay at the team’s site and participate in pre-game activities, like batting practice and bullpens, but cannot play in actual games. Teams must get the player’s approval before they put them on the Development List.”"

The simple answer is that we’re not really sure what this means for Culberson. Either he’s in Atlanta serving as a taxi squad member of sorts, or perhaps he’s merely ramping back up after a several-week absence. Either way, it’s been an exceedingly strange season for a player John Buhler coined the Udonis Haslem of baseball.

On July 16, Culberson recorded a hit in his first at-bat in a Braves uniform since 2019. He had been on the roster for six weeks.

“The Dansby Swanson lookalike had been up and down in the Braves’ organization all season, but never appeared in a game for the best team in baseball up to this point. In a blowout loss and the Braves’ first series loss in months, Culberson got his golden opportunity for Atlanta.”

And Charlie came through, only to be dumped voluntarily several weeks later, re-sign with the Stripers and disappear from the eyes of fans. What a world.