ATLANTA – Sometimes, an early-season rainout isn’t a bad thing for a team. For example, there is Sunday’s postponement of the struggling Atlanta Braves’ home series finale against the Miami Marlins.

Instead of having Grant Holmes face Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, the Braves get an extra day to reset before their much-anticipated home series against the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies that begins Tuesday.

That means instead of having Bryce Elder pitch the second game of that series as planned, the Braves will have Holmes face the Phillies’ Taijuan Walker in the middle game.

That’s after Chris Sale starts the opener against Zack Wheeler in a matchup of last year’s NL Cy Young winner and runner-up, respectively. And it’s before Spencer Schwellenbach, who leads MLB qualifiers with his .068 opponents’ batting average and 0.29 WHIP, faces NL strikeout leader Jesús Luzardo (2-0, 1.50 ERA) in the series finale.

#Braves have reinstated Sean Murphy from the injured list, but the other big news related to that: They're keeping Drake Baldwin on the MLB roster. To make room for Murphy, they DFA'd Chadwick Tromp.

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) April 6, 2025

Play later at full capacity

Given the way Atlanta stumbled out of the starting gate to a majors-worst 1-8 record, any game that it can put off playing until later, after right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., starting pitcher Spencer Strider and catcher Sean Murphy return from the injured list, is a good thing for the Braves.

Or as Bill Murray’s character John Winger said in the movie “Stripes”: “I know that I’m speaking for the entire platoon when I say this run should be postponed until this platoon is better rested.”

Atlanta and Philadelphia (7-2) have each played nine games, and already the last-place Braves trail the first-place Phillies by six games. The Braves are even four games behind the third-place Marlins. Yes, it’s a tiny sample, but the last time Atlanta was as many as six games out of first place before May was 2017. 

Sunday’s postponement against the Marlins will be made up as part of a split doubleheader Aug. 9. That’s the third day of what had been a scheduled four-game series, but will now be five games played between the teams in four days.

The Braves activated Murphy from the IL after Sunday’s rainout, and he’ll be behind the plate Tuesday. They are expected to have Strider back after one more rehab start Thursday for Triple-A Gwinnett. In his second start for Gwinnett, Strider pitched 5 1/3 hitless and scoreless innings Friday with two walks and eight strikeouts in 75 pitches.

It might have been tempting for the Braves to activate Strider to face Philadelphia, considering he’s 8-0 with a 2.06 ERA in nine regular-season games (eight starts) against the Phillies. But the Braves are being disciplined in their approach to his rehab and not altering the timetable even after losing Reynaldo López to a shoulder issue.

The latest evidence of that was the 75-pitch limit that Strider had in his Friday start. When he got to 75, he was replaced in the middle of an at-bat while ahead 1-2 in the count.

He’ll likely throw about 90 pitches Thursday and be activated five or six days later, assuming no setbacks and that he doesn’t think he needs another rehab start. If activated, Strider could start the series finale in Toronto on April 16, on five days of rest. But, again, the Braves haven’t announced the ETA for Strider.

Ronald Acuña Jr. update

While there’s also been no timetable announced for Acuña’s return, early to mid-May still seems a reasonable target date, as it has for the past several months. Acuña will soon travel to Los Angeles for a follow-up exam with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who did the ACL surgery on Acuña’s right knee on June 4 in L.A.

Once ElAttrache gives him the green light, Acuña will be permitted to ramp up his running drills to include cutting and full-bore outfield work, and soon after that, he would likely begin a minor-league rehab assignment that might last 2 to 3 weeks before he’s ready to come off the IL.

Again, the Braves have been adamant about not divulging any timetable for his return, because they don’t want it viewed as a setback if Acuña takes a few days or weeks longer than any tentative date they gave.

ElAttrache is a renowned orthopedic surgeon who serves as the lead physician for the Dodgers and Rams. He will also perform the arthroscopic surgery on López’s pitching shoulder on Tuesday, after which the Braves hope to hear that only a clean-up type procedure was required and that López would be expected to pitch again this season.

But until ElAttrache gets the scope in the shoulder to see exactly what is causing the inflammation and discomfort, he won’t know if a more extensive procedure is required. In either case, the issue is expected to be repaired during the procedure.

Six games back already

Primarily because of severe offensive struggles and a couple of bullpen meltdowns, the Braves lost their first seven games and eight of their first nine, dropping six games out of first place far earlier than they did during the past seven seasons when they advanced to the postseason every year.

The Braves weren’t six games out of first place last season until May 21, and not until May 4 in 2023. They were that far back for the first time in 2022 on May 1, and not until June 12 in 2021, the year they won the World Series.

The Braves were never more than two games behind in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and didn’t fall to a half-dozen back in 2019 until June 23. They never trailed by more than 3 1/2 games in 2018, the first season in their run of six consecutive division titles, a streak that ended last season with a wild-card berth.

The last time they fell as many as six games behind anywhere near this quickly was 2017, when the Braves were six games back on April 22. That was also the last year they failed to make the playoffs, finishing 72-90 for third place in the NL East, 25 games behind Dusty Baker’s division-champion Washington Nationals.

Sean Murphy returns, Drake Baldwin stays

Catcher Drake Baldwin, the Braves’ No. 1 prospect, made the Opening Day roster because Murphy was on the IL after fracturing a rib when hit by a pitch Feb. 28. But when Murphy was activated Sunday, it was Chadwick Tromp who got dropped from the roster, the Braves opting to keep Baldwin on the big-league team and designated Tromp for assignment.

The move wasn’t surprising, only because Baldwin is one of the few Braves hitters to have consistent at-bats during the team’s hideous offensive start. It doesn’t show up in his standard hitting stats — he’s 4-for-26 (.154) with a .241 OBP, one RBI and a .433 OPS — but Baldwin has the second-most hard-hit balls (at least 95 mph) on the team with 13 in 29 plate appearances, trailing only Matt Olson, who has 15 hard-hit balls in 38 PAs.

Baldwin’s rate of balls “barreled” — a ball hit with a perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle — is third highest on the team behind veteran sluggers Olson and Austin Riley.

Murphy is expected to catch four or five games per week, though the split could be more even in the first week or two back from the IL. But even if Baldwin is only catching a couple of games per week, the Braves believe he can continue developing at the big-league level by being around Murphy and the pitchers in their pre-game meetings and during games, and being able to talk to the team’s veteran hitters. He can provide another left-handed bat with some power off the bench when he’s not in the lineup.

Since Tromp is out of minor-league options, the Braves had to DFA him before they could move him. If he clears waivers, they could send him to Triple A. But because Tromp has been taken off a roster before, he could opt for free agency.

That seems the more likely scenario and probably the best for Tromp’s career, considering the Braves have catching depth with Murphy, Baldwin and veterans James McCann, a mid-spring training signing, and Jason Delay, whom they acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates last week.

Delay has minor-league options, meaning the Braves can move him between the minors and big-league team if they need to, as they did last year with Tromp when he still had options.

(Photo of Drake Baldwin: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)

David O’Brien is a senior writer covering the Atlanta Braves for The Athletic. He previously covered the Braves for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and covered the Marlins for eight seasons, including the 1997 World Series championship. He is a two-time winner of the NSMA Georgia Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow David on Twitter @DOBrienATL