The Atlanta Braves head into the season looking to show that last year’s team won’t define them. If there is a player on the staff that most reflects this, it’s catcher Sean Murphy. He enters the season under the microscope.
According to MLB.com, Murphy is the Braves player with the most to prove in Spring Training. This is not for the entire upcoming season. This is for Spring Training.
It took just one downyear where he missed time with an injury to make everyone forget he was an all-star the year prior.
“Murphy’s success in Oakland led the Braves to acquire him in a three-team trade that sent William Contreras to Milwaukee,” MLB.com’s Mark Bowman wrote. “While Contreras established himself as the game’s top-ranked catcher last year, Murphy endured the worst season of his career. He’ll be asked to catch at least 60 percent of Atlanta’s games this year, and he believes the consistent playing time will help him regain the form he had when he was an All-Star in 2023, his first year with Atlanta.”
He’s not done for if he doesn’t prove it in the next few weeks. Let’s be real. But last season was tough for him.
In 72 games in 2024, Murphy has a slash line of .193/.284/.352 with 10 home runs and 25 RBIs. He had 16 total extra-base hits. Just one game into last season, he suffered an oblique injury. He missed nearly two months and never looked quite right after that.
There was a point in the summer when it looked like he was starting to get back on track, but he slumped the rest of the way. In his final 24 games of the season, he batted a measly .120.
He was hurt. He underperformed. If he doesn’t sum up the 2024 Braves, nobody does.
In theory, the 30-year-old catcher is now guaranteed to be the starting catcher. He’s under contract until the end of the decade, and his fellow catcher, Travis d’Arnaud has departed for Anaheim.
However, there is one rising name that could get in his way.
Bowman doesn’t mention him, but the Braves also have a top prospect in camp as well: Drake Baldwin. He’s showing much promise with his bat before even taking a Spring Training at-bat this year.
There’s a chance to be Wally Pipped – a term named after the first baseman on the Yankees before Lou Gehrig. For a more modern, albeit not a baseball, comparison, there’s always a chance he could end up like quarterback Drew Bledsoe. If that doesn’t ring a bell either, google Tom Brady.
If Murphy slumps or misses time again, it could, and likely will, create an opportunity for Baldwin to swoop in. Murphy could wind up sticking around as an expensive backup or be dealt – salary dumps happen.
But at this time, he still has the chance to show his 2023 season is who he actually is. His team is trying to do the exact same thing. Some view the Braves as at the tail end of their run. Some thing Murphy is already done for.
So it’s fitting his return-to-form arc comes now. A Braves player won Comeback Player of the Year last season. Murphy would like to make that back-to-back.
