ATLANTA -- Sean Murphy has been activated and the Braves have decided to keep Drake Baldwin -- their top prospect, per MLB Pipeline -- at the big league level to share the catching duties.
Murphy was activated from the injured list and Chadwick Tromp was designated for assignment on Sunday. The Tromp transaction was confirmation that Baldwin will remain a part of Atlanta¡¯s roster, even if Murphy is getting a majority of the playing time behind the plate.
Murphy began the season with the cracked left rib he suffered when he was hit by a pitch in a Feb. 28 game against the Marlins. The 2023 All-Star catcher will be looking to get back to where he was when he and Philadelphia¡¯s J.T. Realmuto led all MLB catchers with a combined 13.4 wins above replacement (per FanGraphs) from 2021-23.
With Murphy sidelined, the Braves opened this season with Baldwin as their primary catcher. The 24-year-old has improved defensively and continued to show why talent evaluators have long loved his bat. He¡¯s just 4-for-26 (.154) at the plate, but his .533 expected slugging percentage and 61.9 percent hard-hit rate both indicate he¡¯s bound to have more success.
Even if Murphy starts three or four out of every five games, the Braves believe Baldwin will get more benefit from learning how to call games at the big league level than he would from getting regular at-bats in Triple-A.
Murphy hit .193 with a .636 OPS in 72 games last year. He missed two months after tearing his left oblique muscle while taking a swing during the seventh inning of the Opening Day game in Philadelphia.
Recovering from a broken bone as opposed to damaged tissue is different in multiple ways, especially from a mental standpoint. Even if it was just subliminal, there¡¯s reason to wonder if some of Murphy¡¯s struggles last year could be blamed on the fear of tearing his oblique muscle again while swinging.
¡°I felt comfortable,¡± Murphy said at the end of Spring Training. ¡°I didn¡¯t feel like I was going to hurt myself again last year. I¡¯m real disappointed to miss [Spring Training], but this is a lot easier to recover from.¡±