The Braves announced they’ve reinstated catcher Sean Murphy from his season-opening injured list stint. That pushed Jonah Heim off the team, as he has been designated for assignment to create space for Murphy on the active roster. Atlanta’s 40-man count drops to 39.
It’s an unfortunate but probably expected outcome for Heim. The switch-hitting backstop signed a $1.5MM free agent deal early in Spring Training. The Braves knew Murphy would need some time to recover from last fall’s hip labrum surgery. NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin was the clear #1 option behind the dish, leaving Heim mostly as a fill-in backup until Murphy was back from injury.
The Braves could have carried three catchers, but that’s generally not the way teams prefer to use two of their four bench spots. They’re also currently playing a little shorthanded in the outfield. Not only did they lose Ronald Acuña Jr. to the injured list yesterday, they haven’t felt comfortable playing Michael Harris II in center field since Wednesday.
Harris has been dealing with left quad discomfort that kept him out of the starting lineup on Thursday and Friday. He worked as the designated hitter on Saturday but didn’t play yesterday and is out again tonight against Seattle righty Logan Gilbert.
The thinner outfield led the Braves to select Jose Azocar for a bench role over the weekend. They’ve pushed Mauricio Dubón from shortstop to center field for the past few games, drawing Jorge Mateo into the lineup. Kyle Farmer sticks around as the backup infielder. The moving pieces didn’t leave much room for three catchers. Murphy had reached the end of his 20-day rehab window and needed to be activated tonight.
Heim had a respectable showing over 12 games in an Atlanta uniform. He walked as often as he struck out while hitting .231/.311/.410 with one home run in 45 plate appearances. The defense was a little more concerning, as he failed to catch any of the 13 runners who attempted to steal against him. He didn’t commit any passed balls but was behind the dish for six wild pitches in 103 innings.
There’s nevertheless a decent chance another club takes a flier on Heim within the next week. He was an above-average starting catcher for the Rangers between 2022-23, earning an All-Star nod and a Gold Glove while helping Texas to a championship in 2023. Heim’s production plummeted after that, but he’s only making around twice the league minimum salary and would probably upgrade the backup catching spot for a few teams. The Guardians, Reds, Angels, Pirates, Phillies and Nationals are among clubs that have gotten little to no production from the position this season.
The Braves have five days to line up a trade or place Heim on waivers. If they can’t find a trade partner, he’ll probably be released, as he has the five years of service time necessary to retain his salary while refusing a minor league assignment.
Murphy will be behind the plate tonight for his season debut at T-Mobile Park. Baldwin gets a second consecutive start at DH. Murphy hit 16 homers last year but struck out at a career-high 31% clip while hitting below .200 for a second straight season. He’d played through the hip discomfort for some time before undergoing surgery. The Braves will hope that procedure gets him back closer to peak level, though he showed some rust on his minor league rehab assignment after missing all of Spring Training.
2-4 with a HR, double and 5RBIs yesterday for Heim. Not a bad way to go out.
I’m really surprised he was dfa’d. I thought it would be Kyle Farmer.
He will get the boot when Kim is activated
I really think that if it had not been for the timing of the Harris injury followed up by Acuna’s unfortunate injury that they would have kept him and DFA’d Farmer. With Acuna out and Harris’s available questionable the need for depth in the infield AND the grass outweighed the benefits of keeping Heim.
Tough luck, but at least he had a good game yesterday.
Yeah he’s having a better year so far than he has the last two years. I guess when you’re forced to DFA a league average player you may just have a pretty good squad. That or they don’t have faith he can keep up what he’s doing.
I hope the Braves can keep him, but I don’t think there is a chance he will pass through waviers. No real choice on the Braves part. With all the injuries at the moment, no one else can fill in the field if anyone else got hurt on the 26 man. Hands tied.
Guy has a day yesterday and gets rewarded with a DFA. Tough league
He will get claimed by either the Athletics or the Phillies.
A’s don’t need him. They have Shea.
No trade available? Something, Anything?
Maybe Seattle will claim him, If not the Rockies! If Seattle claims him, he can team up with Jose Suarez to go against the Braves to steal signs!
I hope the a Blue Jays sign him their catching situation is bad
Hoping the Yankees take a look at him. I like Wells and Escarra but 2 lefty catchers is redundant. A righty compliment would help
Cold to cut him after his best game with the Braves lol. I have a feeling they will try to resign him. I would have cut farmer first and carry 3 catchers with Baldwin DH’ing so much
With 2 outfielders hurt they had to keep the feilders
Mariners on line 1. They badly need a better option behind Raleigh than Garver.
He will not be out of a job long. Thanks for the lift you provided Jonah
The Braves are winning games but make no mistake, they have some regression built in.
They are getting outsized production from Dubon, Albies and Dom Smith, and that is just what they needed but if they do regress, 5-9 is somewhat soft.
An injury to Chris Sale has them looking real soft and probability says that Sale will likely spend some time on the IR.
Grant Holmes also an injury risk.
The bullpen looks good enough to weather the storm until Schwellenbach and Waldrep return.
They are playing good, give them credit but its a team that could struggle to score runs this summer if they dont resolve Acuna’s issues.
Why couldn’t they have done this a day earlier? The Rockies might have been able to salvage one game out of the series without his monster sign off game.
I understand why they chose Hein to DFA. I was just hoping it would have been Farmer. I like carrying 3 catchers when using Baldwin as the DH.
Although with Acuna on the DL and Harris hobbled also it makes perfect sense.
Cherington should at least consider him for the Pirates.
But the lack of throwing out baserunners is a red flag.
He has not hit much lately but it is still better than Bart and Davis.