Braves Acquire Ryan Doumit From Twins

First reported by Jeff Passan, the Braves have acquired C Ryan Doumit in exchange for LHP Sean Gilmartin.

The Twins have made it official. Ryan Doumit is coming to the Braves in exchange for Sean Gilmartin.

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) December 18, 2013

Doumit, who is terrible defensively behind the plate, has also played games in right, left, and at first. As a switch hitter, he posted a 95 wRC+ last season (104 career). He has relatively average strikeout and walk rates, with a career .330 OBP. He will likely serve as a bench bat in 2014.

Yes, Sean Gilmartin was the Braves first-round pick from 2011, but he has lost much of his shine since the draft. Last season in AAA, he posted a 5.71 ERA with a poor 15.8% strikeout rate. Injuries and the lack of ability to miss bats have plagued Gilmartin to the point where he is falling outside of top-10 prospect lists for the system.

Like I said, I think Doumit will be strictly a bat off the bench, an Eric Hinske type if you will. I was never overly high on Gilmartin, so I think this is a solid move to reassure the bench. With no major areas of weakness, the bench has been a major point of focus. All of these small, non-sexy, acquisitions are really what should have been expected coming into the offseason.

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