Vidal

Bruján

It’s Bruján’s third organization in two weeks and sixth since the Rays traded him to the Marlins two years ago. The Mets have a potential utility opening after trading Luisangel Acuña in the Luis Robert Jr. deal, and given that Francisco Liriano, Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette will hardly ever sit or come out of games, it might make sense to carry someone like Bruján and send down Ronny Mauricio to play regularly. Still, that’s assuming Bruján remains with the club for more than a few days.

The Twins just claimed Bruján off waivers from the Braves last week, but he will now be waived to make room for Tristan Gray, who was acquired from the Red Sox this morning. Gray is a superior defender to Bruján and potentially fits better as a utility infielder.

Once a top 100 prospect in the Rays’ organization, Bruján hit .253/.305/.310 in 95 plate appearances for the Cubs, Orioles, and Braves last season and owns a .199 average in 261 MLB games. He’s also a subpar defender, which likely makes him just organizational depth at this point in his career.

The writing was on the wall for Bruján once the Braves re-signed Ha-Seong Kim and turned Mauricio Dubón into a utilityman. Bruján hit .253/.305/.310 in 95 plate appearances for the Cubs, Orioles and Braves last season, pushing up to .199/.267/.276 in 645 career plate appearances. Once considered a very promising prospect in the Rays system, he seems like a pure Triple-A guy now.

The agreement ostensibly eliminates Bruján from consideration as a non-tender candidate. The 27-year-old former top prospect has settled into a versatile reserve role in recent years and batted .244/.298/.302 with two steals in 59 games between the Braves, Orioles and Cubs this past season.

It’s highly unusual to see a young player retreat to the bench following a two-homer explosion, but that’s the case in this one as Alvarez apparently cut his thumb at some point during the late stages of Saturday’s contest in Detroit. The 22-year-old rookie infielder tallied three hits, including his first two big-league homers and a game-tying single during the comeback win. He’s day-to-day heading into the final week of the season. It’ll be Vidal Bruján drawing a start at the hot corner in his place.

Bruján is hitting .231/.282/.282 in 85 plate appearances this season, so he does not move the needle for fantasy purposes. Expect Nacho Alvarez Jr. to get the start at the hot corner in game 2.

There hadn’t been any word that Bruján was on waivers, but it looks like the Orioles cut him to open up a spot for Ryan Mountcastle. Bruján had just been claimed from the Cubs on Sunday and went 1-for-1 as an Oriole. He’ll probably take the place of Jonathan Ornelas on the Braves bench and could see a fair amount of time at third base with Austin Riley out.

Bruján provides the Orioles with a versatile reserve infielder after being jettisoned earlier this week from Chicago’s bench mix. The 27-year-old former prospect hasn’t quite blossomed into an everyday player at the highest level, but he possesses a ton of defensive versatility and makes sense in a bench role on a contending roster.

There simply isn’t a role for Bruján with the Cubs heading into the final two months as they prepare to make some moves at the trade deadline. The 27-year-old former prospect has been jettisoned to make room for slugging backstop Moisés Ballesteros to come up for Wednesday’s game against the Brewers.