{"id":604766,"date":"2026-04-13T20:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/604766\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T20:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:03:08","slug":"braves-designate-luke-williams-for-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/604766\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Designate Luke Williams For Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Braves announced today that outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harrimi04.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michael Harris II<\/a> has been reinstated from the paternity list. In a corresponding move, infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=willilu01,willia008luk,willia009luk&amp;search=Luke+Williams&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Luke Williams<\/a> has been designated for assignment. Atlanta\u2019s 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38.<\/p>\n<p>Williams was only selected to the big league roster this past weekend when Harris went on paternity leave. He appeared in two games with Atlanta and took one plate appearance, drawing a walk in that lone trip to the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n<p>This is now four straight seasons in which Williams, 29, has suited up for Atlanta. He\u2019s a clear favorite of the organization, even if his production in the majors hasn\u2019t amounted to much. The 2015 third-rounder (Phillies) has totaled 350 plate appearances in the big leagues but sports just a .212\/.272\/.280 batting line. He\u2019s a versatile defender with a decent track record in the upper minors, however.<\/p>\n<p>Williams has played all four infield positions, all three outfield spots and even taken 11 innings of mop-up relief in his big league career. His career line in Triple-A is weighed down a bit by an especially rocky showing there last season, but he\u2019s still a lifetime .255\/.333\/.401 hitter at the top minor league level, including a .282\/.344\/.495 slash in 55 games in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>This is the fourth DFA of Williams\u2019 career (not counting the original 2023 waiver claim that sent him from L.A. to Atlanta, as he wasn\u2019t formally designated for assignment prior to being placed on waivers). The Braves have successfully passed him through waivers unclaimed on three separate occasions since first claiming him from the Dodgers. He\u2019ll be placed on waivers or traded within the next five days, and the outcome of his DFA will be known within the next seven days, at maximum. (Waivers are a 48-hour process.) Williams will have the right to reject an outright assignment if he clears waivers, but even if he does, recent history tells us there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019d re-sign with the organization and head back to Triple-A Gwinnett anyhow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Braves announced today that outfielder Michael Harris II has been reinstated from the paternity list. In a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,117694,591,85],"class_list":["post-604766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-luke-williams","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}