Braves took a risk to let Travis d’Arnaud walk, and now Sean Murphy is hurt again

Murphy is expected to miss four to six weeks. If that timeline holds, the Braves will get Murphy back early in the season (opening day is March 27). Maybe all will turn out fine for Murphy. But he didn’t look the same when he returned from a two-month IL stint last season because of an oblique injury. He’s an elite defender but hasn’t produced much offense for the Braves outside of a hot first half after arriving in a trade in 2023.

The Braves would feel a lot better about their catching situation if they still had d’Arnaud, who signed with the Angels for two years and $12 million. Now, a catcher with a much-worse offensive track record (or none in MLB) will begin the season as the No. 1 catcher.

It might be Chadwick Tromp. Statcast tracking data and other metrics rate him as an average catcher over 400⅔ career innings, but he’s had poor results in 156 plate appearances. Two veteran catchers in Braves camp, Sandy Leon and Curt Casali, have similar profiles: good enough behind the plate, not so good at the plate. Rising prospect Drake Baldwin might earn the job with a strong performance in spring training, but he’s yet to make his MLB debut.

Turning down d’Arnaud’s option wasn’t an egregious decision for the Braves on its own given his age (36 on opening day) and injury history. But the circumstances make it seem like it was one of many transactions based more on cutting costs than eventually improving the roster. Letting d’Arnaud go was supposed to be about creating “flexibility” to add players later. But Braves president Alex Anthopoulos (so far) has not met his pledge to increase payroll from last opening day to the next.

The Braves rolled the dice and decided to rely on Murphy more in 2025. During a November interview on 680 The Fan, Anthopoulos noted that Murphy was Oakland’s catcher for 116 games in 2022. Anthopoulos said Murphy told him he could easily increase his workload to more than 120 games and added that the Braves have a “strong belief” that Murphy would improve at the plate.

“With us choosing to decline on Travis, we have uncertainty in that two spot behind him,” Anthopoulos said.

Now, that uncertainty has moved up to the No. 1 spot. Anthopoulos obviously couldn’t predict that Murphy would go on the IL again. The injury is pure bad luck. Still, MLB catchers typically spend more time on the IL than any of the other infield position players. The Braves didn’t have to worry much about that for the past two seasons because they were deeper at catcher than nearly every other team.

While Murphy played only 72 games at catcher last season, d’Arnaud played 99 and produced the fourth-best OPS among Braves regulars. When d’Arnaud missed a month early in 2023 and scuffled at the plate when he returned, Murphy produced the best offensive stretch of his career. Now, one part of that strong catching tandem will play in Southern California and the other will begin the season on the IL.

I share Anthopoulos’ view that Murphy, 29, still has the skills to be a productive offensive player. Murphy raked for Oakland in 2022 before the Braves acquired him after the season. They already had d’Arnaud but wanted Murphy for his defense. The move looked brilliant until Murphy’s health and bat declined while one player the Braves sent away for him, William Contreras, has become an elite catcher for the Brewers.

Those things won’t matter as much if Murphy returns to the lineup and hits better. He couldn’t do it last year, but an oblique injury is much trickier than a cracked rib. Yet, I thought the Braves should have picked up d’Arnaud’s contract option to guard against another down year for Murphy. Letting d’Arnaud walk won’t have the same impact as losing Fried, but it could matter.