The Braves will begin the 2025 season without either of their primary starters from last year.
In the World Series Championship season of 2021, the Atlanta Braves used seven different catchers when injuries decimated the team’s depth. It was so bad that current Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt played in 26 games after being acquired via trade, and Kevan Smith saw action in 30 games.
In 2019, the Braves had to rush in Alex Jackson for his big league debut to start the season after injuries befell the team’s starting duo of Tyler Flowers and Brian McCann.
Last year, the Braves lost Sean Murphy to an injury on Opening Day. The upside for Atlanta was that the team had Travis d’Arnaud to cover most of those games Murphy missed, and Murphy returned to cover 72 games, though it’s not clear how healthy he was in the process, leading to an underwhelming season. Chadwick Tromp was the team’s third catcher, but only started 16 games behind the plate.
The Braves, surprisingly, opted not to pick up the option on d’Arnaud’s contract at the end of the 2024 season, and the veteran catcher quickly inked a deal with the Angels.
With the organization’s top prospect, Drake Baldwin, potentially big league-ready, the presumption for most since d’Arnaud’s departure is that Tromp would be the team’s back-up catcher given that the team has said they want Murphy to start the majority of games in 2025 after having to split time with d’Arnaud. But, plans changed with Murphy took a pitch to a rib a couple of weeks ago, cracking the bone; he will miss at least the beginning of the regular season. Although he is expected return several weeks into the season, Murphy’s injury adds intrigue to a position that seemed set coming into Spring Training.
Here’s a look at the organization’s depth at catcher heading into the 2025 regular season.
Sean Murphy
The 30-year-old catcher is set to spend his third season with Atlanta after joining the organization as part of a three-team trade that brought him to the Braves and sent All-Star catcher William Contreras to the Milwaukee Brewers. Murphy was an All-Star for Atlanta in 2023, slugging 21 home runs, and adding sterling defense, totaling 4.9 fWAR in just 108 games and 438 PAs.
Murphy’s 2024 campaign was forgettable, as he regressed from his 2023 performance once he returned from his left oblique injury, both offensively and defensively. He yielded only a 0.8 fWAR with a 78 wRC+; while his xwOBA was an okay .308, the Braves probably want more than just okay from him, even when inputs match outputs. Defensively, Baseball Savant still showed his elite acumen at blocking, but his pop time and framing took major steps backward. The oblique injury likely played a major role in his struggles: one tidbit here is that his bat speed fell relative to 2023, suggesting that he wasn’t letting it rip offensively the way he did the year prior. All of it, including his recent injury, adds to the anxiousness of the catching position in 2025. The silver lining is that his newest malady isn’t a muscle or soft tissue injury, giving hope that when he does return to the lineup, he’ll be back up to full speed, but we’ll see.
The Braves need Murphy to return to the level of performance he provided the team in 2023 and during his last year in Oakland in 2022. If he does, then the Braves will be more contended about having him under contract through as long as 2029. But, if he struggles, there will be a lot of questions.
The good news is that he’s not really projected to be a drag or anything. Even in a timeshare, his central estimate blend of Steamer and ZiPS is 2.7 WAR while playing about half the season, which is pretty great — just outside the catching top 10 in terms of total value, and seventh in MLB among catchers on a rate basis.
Chadwick Tromp
Tromp, who will also be 30 by the start of the regular season, was expected to be the team’s back-up catcher before Murphy’s injury. Despite his relative inexperience — he’s played in only 59 games during his five-year big league career — the Braves seem comfortable having him as the back-up in 2025 given that they didn’t bring in an experienced catcher in on a MLB contract during the offseason.
Tromp has hit modestly during his time in the minor leagues. Last season, he had fantastic surface numbers at Triple-A, but his .303 batting average was propped up by an unsustainable .352 BABIP based on his historical minor league performance. He has modest power and seems to be well-enough regarded defensively, drawing rave reviews from certain someones like Chris Sale, who sung his praises whenever they worked as batterymates.
Tromp has all the earmarks of a third catcher, but he is now is out of options, which helps his case to stick on the Braves roster for Opening Day despite the fact he hasn’t exactly descended like a Trompical Storm on Spring Training. The Braves do have more established backstops in camp, so he isn’t a lock for the roster spot, although it still seems likely.
