The Braves announced yesterday that catcher Curt Casali was reassigned to minor league camp. They announced the same with Sandy León today. Casali has been released, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
It now seems highly likely that prospect Drake Baldwin will break camp with the club. Atlanta hasn’t made any firm announcements but Sean Murphy is going to start the season on the injured list due to a cracked rib. That leaves Chadwick Tromp as the only healthy catcher on the 40-man roster, meaning Atlanta needs to add someone. Casali and Leon were in camp as NRIs but that is no longer the case. Unless Atlanta brings in a catcher from outside the organization, then it seems like Baldwin will get an Opening Day job.
Baldwin, 24 this month, is one of the top catching prospects in the game. A third-round pick in the 2022 draft, he split last year between Double-A and Triple-A. He got into 124 games in total, including 72 at the top minor league level. Combined, he had a 13.1% walk rate and 17.2% strikeout rate on the year. He hit 16 home runs and slashed .276/.370/.423 for a 119 wRC+.
Coming into 2025, Baldwin is a consensus top 100 prospect. Baseball America currently has him in the #53 spot, noting that he profiles as a competent defender who is getting strong reviews for his work with pitchers.
Atlanta turned down a club option on Travis d’Arnaud at the start of the offseason, leaving Murphy and Tromp as the two catchers on the roster. Murphy’s injury opened a path for Baldwin to earn a job to start the season. He has certainly done everything he can to take advantage of that opportunity. He enters today with a spring batting line of .370/.485/.444.
That will seemingly be enough to get him a crack at the big leagues, at least to start the season. When Murphy suffered his cracked rib in early March, it was announced that he would be out of action for four to six weeks. He could therefore be back on the field in April but will likely need a bit of a rehab assignment to effectively redo his spring training.
While he does that, the team will see how Baldwin does against major league pitching. If he does well, perhaps he and Murphy could share the catching duties going forward, though Tromp is out of options. That means he would need to be removed from the 40-man roster, unless the club wants to carry three catchers when Murphy is healthy. But even the best prospects sometimes struggle when first promoted to the majors. If that happens with Baldwin, he can be optioned back to Triple-A while Murphy and Tromp handle things. For now, Baldwin will need a 40-man roster spot, though that could be easily accomplished by putting Joe Jiménez on the 60-day injured list.
Casali, 36, was in camp on a minor league deal. He’s been in the big leagues for over a decade now, generally providing solid defense with flashes of offense, though he hasn’t hit much in the past two years. He had a career batting line of .223/.316/.392 and 92 wRC+ at the end of the 2022 season, but he has slashed .186/.292/.229 over the past two campaigns for a 52 wRC+. His struggles have continued into this spring. He has 15 plate appearances in camp with Atlanta with no hits, no walks and seven strikeouts. The only time he reached base was on a hit-by-pitch.
That’s a small sample but obviously not a good showing, especially when compared to what Baldwin has been up to. Casali is an Article XX(B) free agent, meaning that he has at least six years of service time and finished last season on a major league roster or injured list. That means he has guaranteed opt-out dates on his minor league deal: five days before Opening Day, May 1 and June 1.
Since he wasn’t going to break camp with Atlanta, he was likely going to opt out and look for other opportunities. The club has seemingly let him go a bit early, allowing him to get a headstart on finding his next gig.
Despite his rough spring, he should get interest based on his track record. There are several clubs around the league with injury concerns. The Mets are going to be without Francisco Alvarez for a while. The Reds will start the season with Tyler Stephenson on the IL and Jose Trevino is banged up as well. The Giants have Patrick Bailey behind the plate but Tom Murphy will start the year on the IL and won’t be able to back him up. Casali could perhaps find a fresh minor league deal with one of those clubs or circle back to Atlanta after making a few calls.
Excellent news! I hope that the Braves play Baldwin a lot this year, even after Murphy comes back. Maybe Murph 2/3, Baldwin 1/3.
Why would you keep a top prospect on the bench for 2/3 of the time? Once Murphy is back, they’d better serve Baldwin by sending him back down to play every day. Having him sit on the bench would be a mistake for his development.
Because Baldwin is a much better hitter than Tromp, and gives the Braves the best chance to win games. And because he will get better instruction in Atlanta than at Gwinnett. And with all of Murphy’s injuries, he will likely be better off if he doesn’t play as much.
@EM41 — All of Murphy’s 2 injuries, inc. getting hit in the ribs by a 95mph FB? Basically, he’s had 1 oblique injury in 2024 that affected much of the year and hasn’t had much of a chance to prove that while being hit in the ribs during ST.
If you look at Murphy’s career, he’s much better the more he plays. IMHO, ATL really did him a disservice not playing him his typical 60+% since coming to ATL b/c of d’Arnaud (and not being able to keep his bat in the lineup due to DH Ozuna). I understand his bat was dreadful since post-AS 2023, but they kept trotting Arcia out there with arguably THE worst bat of 2024.
Murphy is under contract for a few more years. He should expect to take the lions share of playing time at catcher. Baldwin will be, at best, in a timeshare when he’s up full time. Let him get his service time and get accustomed to MLB life. If he’s the better player he should be on the roster
Well Murphy is signed for 4 more years. Are you going to develop Baldwin the whole time?
@ Mets Era – Ozuna is under contract only thru 2025, locking up the DH spot. One cheaper option is IF Baldwin’s bat translates and need ABs, they could use him as a DH/backup C, not unlike they would do with d’Arnaud.
I have a feeling Baldwin gets more starts than Murphy by the end of the season. My point is sometimes you can try to develop a player to long. If he helps the Braves in the majors then don’t waste him. It’s not like any catcher can start every night.
Great. I selected Baldwin last night as a minor-league pick in a Roto draft.
Kendrick Lamar has entered the chat.
Casali may be on Reds radar as short term fill in.
Came here to say welcome back, Curt!
Casali is such a “statesmen” and his pitchers have all loved the dude. He’s super smart as well. He’s due for a front office job or on-field coaching/management job, as his playing days are running out.
I imagine Posey would like to do that. Whenever you’re ready to hang ’em up Curt, give Buster a call.
Sandy Leon has to be 60 years old
60??? He was 60 when I was in high school!!!
Sandy is the definition of “You still here?”
I still remember that brief stint in Boston when he turned into Johnny Bench.
Went from a bench guy to a Bench guy. I remember his time in Boston well.
He was never Bench at the plate but it was fun when every contact it seems was a hit.
Turned those couple weeks into a career
Casalii needs to hit.
Hooray to all the ex-Giant backup catchers!
I feel like we will miss being able to say, and read “Catcher Curt Casali”
Reds better grab Casali to cover for Stephenson injury.
Darragh with a nice crack in the 6th paragraph regarding the rookie getting a crack due to Murphy’s cracked rib. It may not seem to be all it was cracked up to be, but it really cracked me up. Sorry, I must be on crack. By crackey!
Good job cracking wise.
Casali was 0 for the spring, so no surprise there. Leon was doing decent and half of his hits were Home Runs.
With all of the injuries at the Catcher position around the league this spring i expect a round of musical chairs coming soon for the guys that get cut
This signals full confidence in Baldwin.