Chris Stewart to sign with Braves

Former Pirates catcher Chris Stewart will sign a non-guaranteed, one-year major league deal with Atlanta. A non-guaranteed major league deal is kinda weird. The Braves already have Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki, neither of whom is expected to go anywhere. I guess this means the Braves wanted depth in case somebody gets hurt this spring and that Stewart didn’t want to sign a minor league deal.

Anyway, Stewart spent four years with the Pirates as a backup, first to Russell Martin and then to Francisco Cervelli. During that time, he batted 250/311/298 in 192 games. He actually hit pretty well his first two years, batting .294 and .289, but fell off a cliff the last two. Of course, the Pirates wanted him for his defensive work. He became a free agent when the Pirates bought out his 2018 option.