With Murphy’s injury disrupting what it seemed the team had planned, the team could opt shift their plans, at the risk of losing Tromp.
Baldwin doesn’t project to hit particularly well or anything, but given that he can play catcher fairly well, he still projects to provide adequate production when called upon.
Drake Baldwin
The trajectory of Baldwin’s prospect status over the past 18 months may alter Atlanta’s vision for 2026 and beyond. The top prospect in the Braves organization — with FanGraphs ranking him as the 11th best prospect in all of baseball — is now in position to make his MLB debut as soon as Opening Day.
Baldwin went from being a notable prospect to one of the best in the game ahead of the 2025 campaign. A disciplined hitter throughout the minors, Baldwin posted a 15.6 percent walk rate with a 16.2 percent strikeout rake in 72 games at Gwinnett in 2024. Paired with 12 home runs, that led to a 135 wRC+ at Triple-A last season, in line with his minor league performance outside of the notoriously poor hitting environment at the team’s (erstwhile) Double-A affiliate.
Baldwin has also drawn positive marks for his defensive performance. Former Braves catcher, and long-time coach, Eddie Perez told MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that Baldwin reminds him of McCann, who was a seven-time All-Star and worked early in his big league career to become one of the elite pitch framers of his generation.
Baldwin will turn 24 on March 28. While he would be a rookie this season, he is only a few weeks younger than Michael Harris II, who is about to begin his fourth big league campaign.
Expectations are still that Baldwin will spend a significant amount of time at Triple-A so he can continue to hone his skills, but Murphy’s injury opens the door for Baldwin to make his case to stay on the big league roster — or at the least, to come back later this season, to stay.
If the Braves do call upon Baldwin to get a good chunk of playing time, there shouldn’t be too much cause for concern, as he already projects to be an above-average major league contributor, with something like 2-to-1 odds that he’ll be average-or-better as compared to something worse than that.
Sandy León
The Braves brought León back for a second season with the organization this offseason. The 36-year-old backstop has more than 500 games behind the plate on his big league resume across 12 seasons. Last season was the first that he didn’t appear at the MLB level since 2011.
León was been a below-average hitter for most of his career but was well regarded defensively in his younger days. He spent much of last season mentoring Baldwin while they were both with the Stripers — something he discussed while being interviewed during a Spring Training game earlier this month.
He has also swung a hilariously hot bat this spring, hitting three home runs. While he likely would have only only been a fill-in option had a minor injury sidelined one of Atlanta’s top two catchers during the season, there is a chance he could factor into the team’s Opening Day plans should the organization opt to either not start Baldwin with Atlanta or if the team decides to give León the back-up job to Baldwin to open the regular season.
Curt Casali
Prior to the start of Spring Training, Atlanta brought in former San Francisco Giants backstop Casali on a minor league deal. The 36-year-old is a veteran of 11 big league season and saw action in 40 big league games in 2024, but has only played in more than 80 games during a season twice.
Unlike León, Casali has not produced at the plate this spring. He was optioned to the team’s minor league camp yesterday, likely to head to Triple-A, unless he moves on to another organization.
If Murphy’s injury only keeps him out of action for the regular season’s first week, there is the slightest of chances that the team could opt to have Casali serve is Tromp’s back-up if the team doesn’t go with Baldwin as the starter. Theoretically, that would prevent the team from risking losing León or Tromp when Murphy returns, but the chances of that playing out are long.
Outlook
Despite the injury to Murphy, the Braves are in an enviable position at backstop. The team has three highly-experienced big league catchers in its organization and a projected backup who is no stranger to MLB action. Add in one of the game’s top prospects who appears to be able to stick behind the plate while bringing a solid offensive profile, regardless of position, Atlanta seems set up to have security at the position for the remainder of the decade.
As was discussed on Battery Power recently, the Braves have done a good job developing catchers over the years and that trend continues with Baldwin.
Despite questions to how the regular season will begin for the Braves at catcher, the good news is that they have viable options. Overall, they project to have a top-ten catching unit (just barely, but still there) for the upcoming season, Murphy’s injury and all.