The Braves are in a spot most teams would love to be in: winning enough to be buyers, but also carrying a few expensive bets that haven’t paid off the way they hoped. With the deadline market tilted heavily toward buyers, Atlanta has reasons to shop for help - and also to at least listen on a few underachieving players under long-term control.
Sean Murphy is the most intriguing name in that group. Catchers with real defensive value are hard to find, and Murphy still brings that kind of impact even with the bat lagging behind.
He hasn’t hit above the Mendoza Line since 2023 and has played only four games this season, but he’s under contract at $15 million per season through 2028, with a team option in 2029 at the same price. That’s a steep number for where he’s been production-wise, though the Braves could still find a market because teams are always hunting for catching help.
There’s also the Drake Baldwin factor. Atlanta has a more capable starting option there, which makes Murphy’s role - and that salary - harder to justify going forward.
If the Braves decided to move him, they could potentially get out from under the deal while bringing back something useful. Murphy’s latest injury complicates the picture, but he’s close to returning and has five hits in his last two games for the Gwinnett Stripers on rehab.
Still, a trade feels unlikely. The Braves have had enough trouble keeping catchers healthy over the years that moving Murphy now would be selling at the lowest point possible. If he finishes strong over the final two months, the offseason could bring a much better market.
Ha-Seong Kim is in a different kind of limbo. He’s been on a rehab assignment in Gwinnett for the past couple of weeks, showing some improvement at the plate without doing anything dramatic.
That makes it tough to know how much progress he’s actually made until he’s back facing major-league pitching. By the weekend, his rehab assignment will run out, and Atlanta will have to make a call: designate him for assignment, trade him, or give him another shot in Atlanta.
A trade would almost certainly be a salary dump. The Braves agreed to pay Kim $20 million last offseason, and given how this year has gone, it’s hard to imagine another team giving up much of anything for him. The more likely outcome is a DFA at some point, though there’s still a chance Atlanta gives him one more look in hopes of salvaging something from the investment.
Spencer Strider sits in a tougher middle ground. His contract is bigger - $20 million this season, then $22 million in each of the next two years, plus a $22 million club option for 2029 - and the uncertainty around his future makes any deal complicated.
He isn’t going to pitch again this year, and no team is likely to absorb the full contract with that hanging over it. But if the Braves are willing to cover a significant portion of the money, there could be interest based on the upside alone.
The issue is simple: other general managers hate trading for players when they don’t know when those players will be available. That’s the obstacle in any Strider discussion.
Even so, Atlanta might be open to eating most of the salary if it means getting something useful back. Whether it happens at the deadline or shortly after, it sounds like Strider’s time with the organization could end much sooner than anyone expected.
In Other News...
Braves May Be Near A Tough Austin Riley Decision
Austin Rileys recent stretch has only sharpened the questions around his spot in the Braves everyday mix. The offense has been quiet enough to notice, with multiple hitless games and plenty of strikeouts piling up, and the numbers from the Orioles series did little to ease the concern. For a player whose bat has long been the bigger draw than his glove, that kind of dip lands hard in Atlanta.
Rileys defense at third base has also remained part of the conversation, because the underlying evaluation there has never really moved far in his favor. The Braves are now weighing how to handle all of it as the season moves on, and the real issue is less about one bad week than whether this is the point where a longer look at his role becomes unavoidable. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Top Prospect Is Suddenly Demanding Everyone's Attention
Conor Essenburg is making a very loud case for attention in the Braves system, and the timing could hardly be better for a player who only recently worked his way back from an oblique injury. The Single-A Augusta GreenJackets prospect has been on a serious tear since returning in late May, and his latest stretch has only strengthened the sense that his bat is starting to separate from the rest of the league.
Essenburg now has six home runs in his last five minor league games and is up to 14 homers in 56 Single-A contests, with a .278 average to go with it. For Atlanta, the question is no longer whether the power is real, but how quickly he keeps forcing the organization to think about the next level. [Read more 🡒]