Atlanta bait acquisition Sean Murphy A three-team trade with the A’s and Brewers led to some speculation about the possibility of trading the veteran. Travis d’ArnaudMurphy fired him as the starting catcher the moment he was caught. However, The Athletic’s David O’Brien writes that Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said the team has no interest in trading Arnaud, whom he considers a veteran leader — beyond his contributions with the bat behind the plate.
To the year Heading into the 2023 season, it looks like Murphy and Arnaud will get an upgrade behind the plate, with the all-purpose designated hitter giving the Braves a chance to line up the two catchers occasionally. If the plan is to get d’Arnaud, who slashed .268/.319/.472 with a career-high 18 home runs, as a DH at any level of regularity, that could be fine. Chadwick TrumpIn the year Chances of making the roster as a third baseman in 2023.
Tromp, 27 (on March 28), is the only other catcher on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. Manny Pina And William Contreras He was traded (per Murphy’s contract), though he had a pair of minor league options left. Alternatively, the Braves could bring in a more experienced backup or simply carry only Murphy and d’Arnaud and risk losing their DH on days when both are in the lineup.
Looking beyond the 2023 season, the Braves have control over the club, albeit with an $8MM team option with no buyout. That’s about the same as Arnaud’s salary in 2023, and when the Braves were able to acquire Murphy and his projected $3.5MM salary while d’Arnaud was already guaranteed $8MM, picking that up would have been a different story. Alternatively, it could be that Murphy realizes it will be a line for advancement and d’Arnaud could be ticketed for a lesser role than when he signed his current contract.
Still, even if the Braves prefer to try to work low for the 2024 season (and possibly beyond), O’Brien Tweets “They want to be around,” said d’Arnaud [the] Team long-term” he more It increases That is in the wake Freddie FreemanClimbing, d’Arnaud and Dansby Swanson (who is, of course, currently a free agent himself) stepped into a key leadership role. While dealing with Arnaud would probably give the Braves some useful breathing room between their current $229.3MM luxury-tax cap and $233MM luxury penalty cap, that doesn’t seem like the approach they’re considering.
.
[ad_2]
Comments