Pretty much a salary dump, for a lottery ticket
The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired INF Mason Berne (@Mason_Berne14) from the Atlanta Braves for C Stephen Vogt. Berne, 25, played in 5 games for Rookie FCL Braves this season and hit .250 (3-for-12)/.857 OPS with 1 home run, 3 RBI and 2 walks. He did not play in 2020 due to no Minor League season. In 4 years in the Braves’ Minor League system (2018-21), he hit .231 (51-for-221)/.659 OPS with 10 doubles, 5 homers, 27 RBI and 28 walks in 75 games. He was the Braves’ 33rd-round pick in the 2018 draft out of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
10:12 pm is not usually the time when trades get announced, but there you go. With all due respect to the prospect in question – I hope he makes it to the majors, so we can all get “Feel the Berne” T-shirts – the main thing the Diamondbacks get out of this is salary relief. They’ll save about $1.5 million, in not having to pay Vogt for the rest of the season. I imagine it will largely mean a Daulton Varsho/Bryan Holaday platoon at the position. There is an empty spot on the 40-man roster though, so maybe we’ll see Jamie Ritchie added? He has hit .371/ .497/ .507 for an OPS of 1.004 with the Reno Aces. Which probably translates to about .200/.250/.350 in the majors.
Over his two years with the Diamondbacks, Vogt appeared in a total of 78 games. He batted .196 with an OPS+ of 72 [that’s seven points below what Alex Avila produced in his time here] and was worth a total of 0.4 bWAR. Not especially worth the $4.5 million we paid for him, but not a particularly profligate waste either. He did seem to have a good head on him, and was always interesting to listen to. The SnakePit wishes Stephen Vogt all the best in his future endeavors. Here are the D-backs not under team control after this year, and who may be considered likely trade bait
- Asdrubal Cabrera
- Eduardo Escobar
- Bryan Holaday
- Josh Reddick
- Joakim Soria
Stephen Vogt