Veteran infielder Vidal Brujan is headed back to Atlanta.
According to his transactions log, Brujan signed a minor-league contract with the Braves after finishing the 2026 season with the Mets. The 28-year-old spent most of the year in Triple-A, where he played 65 games, and also appeared in nine major-league games for New York.
His brief run with the Mets didn’t produce much at the plate. Brujan went 1-for-11 with a walk and an RBI.
Atlanta already knows what it’s getting. The Braves claimed Brujan off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles in August 2025, then used him over the final two months of that season. In 24 games with Atlanta, he hit .268/.362/.317 in 41 at-bats.
Brujan has now appeared in 271 big-league games since debuting in 2021. Across stops with the Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, Chicago Cubs, Orioles, Braves and Mets, he has hit .197/.266/.272 while spending most of his time at shortstop and second base.
The appeal in Atlanta is pretty clear: defense. Brujan has logged just 394 innings at shortstop in the majors, but he has five defensive runs saved there. Only 32 shortstops have more, and that list includes names like Miguel Rojas, Andrelton Simmons and David Fletcher, all of whom are now retired.
That makes Brujan a low-cost depth move for the Braves, one aimed at raising the floor at shortstop without asking him to be more than he is.
And the fit makes some sense for him, too. Atlanta’s shortstop mix in 2026 - Mauricio Dubon, Ha-Seong Kim, Jim Jarvis and Jorge Mateo - combined for -0.4 bWAR, which ranked 23rd in MLB at the position. Brujan won’t turn the spot into a strength by himself, but he gives the Braves another option as Dubon, Mateo and Kim move toward free agency.
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