Sandy

Leon

Within one week, the Braves have lost Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy to injuries and Jonah Heim to waivers. That’s a drastic loss of catching depth. For the next month or so, it seems like Sandy Leon will be the starting catcher, with Tromp also mixing in a couple of times a week. That’s a big blow to both the offense and the pitching staff in Atlanta

Murphy hit the injured list prior to Tuesday’s series opener against the Cubs with a fractured left middle finger. The 31-year-old, who missed nearly six weeks to open the year recovering from offseason hip surgery, will likely be sidelined until after the All-Star break in mid-July. It’ll be journeyman Sandy León taking his roster spot as Drake Baldwin’s primary caddy during his absence.

The Braves released Léon last month so that he could go play in Mexico, but now with Sean Murphy hurt again and Jonah Heim gone to the A’s, he’s returning to serve as Drake Baldwin’s backup. Léon was 4-for-34 in Triple-A before leaving Gwinnett. He went 1-for-12 in five games with the Braves last year, with his lone hit being a homer off Craig Kimbrel.

León got into five contests for Atlanta last year and was hitting .118 (4-for-34) across 10 games for Triple-A Gwinnett this season. The well-traveled 37-year-old backstop has appeared in 559 games in the big leagues since 2012.

Dodd has the most big league experience of the bunch and should get an opportunity at some point during the 2026 season, but he’s not the biggest surprise in this group. That honor goes to JR Ritchie, who posted a stellar 2.25 ERA, 0.58 WHIP and a 14/5 K/BB ratio over 12 innings during Grapefruit League action. Given the injuries in the Braves’ rotation, it’s mildly shocking that he didn’t head north with the big league club.

León, who turns 37 in March, appears set to spend a third straight season in the Braves’ organization, probably at Triple-A Gwinnett. He appeared in five major league games this year, with a homer off Craig Kimbrel being his only hit in 12 at-bats.

León got into five contests this past season as an emergency depth option for Atlanta following an injury to Sean Murphy. The 36-year-old journeyman backstop should be able to latch on somewhere this offseason as organizational catching depth if he chooses to continue his career. He’s gotten into 559 games at the big-league level dating back to 2012.

The lone surprise here is Kelenic as the former top prospect passed through waivers unclaimed and loses his spot on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. The 26-year-old batted just .195/.275/.268 across 91 plate appearances following an early-August demotion to the minors after posting a calamitous .531 OPS in 24 games at the big-league level this season. He’ll likely need to show some signs of life in the minors before he receives another opportunity at the highest level.

He also had another RBI on a fielder’s choice. The 36-year-old León has spent about a month with the Braves this season, but most of that was as the No. 3 catcher behind Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy. Now that he’s No. 2, he finally got a chance to start, and he hit his first major league homer since September 22, 2021, and it came off a guy he caught with the Red Sox from 2016-18 (and won a World Series with) and also caught for a time in the minors at Triple-A Gwinnett this season. It was the second time the two had faced each other in a major league game. The other occasion was on July 20, 2012 in León’s third career game for the Nationals. León flied out then.

Baldwin takes a seat after making nine consecutive starts between catcher and DH since September 3. The 24-year-old rookie backstop has seen a significant uptick in playing time since veteran counterpart Sean Murphy hit the injured list last week. It’ll be journeyman Sandy León handling the catching duties in this one.