Braves Activate Sean Murphy From IL, Returning Tuesday Versus Phillies
Help has arrived for the ailing Atlanta Braves, who activated catcher Sean Murphy from the 10-day injured list on Sunday despite their series finale against the Miami Marlins being postponed due to rain.
The 30-year-old backstop began the 2025 campaign on the IL with a cracked left rib suffered on a hit-by-pitch during a spring training contest versus the Marlins on Feb. 28. He was ruled out for four to six weeks by the team, presenting an early April return at the time.
Following Monday’s day off, Murphy is expected to suit up behind the plate as the Philadelphia Phillies visit for a three-game set, beginning with Tuesday’s series opener at Truist Park.
In a corresponding move, Atlanta designated veteran catcher Chadwick Tromp for assignment in a somewhat surprising decision. Instead, the club opted to keep rookie Drake Baldwin as the backup catcher amidst Murphy’s return, with both slated to share catching duties moving forward.
Baldwin – the organization’s top prospect per MLB Pipeline – broke camp with the Braves out of spring training after impressing with his bat and promising defensive upside. And he’s started at catcher in seven of the team’s first nine games.
While the 24-year-old has struggled offensively early on, slumping to a 4-for-26 (.154) skid over his first seven games, he’s earned almost as many walks (three) as strikeouts (five) and appears due for a positive regression based on his 61.9-percent hard-hit rate.
By keeping Baldwin in the majors, Atlanta’s brass must feel his development is better suited to continue at the big-league level, even in a part-time role, learning behind an All-Star catcher like Murphy rather than playing every day at triple-A.
Prior to his activation from the IL, Murphy was sent on a triple-A rehab assignment and played three games with the Gwinnett Stripers, going 2-for-10 with a home run, two RBIs and a strikeout. Defensively, he spent all three contests behind the plate.
The 2023 All-Star missed over half of last season due to a torn left oblique, sidelining him for roughly two months. It also appeared to have lingering effects even after he returned to the lineup, as he could only muster 10 home runs and 25 RBIs with a disappointing .193/.284/.352 slash line across 72 games.
“I felt comfortable,” Murphy told reporters last month, including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. “I didn’t feel like I was going to hurt myself again last year. I’m real disappointed to miss [Spring Training], but this is a lot easier to recover from.”
Now healthy, the Braves badly need Murphy – who, alongside J.T. Realmuto, led the majors in fWAR among catchers from 2021-23, at 13.4 – to help spark their struggling offence, which has averaged an MLB-worst 2.67 runs per game entering Monday’s slate.
The right-handed-hitting backstop – who’s in the third season of a six-year, $73-million contract – will aim to cover some of the lineup’s lost production as Ronald Acuña Jr. recovers from a torn ACL and Jurickson Profar serves his 80-game PED suspension.
It’s been a horrible start for Atlanta thus far, given the team’s 1-8 record to begin the season. They dropped their first seven games of the season, receiving consecutive series sweeps by the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers before ending their winless drought with a victory over the Marlins on Apr. 4.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Dustin Nosler. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.