NEWS NOW: Atlanta Braves former utility player fails in his attempt to resume….

The Atlanta Braves fired Charlie Culberson this week, ending his bid to turn around his pitching career.

Unlike previous years, the 34-year-old pitched as a right-hander in spring training on a minor-league contract, rather than as a utility player. He spent the entire spring on the minor league field and was not invited to major league camp. In three Grapefruit League outings, the utility player who later became a reliever gave up six runs. He stated to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he is not in a rush to sign a new contract. Rather, he will remain prepared at home with his family and wait to see if another opportunity arises.

The George native was selected in the 2007 MLB Draft by San Francisco. He has participated in 11 full major league seasons with the Giants, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers, Braves, and Texas Rangers. With 1,312 plate appearances, he has a career slash line of.248/.294/.386 with 30 home runs and 145 runs batted in.

It’s hardly shocking that Culberson is attempting to succeed as a pitcher. In eight games where he has been in mop-up situations, he has pitched 7 1/3 innings with an ERA of 1.23 and no decisions. Although he only had one strikeout, his fastball had a velocity of 93.7 mph.

Culberson announced in January that he was converting to a pitcher after playing in just one game for the Braves the previous season. However, a story by David O’Brien of The Athletic from February 22 states that Culberson pitched in high school and understood the odds were against him to make the big league bullpen after not pitching consistently for 17 years.

“I always told myself that if at any point it came to (that) and I had a chance to pitch, I was going to do it,” Culberson stated. “I realized it would be difficult to go back once I made the switch. I’ve always expressed how much I’d like to be two-sided. And it seems like you have to be a pitcher first these days in baseball in order to be a two-way player. Being a two-way player, I’m not really sure what the Braves think of me, but I did bring my bats and extra gloves in case, as I felt like it was a little strange to only bring my pitcher’s glove.

“But no, I’ve been focusing on pitching only.”

It took a four-seam fastball and cutter to camp and worked on a slider that developed into a curveball. The experiment with his local team ended in disappointment on Thursday because Atlanta has one of the strongest baseball rosters. Culberson