For the Braves, Sunday’s series finale in New York is about more than avoiding a three-game sweep. It is also another reminder that the club is still searching for the right mix behind the plate, and Sean Murphy is once again not in the starting lineup.
The Atlanta Braves announced their lineup for August 9 without Murphy, leaving Drake Baldwin to catch as the team tried to respond after Saturday’s 5-4 loss. The decision comes at a time when Murphy’s season line sits at.091 with two hits and one run in six games, a slow start that makes every lineup call feel a little more loaded than usual.
Murphy’s role remains a live question
Murphy is in his fourth season with the Braves, and the long view still matters here. He made the MLB All-Star Game with Atlanta in 2023, so this is not a player whose value needs to be explained from scratch. But the present is hard to ignore, and the present says he is not producing enough at the plate to force his way into the lineup on a day the Braves badly need a win.
That helps explain why the reaction around the lineup centered on both offense and catching. FantasyPros listed the Braves’ order as Drake Baldwin, Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson, Michael Harris II, Ozzie Albies, Dominic Smith, Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Riley and Jim Jarvis, which at least showed the club trying to balance the batting order while keeping Murphy out of the starting group.
The social-media response reflected the same tension. Some fans wanted Murphy to get multiple games in a row to recover his timing, while others argued Baldwin should keep playing through his own workload concerns. One post even pointed to the possibility of pairing Murphy with Grant Holmes after what they combined for in Holmes’s last start, a reminder that this is not only about batting average but also about game-calling, trust and fit.
That is what makes the situation interesting. Murphy’s.091 line is plainly a problem, but it does not erase the defensive value that can still make him important to this roster. The question is whether the Braves can afford to keep waiting on the bat while also trying to win immediate games in the middle of a series.
For now, the answer from Sunday’s lineup was clear: not yet. Atlanta chose the version of the roster that gives it the best chance to avoid a sweep, even if that means the Murphy debate keeps hanging over the next one too.
