Diamondbacks activate catcher Alex Avila from IL, option Caleb Joseph
Jun 28, 2019, 12:54 PM
The Arizona Diamondbacks activated catcher Alex Avila from the 10-day injured list on Friday, optioning catcher Caleb Joseph to make room on the 25-man roster.
Avila returns two weeks after he was placed on the injured list due to a left calf strain. In the 13 games Avila spent off the 25-man roster, catcher Carson Kelly started nine of them.
Avila is hitting .220 with five home runs and 11 RBI. Kelly has comfortably taken over the number one spot on the depth chart at catcher, starting over half of the team’s games. Kelly has 159 at-bats on the season while John Ryan Murphy is next with 62 and Avila has 59.
Murphy has been with the Triple-A Reno Aces since the start of June, a pivot for the team to only two catchers on the 25-man roster. Joseph has 28 at-bats on the year and is hitting .143.
The D-backs are winners in four of their last five games heading into Friday night’s matchup in San Francisco against the Giants at 6:40 p.m. You can hear that game live on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.
