TODAY: The Braves officially announced Murphy’s placement on the 10-day IL, due to a strained left oblique. Tromp’s contract was officially selected to the big league roster.
MARCH 29: Braves catcher Sean Murphy departed today’s game with an oblique issue and the club informed reporters after the game that the backstop will go on the injured list. Mark Bowman of MLB.com was among those to relay the news. David O’Brien of The Athletic relays that Chadwick Tromp will be called up. Tromp is not currently on the 40-man and will need to be added, though Atlanta has multiple vacancies there.
The severity of the issue isn’t yet known but it will be a notable one for Atlanta, as Murphy is one of the better backstops in the league. He hit 21 home runs last year and drew walks in 11.2% of his plate appearances. That led to a batting line of .251/.365/.478, which translates to a wRC+ of 129. He’s also considered a strong defender and FanGraphs considered him to be worth 4.2 wins above replacement on the year. That was the fifth-highest tally among catchers, but the four above him all played at least 18 more games than Murphy did.
The reason Murphy played just 108 wasn’t due to injury, but the club splitting the catching playing time between him and Travis d’Arnaud. With Murphy now out, d’Arnaud will have to step up and take on a larger role for at least the next 10 days but perhaps longer.
As far as backup catchers go, few clubs could boast one as good as d’Arnaud, but he’s clearly a drop-off from Murphy. d’Arnaud hit 11 home runs in 292 plate appearances last year but his .225/.288/.397 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 83. He has been in better form in the past, as recently as 2022, when he hit .268/.319/.472 for a wRC+ of 120.
The club is loaded with talent but those are the only two catchers on the 40-man roster right now. d’Arnaud is now 35 years old and has had his share of injury woes over the years, including multiple concussions, Tommy John surgery, a thumb sprain, a broken finger and a strained rotator cuff. While Atlanta will still be a great team, Murphy is arguably the player on the roster whose absence would make the most negative impact.
Tromp, 29, has a bit of major league experience. He’s been in the big leagues in each of the past four years but taken just 102 plate appearances in 40 games over that time. His career batting line of .222/.225/.414 translates to a wRC+ of 65. In Triple-A over the past three years, he’s hit .229/.299/.399 for a wRC+ of 76. He was non-tendered by Atlanta after last season but re-signed on a minor league deal. As mentioned, he’ll need a 40-man spot but Atlanta has plenty of spots open.
Atlanta will roll with that combination for the time being but could also perhaps look around the league for external additions, as various roster cuts have been made in recent days with the season starting. Eric Haase was designated for assignment by the Brewers yesterday, Alí Sánchez by the Pirates and Cooper Hummel by the Giants. It’s also possible a small trade could be had, perhaps involving someone like Joey Bart of the Giants. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle recently took a look at how Bart has a tenuous grasp on his roster spot in San Francisco.
Regardless of how things play out, Atlanta won’t find anyone as good as Murphy. Whatever plans they cobble together in the weeks to come, they will be hoping for him to get healthy as quickly as possible and rejoin the club.
Omfg. Chadwick tromp most likely gets the call. I wouldn’t mind seeing Drake Baldwin though.
I think they want Baldwin playing every day and getting those steady defensive reps in the minors for now.
I was at the Gwinnett Stripers game in Jacksonville when they were playing the Jumbo Shrimp and I told my cousin that if Tromp isn’t starting that the Braves were going to put Murphy on the IL because the Braves are going to be precautionary with any oblique situation and sure enough here we are.
Do you know Japanese fluently? If so, someone may be interested in your foresight. Waiving my finder’s fee.
Well considering the game was last night and that Tromp has been the 3rd string catcher for the last 3 season it doesn’t take much to make the connection.
Ippei?
Or possibly, Dr. Drake Ramoray.
Wrong sport, Harley!!!!
Still believe TD is a better hitter and rather have him in the lineup. Regardless, hopefully this is not a long loss.
Well Darnaud would be better than last season if he saw regular at bats. But he isn’t better, or as good, a hitter. I like how Murphy said he couldn’t stand the heat in ATL and wore down because of it. It reminds us all there are very basic things going on that aren’t taken into account statistically. And honestly last summer wasn’t even as bad as many are. Anyone who’s ever lived in a place like ATL or TX understand the difficulty of even being in the stands in summer.
I remember reading an article years ago that said Tim Hudson had similar issues with the Atlanta humidity when he came over from Oakland and it took him a year to adjust to it. I can imagine it’s worse for a catcher with the gear on.
Oakland should’ve stopped trading with ATL after Tim Hudson and they’d be better off. Tho there are those who think they do bad deals on purpose now.
“Still believe TD is a better hitter”
By pretty much every metric, he’s not. It’s not really close, either. Just as a simple comparison, Murphy has had a 122 and a 125 OPS+ in the last two seasons. d’Arnaud had a 117 and an 82. And in 2021, d’Arnaud had a 76. His career OPS+ is 99 while Murphy’s is 118.
That’s because I remember the big hits TD gets when it matters over regular season numbers. Give me TD over Murphy in a big spot any day.
I agree Id like Travis up in the key spot but you only get to playoffs because of the value accumulated over the regular season and Murphy will contribute more than Travis in that way. Ultimately a first inning homer is as important as a 9th inning one (really more important in ways-tho less intense and memorable). They aren’t always gonna win division by that many games (or at all-tho they have a knack for it). If you want Travis up in playoffs than bench Ozuna-he is clearly one who lets a stressful situation work on his mind instead of letting his instincts take over-as 2022 and much of 21′ and 23′ attested. Not to mention the playoffs-small sample tho it has been.
So just because you remember him getting some big hits, that means he’s a better hitter. Despite Murphy obviously being a better hitter. Got it.
100 percent of MLB GMs would disagree with you. Probably even the Rockies front office can see that he’s a better hitter.
Trade with SF for Buford, GA native Joey Bart on the horizon?
Why? I’m from New England but Boston is calling me…
Why? I’m from New England but Boston is calling me…Or two that could start on many clubs.
Sorry all. Second post was meant for the next comment.
It’s a good thing the Braves have the best backup catcher in baseball
Luckily they have an excellent backup.
Only 102 wins now
TROMP 2024
He’ll be on the phone with the official scorer insisting that he needs to find him some more hits.
My man couldn’t make it through 1 game? Like Ron Simmons says…..DAMN!
Just the break the Mets needed to take the division…
Tromp is a fine emergency catcher but not a long term solution.
Murphy could be out for quite a spell so why not take a chance on a lotto ticket like Joey Bart.
Bart is from Georgia and a 2nd chance for a new team could revitalize him in his home state. The acquisition cost should be low but the reward high, certainly higher ceiling than Tromp’s. Trading international signing money would probably be all that was needed.
Well, Tromp is still an emergency catcher. He’ll get maybe 4 starts over the next month.
Well since they’ve kept him on so long they must really like his work with pitchers. They hardly need worry about offense for a backup unless it becomes prolonged.
Even low-grade oblique strains seem to take three weeks for recovery. Hopefully it’s nothing too bad.
Chadwick Tromp. Yeah sure.
My turn. Roscommon Buden.
Tromp 24
He swang too hard:(
And that boys and girls, is why AA pays our backup catcher $8MM annually.
The Braves were fast tracking catcher Drake Baldwin. Does anyone know what happened to him?