Braves sign Maikel Franco to minor league deal

[TheBravos]

Only thing I remember about him was the time he hit that HR off Julio that he literally dug out of the dirt.

[Tapate50]

You really need a better handle on the forthcoming roster decisions that have to be made to understand things. You apparently aren't interested in digging deeper, and that's fine - just don't get hacked off when people with a better grasp of the organizational depth chart and the decisions that have to be made try to explain why you're wrong.

To attempt to help clear things up for you...

There will be 14 available 40-Man Roster spots that can be used on guys in the minors and that aren't on the 60-Day IL. Soroka has to be added back to the active roster and can't be put back on the 60-Day before the Rule V Draft during the Winter Meetings. This means you have 13 spots available - and that becomes 12 spots if they decide to keep Dayton to compete with Newcomb for a pen spot. Those 12 spots will be taken up by...

1.) Contreras (assuming he isn't the backup Catcher)
2.) Touki or Muller (whichever loses the battle for the 5th spot in the rotation)
3.) Wright
4.) Davidson
5.) Newcomb (assuming Dayton is in the pen)
6.) Camargo (more than likely)
7.) De La Cruz (who likely transitions to a RP)

That leaves 5 spots - easy, right? Except for the fact that the following players have to be added to the 40-Man Roster this winter if you don't want to expose them to the Rule V Draft...

1.) Waters
2.) Tarnok
3.) Lugbauer
4.) Justin Dean
5.) Trey Harris
6.) Nolan Kingham
7.) Jenista
8.) C. J. Alexander
9.) William Woods
10.) Daysbel Hernandez
11.) Brooks Wilson
12.) Jake Higganbotham

Those five spots are very likely going to Waters, Tarnok, Lugbauer, Justin Dean, and Harris or one of the arms. There is literally nothing Franco can possibly do in the next three weeks to be given a 40-Man Roster spot over the winter considering the fact that he might not even have the upside of the other 7 players listed that the Braves could lose when they aren't protected this winter.

I winced while reading this.

[Southcack77]

I winced while reading this.

For some reason Civ fixates on this every year and we've yet to lose anyone significant in my time here. I don't think we will this year. Many of those guys aren't worth or aren't necessary to protect.

Why would an MLB team elect to carry CJ Alexander on their roster and why would we care if they did?

[McCann'sCans]

Yeah I don't think it is quite that dire. I would expect at least 3-4 of Newcomb, Camargo, Wright, De La Cruz, Muller, Touki, Davidson won't be resigned and/or will be included in a trade. I expect that Contreras will be the backup catcher. That leaves you with 9-10 spots on the 40 man, and a number of the guys in that 12 man list I'd be perfectly comfortable exposing anyways.

[jpx7]

Why would Camargo be retained?