Earlier today, the Atlanta Braves did some shuffling around with their bullpen which basically seems like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic at this point in the season. Unfortunately, the news got worse as the day has gone on as there will be more shuffling with an injury involved this time. Sean Murphy is going on the 10-Day IL with a torn labrum in his right hip and Sandy Léon will be coming up to replace him — likely for the rest of the season.
Assuming he gets surgery to fix it, a torn hip labrum will usually set you back six-to-eight months, which means that this is going to be pretty significant for Murphy and force him to essentially spend the entire offseason recovering and rehabbing from the injury. Needless to say, that’s yet another tough blow for the Braves to take and it’s especially cruel for Murphy, who will have to start yet another season behind the proverbial eight-ball while he recovers from this injury.
Sean Murphy will finish the season with a .199/.300/.409 slash line with a .309 wOBA and 96 wRC+ for the season. While this was absolutely not a great season at the plate for Murphy, his defense was pretty great as he was in the 94th percentile among all catchers in Blocks Above Average (8), the 89th percentile in Caught Stealing Above Average (4), the 80th percentile in Framing (3) and the 74th percentile in Pop Time (1.92 seconds), giving him a Fielding Run Value of 8 — good for the 90th percentile in all of baseball, according to Statcast. So while Murphy’s bat left something to be desired this season, his work behind the plate will be sorely missed for this last stretch.
Sandy León will be replacing Murphy on the roster and he may actually get a decent amount of playing time outside of the two games and one plate appearance that he’s had at the big league level so far. With that being said, I’d imagine that this means that Drake Baldwin is going to get a ton of run to close out the season. Meanwhile, Dane Dunning is back in the bullpen after Hayden Harris’ maiden voyage to the bigs has been cut short.
