While the Atlanta Braves’ 2025 season has been an abject failure in nearly every regard, one of the few bright spots has been the emergence of catcher Drake Baldwin. In fact, he’s had such an emergence that there’s been a bit of buzz for the team to move on from Sean Murphy.
And although that move may make sense in a vacuum, legendary Atlanta Braves writer Mark Bowman splashed some cold water on the idea of a trade with a recent story.
Braves insider makes strong case for Atlanta to keepSean Murphy
In a new story diving deep into the Braves’ plans for the trade deadline, Bowman wrote:
With (Marcell) Ozuna and (Raisel) Iglesias being short-term rentals who likely won’t bring a significant prospect haul, I’ve heard some argue that Murphy should be moved. My counter is that, beyond this week, there will be many more opportunities to improve the 2026 roster.
Count me among those who likes the thought of Murphy and Drake Baldwin sharing the catching and designated hitter roles next season. Yeah, you might need to carry a third catcher, but is that really a big deal with a 26-man roster? And more importantly, not having a full-time DH would also give Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley and others a chance to occasionally rest their legs while filling that role.
That logic seems pretty sound, no?
While having two “full-time” catchers on the roster would result in a bit of a logjam (along with being unique in today’s MLB), it would be wise for the Braves to lean into a position where they have an abundance of talent as opposed to hustling backward and trading Murphy away.
Murphy entered play on Monday slashing .233/.320./.498 with 16 home runs and 41 RBI in 69 games. Most teams would kill to get that kind of production from their catcher. Sure, it isn’t the kind of numbers he posted during his incredible 2023 season, but it’s still some incredible production that’s even better when you consider he’s on a team-friendly six-year, $73 million contract.
On the other side, Baldwin entered Monday slashing .279/.351/.469 with 11 home runs and 41 RBI. With all that in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Braves’ catchers have combined for a 125 wRC+, which is the fourth-highest mark in baseball.
The Braves are going to be active at the deadline thanks to their abundance of veteran players on expiring contracts. They’ve already made some moves to signify they’re punting on the rest of the season (if the <0.1% postseason odds didn’t signify that already), so going into evaluation mode isn’t the worst thing for the franchise.
But just because they’re going into evaluation mode doesn’t mean that they should make a trade that would hamper their ability to win in 2026. Murphy may get a solid prospect or two in return, but that doesn’t mean that it’s what is best for the team.