Braves send Jack Mayfield to Angels for cash

Such is the life of a fringy MLBer in today’s game: Jack Mayfield appeared in 47 games for the Astros between 2019 and 2020, and was claimed by the Braves off the waiver wire in November. A few months later, before Spring Training action officially got going, he was designated for assignment in order to clear space on the 40-man roster for another waiver claim, Guillermo Heredia. And now, he’s headed back out West:

Mayfield will now try to fight for a spot on the Angels’ roster, rather than the Braves’ squad. He enters an infield mix that has Jose Iglesias as the presumptive starter at short and David Fletcher lining up at second, along with Franklin Barreto, Luis Rengifo, former Brave Phil Gosselin, Robel Garcia, Matt Thaiss, and perhaps others vying for bench spots.

As for the Braves, it still remains entirely unclear who the team will eventually use to back up Dansby Swanson at shorstop. Mayfield was one such option, but he’s gone. The other obvious alternative is offseason addition Ehire Adrianza, but the Braves could make another addition or hand the backup reins to Johan Camargo again, though they haven’t seemed too keen on that option in the recent past after a disastrous-but-brief showing there by Camargo in 2019.