The Braves announced that catcher Sean Murphy has been activated from the 10-day injured list. Fellow backstop Chadwick Tromp was designated for assignment to create space on Murphy on the active roster.
The moves are surprising on a couple of levels, firstly because Murphy played only three games during his Triple-A rehab assignment. Murphy was expected to spend the full nine innings behind the plate in another Triple-A game today and then likely get activated from the IL prior to Tuesday’s game with the Phillies, but the Braves instead opted to bring Murphy back a little early.
Murphy suffered a cracked left rib after he was hit by a pitch during a Spring Training game at the start of March. Given a 4-6 week recovery timeline, Murphy’s return falls squarely within that timeframe, so the fact that the Braves felt confident enough to forego Murphy’s last rehab game is a good sign that the catcher is back to full health.
Now entering his third season in Atlanta, Murphy is looking to bounce back from a dreadful 2024 campaign. Murphy was an All-Star in 2023, but an early-season oblique injury cost him most of the first two months of the 2024 season, and he never really got on track, leading to a .193/.284/.352 slash line over 264 plate appearances. The catcher’s hopes of a rebound year were then delayed by his rib injury, though he’ll end up missing only the first nine games of the Braves’ season.
Murphy hasn’t missed much, as the Braves are a dismal 1-8 over their first nine games Most of Atlanta’s starting lineup has gotten off to a cold start, so there’s an even greater need for Murphy to regain his 2023 form.
It appears as though the club will keep Drake Baldwin on the big league roster as Murphy’s backup, which is the other unexpected element of today’s news. Indications were that Baldwin would optioned back to Triple-A in order to get more regular playing time. Instead, the Braves chose to DFA Tromp, who is out of minor league options and must clear waivers in order for the Braves to move him to the minors.
Baldwin is hitting only .154/.241/.192 over his first 29 Major League plate appearances, so it isn’t as if the top prospect is forcing his way into continued playing time. It could be that the Braves plan to somewhat ease Murphy back into regular duty, thus leaving the door open for Baldwin to still get a good chunk of at-bats and try to acclimate himself against big league pitching.
Tromp has appeared in 28 games for the Braves since the start of the 2022 season, getting some spot duty in place of other catchers like Murphy, Travis d’Arnaud, and William Contreras. If Tromp clears waivers, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, since he has previously been outrighted in his career. It is possible he could explore other opportunities on the open market, but Tromp’s lack of minor league options somewhat limits his appeal to other teams looking for catching depth. The Braves have another veteran in Sandy Leon at Triple-A and just acquired Jason Delay earlier this week in a trade, so the club could be ready to move on from Tromp entirely.
Braves impeach Tromp
“Impeach”..I know this is an attempt at humor, but impeach means to accuse and put on trial a high public official. Since when do sports teams adjudicate legal issues?
Lighten up
#NeverTromp
Tromp Derangement Syndrome.
Braves tariffs incoming!
I bet you’re fun at parties. #notmycatcher
Under usual circumstances, I would agree. But in state of Georgia, impeaching someone involves sealing them in a 64-gallon drum filled with sliced cling peaches and heavy syrup.
What the heck was this an attempt at doing?
Impeachment.
“Impeachment”…I thought it was funny.
Make catching great again.
Tromp won. Dang phone autocorrected to the President who will go unnamed so my post doesn’t need to be approved. And poor Tromp lost pretty hard on this one. Braves must have rigged it.
I would rather keep Tromp and send Baldwin back down if he isn’t going to see regular playing time.
agreed. at least Tromp contributes when he’s on the big club
Come on, Baldwin is way more talented than Tromp, who’s nothing more than a journeyman catcher. And it’s not like they’re going to run Murphy out there six or seven days a week. So a talented backup is needed.
Just when has Tromp ever contributed to the Atlanta Braves? I’m waiting……..?
Still waiting……..?
Tromp is a great game caller and also a good framer. That alone has contributed more than you think
I agree, but I’ve been a casual fan for 20 years, and while that sounds right, the coaching staff is more qualified than me (regardless of their start). Let the kid play, I say!
I think you’re running under the impression Murphy is gonna magically be good again
Why not? He’s had legit injuries. The current one, he was hit in the ribs. Let’s see how an average Joe can recover from that. Yes, he had a dismal 2024, not returning to form after straining his oblique, but they gave him that contract for a reason. At the price, if he can hit .250, 15 home runs, and return to an elite level of framing, what more do you want from a $15 million catcher?
What more I want is William Contreras back
Watch out @R.D…you’re going to have a lot of guys on here tell you Murphy is the greatest catcher to ever grace our presence. Best trade AA has ever pulled off..oh and he was framing Chris Sales Cy Young season even tho he was on the IL for 2 months which is pretty remarkable by itself…Lol I like Murphy, just never liked the Trade personally either.
@R.D. Murphy is going to be the every day starting catcher whether he i s good or not.
Make Murphy good again.
Make Murphy Dale again
I’m not tryna direct this at you specifically, but I’m tired of hearing podcast and radio hosts suggesting that if he can’t play every day he should be sent down. Starting 2 or 3 times per week in the bigs would be more beneficial for him than every day at-bats in AAA. Plus he consistently puts up better at-bats than half this team. (unfortunately that isn’t a high bar to clear tho)
Tromp is out of options?
Weird in that the title says designated but the article says optioned.
Tromp is in fact out of options.
The headline says the Braves designated Chomp, the article says they optioned him… which is it??
