DALLAS – Brian Snitker acknowledged that he can speculate, but he’s not always immediately privy to every baseball decision the Braves make. His boss, president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos, is in charge of the roster. So it was not until after the season that Snitker had an inkling that Travis d’Arnaud – a player he loves and respects so much – would not return for 2025.
Snitker said there are always moves that “aren’t real popular all the time.” He knows people are big fans of d’Arnaud. “I’m a big Travis fan,” Snitker added. But depending on circumstances, moves need to be made.
“It’s always going to be difficult when you lose somebody of Travis’s pedigree and what he brings to your team,” Snitker said on Monday at the Winter Meetings at the Hilton Anatole. “It’s more about the guy. He’s a great player. Has been for a long time. I’m happy for him that he’s back home and the situation that he got in. Kind of secretly hoping that we would maybe get him back.”
The Braves did not.
Around a week after they declined his $8 million club option, he signed a two-year, $12 million with the Angels.
But still …
“I don’t see anything or any move that we made that we’re not going to overcome or we’re going to be a really, really good club again,” Snitker said. “That’s kind of the way I look at it.”
And in this case, Snitker heaped praise on Sean Murphy, defending his 2024 season and expressing confidence for his 2025 campaign.
This much is clear: Murphy will be the guy. For years, the Braves have made catching a two-man job in hopes of keeping their catchers fresher. Now, Murphy will likely catch the majority of games, backed up by either Chadwick Tromp or top prospect Drake Baldwin.
In 2024, Murphy hit .193 with a .636 OPS – a large drop in production after his All-Star first half in 2023. But consider something Snitker has said repeatedly, and did again Monday: Murphy missed two months at the beginning of the season due to an oblique strain. It’s difficult to ramp up in spring training, shut down after the injury, then get it back going in the middle of the season.
Then came the part Braves fans will love to hear.
“I feel really good about Murph this year,” Snitker said. “I think coming in knowing he’s the guy, he’s going to take the lion’s share of the work, and I think that’s going to be good for him to know that. I’m sure he’s going to be excited to get that thing going, and I think having, again – I think it’s hard.”
Two offseasons ago, the Braves acquired Murphy from the Athletics. Murphy is terrific defensively and features some pop in his bat. He also fits the Braves. He has an all-business attitude and a team-first mindset. He’s not about himself – at all. He never makes excuses. The Braves have one of the better catchers in baseball.
In his first year in Atlanta, Murphy caught 102 games. He then caught 69 in 2024.
The number will be much higher in the upcoming season. His career high in appearances behind the plate is 116 in 2022. One would think he might even exceed for Atlanta next season.
“I feel really good with whoever we have as our number two guy, but he’s going to be the number one,” Snitker said of Murphy. “We’ve had that tandem for a long time now, but he’s a guy that’s going to -- he’s going to have to play the majority of the games. We saw what he’s capable of two years ago, the first half, and hopefully – like I said, I keep saying it, I got a good feeling about what we’re going to get out of him this year.”
The Braves acquired Murphy for a reason. They clearly believe in him, as evidenced by the six-year, $73 million extension to which they signed him shortly after the trade. Murphy, a very good catcher, got a lot of undue criticism on social media in 2024.
For the last few seasons, the Braves have made catching a two-man job. And when asked about it over that span, Snitker often talked about how there are only a few catchers who can handle catching the majority of games in a season.
Murphy?
“He’s a guy that can do that,” Snitker said. “He’s a big, strong man. He wants to catch a lot. He’s going to need to.”
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