2:37pm: Murphy will undergo surgery that requires about four months of rehab, David O’Brien of The Athletic reports. He’s expected to be ready for spring training.
2:24pm: The Braves announced Monday that catcher Sean Murphy has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a torn labrum in his right hip. Veteran catcher Sandy Leon’s contract was selected from Triple-A Gwinnett in a corresponding move. Atlanta also recalled righty Dane Dunning from Gwinnett and optioned lefty Hayden Harris. Obviously, the hip injury ends Murphy’s 2025 season.
This will be the second straight season with a notable injury for the veteran Murphy. He missed significant time with an oblique issue early in 2024. He began this season on the injured list after suffering a ribcage fracture but was back by the second week of April. He hit well for much of the summer — until falling into a deep slump recently. That downturn in production now seems attributable to injury. His season will now draw to a close with a .199/.300/.409 slash and 16 homers in 337 trips to the plate. Murphy has just four hits in his past 66 plate appearances.
Murphy drew plenty of walks, hit for power and played premium defense behind the plate, but it seems obvious that he was physically compromised down the stretch. He’ll take the offseason to mend and presumably return to a catching timeshare with Rookie of the Year candidate Drake Baldwin next year. Atlanta has Murphy signed for three more years at a total of $45MM, and there’s been speculation about a potential trade from that catching tandem, but this injury seems likely to curb interest from potential buyers.
Baldwin and Murphy operated in a catcher/designated hitter tandem down the stretch. If Murphy is healthy next year, it’s easy enough to see the Braves operating with a similar setup, perhaps carrying a third catcher in the mold of Leon on the roster (though not necessarily Leon himself). It’s a dynamic pair of catchers, as Baldwin’s .276/.349/.447 line and Murphy’s pre-injury line both point to a pair of highly productive backstops with solid to plus defensive tools, positioning Atlanta to have a strong core behind the dish for the foreseeable future.
This post has been updated to correct that Murphy’s oblique injury occurred in 2024.
Just adds to this year. Hopefully a better on next.
Sorry for Murphy but I’m glad even this late, Leon is getting another opportunity. No Sox fan can forget when he first arrived in Boston. Both he and Vasquez contributed in 18, a magical season.
Seven years of a long time in catcher years.
Just shows how good he was behind the plate, to still be at. There have been many others who still caught in the minors even older. Kudos to all of them. Perez today. Amazing even if he DH’s now.
Hip injuries and catcher do not seem to pair up for a good looking future. The constant squatting , I just don’t see how it can be done with a bad hip.
I’m on tonight
You know my hips don’t lie (no fighting)
And I’m starting to feel it’s right
All the attraction, the tension
Don’t you see, baby, this is perfection?
I have a torn labrum in my hip and squatting isn’t an issue. Sitting Indian style is the biggest pain and actually swinging a bat as well which may help explain his struggles hitting.
Oh boy, can we get through this season before even more disaster strikes?
And once again it is apparent that Atlanta should have dealt Murphy away at the trade deadline. One his offense declined significantly as the season progressed (and he has always been streaky). Now he is injured and has significant question marks going into the off season. Not a good situation.
Yes, all those great offers of … they received.
To be honest it is true that none of us know the offers they did or didn’t receive, if any. If I recall correctly roughly a week or so before the deadline Anthopoulos (or maybe it was something O’Brien put out) said something along the lines of that they were not shopping Murphy.
I know that many fans overestimate trade values for their own players (especially ones whose contracts are NOT bargains, but I could imagine they could have gotten a player or two off of the back half of a team’s top 30 prospect list for him
Its hard enough to have one good C. Having two is a great advantage. Not worth a maybe prospect to give that up.
The Braves have a lot of former back half of the top 30 players. Murphy is worth more than that.
@southi so your point is that we should have traded Murphy for scrap and let another team benefit from a healthy Murphy after next season. Great insight.
Actually while I am one that believes Murphy is a better than average receiver and a decent enough hitter for a catcher I do NOT believe that he is worth his remaining contract and because of that I strongly believe they should have traded him and got what they could have. I sadly, and perhaps wrongly (only time will tell), believe that we have only begun to see his decline.
My psychic abilities are not what they once were, either. We all will have to wait and see.
That’s the first time hip and the Atlanta braves have been mentioned all season
Wrong Harris linked
No loss. One of the worst hitters in the bigs.
there’s still time to put two and two together here mr. critical thinker
I just read that Murphy said his hip has been bothering him for 3 years, and got worse recently. This is probably one of the reasons his hitting has declined the past two years.
It would explain in part why he has tended to wear down as the season progresses.
Perhaps they have deep regret trading Contreras a few years ago? Then again the GM screwed over Freeman so anything goes with this club
That should be “then again Freeman’s agent screwed him over………….
To blend the ‘maybe they regret trading Contreas” into “screwing over Freeman” is a very sad. The pain someone must feel to do that, The living in someone’s head rent free for years pain numbing the person to facts. It is a horrible malady. I hope you can let it go.
Looks to be a future DH now.
All catchers are future 1B/DH if they can hit
Good to get this taken care of now and he can rotate with Baldwin and the DH spot to help his hip along next year if needed
Boy this is going to put a dent in the Twitter gurus’ plans of shipping him and his fat contract off to Baltimore for Gunnar Henderson
Do people really think that is going to happen? A catcher is the last thing the Orioles need.
Nobody thinks this is going to happen.
Not without Adley included!
A catcher with a contract….
I don’t have Twitter; is that trade idea something people are actually pushing? Lol.
Sucks for Murphy, but simplifies the lineup going forward. We’ll also get to see how Baldwin can do as the full-time catcher.
Snit wants you to hold his beer. He’s got tomorrow night’s lineup with Sandy Leon batting clean-up and Eli White playing 1B, inadvertently breaking Olson’s streak, and having a bullpen game with the recently-released John Brebbia starting. That October Disney cruise can’t come soon enough for him.
$100 off a set of tires tomorrow if the Krazy Karen or Zach Hample catches a foul ball during tonight’s game vs Cubs! $150 off if either one snatches a homerun ball out of a kids glove.
I’d pay $150 to see Karen snatch a ball from Zach Hample, and then fight each other while the crown jeers both of them
It’s all Snits fault! How can he allow all the players to forget how to hit?