Buck announced his retirement from baseball on Thursday.

Buck has elected to take the season off to spend more time with his family, rather than compete for a spot providing depth at catcher with the Braves. He'll finish an 11-year career with a .234 average and 134 long balls.

Buck has agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training with the Braves, MLB.com's Mark Bowman reports.

Christian Bethancourt is a defensive savant, but may not be able to reliably hit big league pitching, and his backup, A.J. Pierzynski is 38 and got on base at a .288 clip last year. Buck at least gives the Braves a third option who is ready for the big leagues if the need should arise, although he will probably be sent to Triple-A to start the season.

Buck has elected free agency.

Designated for assignment by the Angels earlier this week, Buck is now free to seek other employment opportunities after declining his outright assignment to Triple-A. Experienced catching depth is always in demand, but the 34-year-old Buck is little more than organizational filler at this point in his career.

The Angels designated Buck for assignment Tuesday.

Buck appeared in just five games with the Angels in September, after being cut loose by Seattle during the All-Star break. All in all, the journeyman went 20-for-89 with three extra-base hits to lower his career batting line in the majors to .234/.301/.398.

Buck was called up from Triple-A Salt Lake on Tuesday, Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com reports.

Hank Conger and Chris Iannetta were the only two catchers on the team's 40-man roster prior to Buck's selection. The 34-year-old put together a respectable .294/.370/.412 batting line in 33 games with Salt Lake, but he'll merely provide veteran depth over the final month.

Angels signed C John Buck to a minor league contract; assigned him to Triple-A Salt Lake.

Buck will stay in the American League West after being cut loose by the Mariners earlier this month. The veteran backstop batted just .226/.293/.286 in 92 plate appearances for the M's before being released. He'll give the Angels some veteran depth and figures to come up in September as the club's third catcher.

Mariners released C John Buck.

Buck was designated for assignment by the M's last week after batting .226/.293/.286 in 92 plate appearances. The 34-year-old catcher is now a free agent and should latch on with a new organization pretty quickly, though he probably won't find regular playing time.

Mariners designated catcher John Buck for assignment.

Buck was hitting .226/.293/.286 with one homer in 84 at-bats this season, but that isn't exactly far off what the Mariners should have expected from him. It's also no worse than what they can count on from his likely internal replacement, Jesus Sucre. Sucre was hitting .281/.299/.368 with two homers in 171 at-bats in Triple-A. Perhaps the Mariners are planning a George Kottaras pickup after he was DFA'd by the Indians. Otherwise, this seems pretty pointless for them.

John Buck went 3-for-4 with two runs scored in Sunday's win over the Astros.

Buck doubled twice among his three hits, and he added an RBI single in the eighth inning. Buck has a .300 average while playing sparingly behind Mike Zunino this season.

Mariners signed C John Buck to a one-year, $1 million contract.

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman passed along the contract terms. The 33-year-old Buck is expected to serve as Mike Zunino's backup in 2014 and gives the Mariners a right-handed power threat off the bench.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that the Mariners have reached a one-year, $1 million deal with John Buck.

FOX Sports' Jon Morosi was the first to report that an agreement was close. Buck is expected to serve as Mike Zunino's backup catcher this year in Seattle and can provide a bit of pop off the bench. The 33-year-old has averaged 22 home runs per 162 games since the beginning of the 2010 season.

According to FOX Sports' Jon Morosi, the Mariners are giving John Buck a major league contract.

The exact details of the one-year pact are still being worked out. Buck, 33, hit .219/.285/.367 with 15 home runs and 62 RBI in 110 games last season between the Mets and Pirates. He will serve as the primary backup to starting catcher Mike Zunino this year in Seattle.

John Buck is "very close" to agreeing to a one-year deal with the Mariners, according to Jon Morosi of FOX Sports.

Morosi reported late Monday night that the Mariners and Buck were making progress on a deal. Assuming the deal gets done, the 33-year-old will provide some veteran insurance behind the plate in case Mike Zunino struggles.

FOX Sports' Jon Morosi reports that the Mariners are close to an agreement with free agent catcher John Buck.

Buck, 33, batted .219/.285/.367 with 15 home runs and 62 RBI over 110 games last season between the Mets and Pirates. He would function as a backup to young Mike Zunino.

Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that the Mets have no interest in bringing back free agent catcher John Buck.

The 33-year-old backstop began the 2013 campaign with the Mets, bashing 15 homers and driving home 60 runs in 101 games before a mid-season trade to the Pirates. While the team is still looking for catching depth behind Travis d'Arnaud, Buck doesn't appear to be a fit.

Bill Ladson of MLB.com reports that the Nationals are interested in adding free agent catcher John Buck to serve as a backup to Wilson Ramos.

Ladson reports that the team is looking for an established backup who would be able to play full-time should Ramos suffer a significant injury. The 33-year-old backstop came out of the gate strong in 2013, but limped home with a .222/.288/.278 slash with one homer and 14 RBI in the second half of the season.

Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that the Twins are interested in John Buck.

The Twins appear ready to hand the starting catcher job to Josmil Pinto following Joe Mauer's move to first base, but Buck would give them a bit of protection in case Pinto struggles. He batted .219/.285/.362 with 15 homers for the Mets and Pirates this past season.

John Buck went 3-for-3 in his Pirates debut Thursday against the Brewers.

It's the first time he's had three hits since May 1 and just the second time all year, so Pirates fans shouldn't get used to it. He's an upgrade over Tony Sanchez in the backup role, though.

Pirates acquired C John Buck, OF Marlon Byrd and cash considerations from the Mets for INF Dilson Herrera and a player to be named later.

The Pirates have lost Michael McKenry (knee) for the season, so Buck will provide a veteran option to back up Russell Martin. The 33-year-old is batting .215/.285/.367 with 15 home runs and 60 RBI in 101 games this season and is unlikely to be fantasy relevant the rest of the way. Like Byrd, he will be a free agent this winter.

Mets placed C John Buck on the paternity leave list.

Buck left the team on Friday to be with his wife in labor. He'll be gone for a couple of games and the Mets have called up top prospect Travis d'Arnaud to replace him.