DFA. He’s out of options.
Chomp chomp.
It’s time to close our eyes and hold our breaths and put Ozuna in LF…open up DH for whomever isn’t catching. Can’t watch BOTH Kelenic and Dela Cruz try to hit anymore……Also maybe Acuña can get back sooner if he DH’s the first couple weeks…
For better or worse, Verdugo will soon be in LF.
Yeah most likely
There’s been talk of Baldwin taking some reps in LF.
Depends, Alec or Billy? Or Tito?
Was this AI generated as well?
If it was, it worked. Received a quick message about a verified transaction, allowing the on-staff writers time to analyze and provide a post. Easy as it goes, my friend, welcome to the new world. AI is an assistant, not a replacement for human reasoning. That said, in the future, if this site transitions to just AI without review, then it’s time to move along. MLBTR is still excellent quality.
This is reponse to my (and others) accusation that old York uses ai to generate his posts.
“AI generated”..Websites and companies are now misrepresenting AI customer service agents as real people. I chose “talk to live agent” option and an “agent” named “Michael Cambridge” came on and starting helping and talking(texting)to me.
He clearly was a bot even though he texted me and told me otherwise. He never did respond directly to ANY of my queries. Just prepackaged, canned, automated, reheated responses. And this was on the MLB.TV customer service website.
Just last week I had an mlbtv subscription problem and while there was a wait I definitely got a person, not one but two as she need clearance from her supervisor. Very good service. I usually have to pass on the post-transaction survey but I did customer service myself as a developeri know how hard it is. But I was able to give her top marks.. ‘Course this involved money so that might have woken them up.
“Woken” them up? Everyone could use a dose of “woking” up now and again. Is there a reeducation camp for that?
It seems like there might be a bit of confusion in your message—could you clarify or let me know what you’re looking for? I’m here to help!
The Braves gotta get some stability to this team.
The Jason Delay trade now makes a lot more sense!
I guess for Tromp it just Delay’d the inevitable
I’ll see myself out…
I think they would’ve been wiser to proceed without Delay. Which way to the elevator?
It mattered little where Sean Murphy was playing today with heavy thunderstorms rolling through much of the nations’ southeast. The Braves game in Atlanta was cancelled as was their AAA Gwinnett Stripers home game in Lawrenceville, Ga.
Monday won’t provide any playing time for Murphy either with Atlanta off and most minor leagues baseball teams traveling to their next destination for their weeklong series that commences on Tuesday.
Would have been a great time to capitalize on the fact that Alcantara went on to paternity list, and they’d have a bullpen game, but alas. Wish Sandy and family the best.
savant pages indicate Baldwin is gonna start racking up hits. maybe he can play LF occasionally
If they can get his bat going, maybe a backup C/sporadic DH-in-training if they don’t re-sign Ozuna at the end of the season, which was the role d’Arnaud excelled in.
@jeffreybecker77
Good call. Baldwin’s lack of hits boils down to rotten luck and a microscopic sample size, with possible tweaks needed in launch angle consistency or adapting to defensive alignments. Would definately make sense to at least get him 50-100 PA to see if this converts into actual hits or not.
They also have James McCann who went 2-3 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI’s for AA Columbus the other day, but now Jason Delay is with Columbus also. Maybe they will tag team or one gets promoted to Gwinnett for back-up to Murphy and Baldwin. I’ve seen some rumblings about Tromp ’28, so maybe Tromp will get claimed by Washington! Tromp goes to Washington in next edition of MLB TRADER!
Does MLB Trader know the whereabouts of Craig Kimbrel? The Catcher and the BYE!
Sorry, The Catcher in the “Bye”!
Tromp goes to Washington!
The SURPRISE is that the pitcher who hit Murphy and broke his ribs was not suspended by MLB at the time and only now would be seeing that suspension lifted as a result of Murphy now returning to his team’s active roster. The antiquated one-sided injustice of both the pitcher and his team being able to get away with ZERO penalty when the pitcher’s thrown pitch injures a batter and results in a lost time injury has long since passed and has no validity in the high stakes game of today. “OOPS, S-O-R-R-Y, Well, that’s just part of the game” is unacceptable and inadequate.
Moves on to a new team. Washington makes sense and changes number to 47!
Launch Tromp into the sun, he Make Atlanta Gag Again.
Time to put in Tromp? Nyet, say Braves. Sent to the showers. Transaction all on tape
Grab him by the DFA.
Now that he’s DFA’d, he has more time to help lower grocery prices.
Her already did, You are spreading fake prices. Only the strong will win. Was gonna wisecrack about fake eggs but they sell those already..And they just raised that price too.
They’d just put Tromp on the IL with a meniscus tariff they were smart.
Chadwick never did much. Granted he never got much paying time. Braves are deep at catcher and do not need him anymore.
Braves can’t really be taking chances right now, and Baldwin has hit way better than his stat line, some really mature ABs
Sounds like a good idea in their rebuilding year.
Tromp just couldn’t
Make Atlanta Great Again!
So now back to Murphy’s Law,
with Baldwin and Associates!
Fast tracking Murphy back feels like a bad idea, but I’m not a doctor, so we’ll see.
At this point things can only get better!
I kinda expect them to split time for 2-3 weeks until Murphy is up to speed then maybe Baldwin goes to AAA. They could call up James McCann to be the backup that way both catchers get plenty of innings.
Offense needs to be better for that to happen, esp Murphy.