{"id":39451,"date":"2025-03-07T14:58:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T14:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451"},"modified":"2025-03-07T14:58:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T14:58:02","slug":"braves-considering-free-agent-catchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451","title":{"rendered":"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<header>By Anthony Franco | <time datetime=\"2025-03-06T21:30:40-06:00\">March 6, 2025<\/time> at <time datetime=\"2025-03-06T21:30:40-06:00\">9:30pm CDT<\/time><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div>\n<p>The Braves will open the season without their starting catcher.\u00a0<strong>Sean Murphy<\/strong> will be down four to six weeks after breaking a rib when he was hit by a\u00a0Will Kempner pitch last week. Murphy and\u00a0<strong>Chadwick Tromp<\/strong> are the only catchers on the 40-man roster. Atlanta will need to make some kind of move by Opening Day.<\/p>\n<p>Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that the Braves are giving some thought to adding\u00a0<strong>Yasmani Grandal<\/strong> or\u00a0<strong>James McCann<\/strong>. They\u2019re the top two unsigned veteran catchers. Neither player would land more than a couple million dollars on a one-year contract. The Braves would need to decide whether it\u2019s worth rostering a veteran if Murphy only misses the first few weeks of the regular season. Tromp is out of options, so they\u2019d probably wind up cutting a catcher once Murphy returns.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves also have a high-upside alternative.\u00a0<strong>Drake Baldwin<\/strong> is one of the top handful of catching prospects in the sport. The former third-round draftee hit .276\/.370\/.423 with 16 homers between Double-A and Triple-A a year ago. Baldwin spent more than half the season at Triple-A Gwinnett, where he appeared in 72 games. He\u2019ll turn 24 just after Opening Day. Baldwin should play in the majors at some point this year. He could break camp as the starter, which would keep Tromp in the backup role.<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta would need to add Baldwin to their 40-man roster, but they could open a spot by placing <strong>Joe Jim\u00e9nez<\/strong> on the 60-day injured list at any time. An outside acquisition would need to go on the 40-man anyways, so that\u2019s unlikely to be much of a deterrent. Baldwin could get his first look at major league pitching and head back to Gwinnett for regular playing time once Murphy gets healthy.<\/p>\n<p>McCann or Grandal would be less exciting, if arguably steadier, alternatives. They\u2019re both mid-30s veterans who have plenty of experience working with big league pitching staffs. McCann has spent the last two seasons as\u00a0<strong>Adley Rutschman\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0backup in Baltimore. He hit .228\/.274\/.382 during his stint with the Orioles. McCann grades as a below-average pitch framer but has a strong reputation for his work with pitchers. He threw out a slightly above-average 23.5% of base stealers and wasn\u2019t charged with a passed ball in 559 2\/3 innings last season.<\/p>\n<p>The switch-hitting Grandal appeared in 72 games for the Pirates. He hit .228\/.304\/.400 across 243 trips to the plate. That was his best offensive showing since a 23-homer campaign with the White Sox in 2021. Grandal continues to post excellent pitch framing grades, as he has throughout his career. He was charged with five passed balls across 560 1\/3 frames, though, and he only managed to nab six of 72 opposing basestealers (an 8.3% rate). Grandal had the slowest pop time \u2014 average time to throw to second on steal attempts \u2014 among 83 qualified catchers, per Statcast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p>View Comments (50)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Braves could sign James McCann or Yasmani Grandal in response to the Sean Murphy injury. Read more at MLB Trade Rumors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":39452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[602,1124],"class_list":["post-39451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-james-mccann","tag-yasmani-grandal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Braves could sign James McCann or Yasmani Grandal in response to the Sean Murphy injury. Read more at MLB Trade Rumors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-07T14:58:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451\",\"name\":\"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers - NEWS USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-07T14:58:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-07T14:58:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"NEWS USA\",\"description\":\"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\",\"name\":\"MrThanh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrThanh\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers - NEWS USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers - NEWS USA","og_description":"The Braves could sign James McCann or Yasmani Grandal in response to the Sean Murphy injury. Read more at MLB Trade Rumors.","og_url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451","og_site_name":"NEWS USA","article_published_time":"2025-03-07T14:58:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"MrThanh","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrThanh","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451","name":"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers - NEWS USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg","datePublished":"2025-03-07T14:58:02+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-07T14:58:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-3-2.jpg","width":900,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=39451#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/","name":"NEWS USA","description":"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec","name":"MrThanh","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrThanh"},"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39453,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39451\/revisions\/39453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}