The Braves have signed infielder Charles Leblanc and catcher Yohel Pozo to minor league contracts, in response to their transaction logs on MLB.com. Each gamers had elected free company earlier this offseason. Atlanta has additionally added infielder Kobe Kato on a minor league deal, MLBTR has realized.
Leblanc spent his age-28 season with the Angels group, hitting .254/.379/.437 (108 wRC+) with a dozen homers and an enormous 16.4% stroll charge in 98 Triple-A video games. He additionally took 28 plate appearances within the massive leagues — his second season with MLB work, following a 2022 run in Miami — and popped a pair of homers in that tiny pattern.
A fourth-round decide by the Rangers again in 2016, Leblanc is a profession .259/.364/.454 hitter in components of 4 Triple-A seasons. He’s slashed .254/.330/.412 in 197 massive league video games. Leblanc has spent the majority of his skilled profession at third base but in addition has greater than 1000 innings at each second base and first base. He’s performed 473 frames at shortstop and one other 376 in left subject.
Pozo signed with the Rangers as a global free agent in 2013 and spent the primary seven years of his professional profession of their minor league system. He examined the waters of minor league free company after the 2020 season, signing a minor league contract with the Padres, however he was again with the Rangers lower than a month later; Texas took him again from San Diego within the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft.
It was with the Rangers in 2021 that Pozo lastly made his MLB debut. Over 21 contests with Texas that season, he principally appeared as a DH, though he caught a few video games as effectively. He slashed .284/.312/.378 with one residence run and 9 RBI. Pozo, who’ll flip 28 in June, hasn’t appeared within the majors since however has hit effectively over the previous three seasons between the Triple-A golf equipment for the Rangers (2022) and A’s (2023-24). He’ll give the Braves some depth behind the plate after the membership moved on from Travis d’Arnaud this offseason.
Kato, 25, was a Thirteenth-rounder by the Astros in 2021. Houston reduce him unfastened early in 2024, however he turned a stint with the unbiased York Revolution into a brand new alternative with the Mariners and climbed three minor league ranges, topping out in Triple-A. Kato hit .283/.393/.389 with a homer and eight steals in 135 minor league plate appearances final yr. He’s performed primarily second base within the minors however has expertise at brief, third and all three outfield spots as effectively.
