Sean Murphy Hits Big Milestone in Return from Oblique Injury

The Atlanta Braves offense has hit a slump. 

While they’re still the highest-scoring offense in baseball at 5.33 runs per game, Atlanta’s put up three runs or fewer in four of their last six and is batting .217/.295/.340 as a team in the last two weeks. 

Thankfully, reinforcements might be on the way soon. 

Catcher Sean Murphy, sidelined since the season opener with a strained oblique, has progressed through an important milestone in his recovery, as he’s now swinging a bat and hitting off a tee. 

It’s significant because, as we learned from sports medicine physician David A. Wang shortly after the injury happened, swinging a bat and the rotational forces associated with that is the most likely scenario to re-injure the oblique, not his defensive duties as a catcher. 

If Atlanta’s okay with Murphy and his “max effort swings” both taking dry swings and hitting off a tee, then he can’t be too far away from returning to play. The team’s not given a timetable, both because they don’t want to rush this return and have the star re-injure himself but also because the combo of Travis d’Arnaud and Chadwick Tromp are holding their own. 

The duo is batting .250/.304/.490 with 22 RBIs in 30 games, but adding Murphy, an All-Star in 2023 before he faded down the stretch in the Atlanta heat, could not only provide a lift to the defense but prevent either catcher from wearing themselves out. d’Arnaud’s 35 years old and hasn’t played in more than 100 games since the 2022 season, while Tromp has never had more than 64 plate appearances in any major league sample and has a career-high of only 293 plate appearances in any minor league season, coming in 2018 with Cincinnati.  

The Braves have not indicated if Murphy will need a minor league rehab appearance prior to being activated. Atlanta hitters have tended to forgo rehab stints unless they’ve missed multiple months or were not able to ramp up during spring training. 

Second baseman Ozzie Albies did a rehab stint in 2022 after missing 94 days with a broken foot that required surgery. Spending his time in AAA Gwinnett, he went 9-27 with a homer and a triple across seven games before being activated by Atlanta. Unfortunately, in his second game back, he broke his pinky finger and missed the rest of the season and postseason.