#3 Murphy Activated, Tromp DFA’d, Phillies in Town

[00:00:03] A beautiful sunny day here in Atlanta, although it's windy and I think it's going to be a little bit chilly tonight. So prepare accordingly as the Braves get ready to start what's going to be a very fun and challenging three game series. The Philadelphia Phillies are in town. We have an awesome matchup for game one, Chris Sale and Zach Wheeler. How about your National League Cy Young Award winner going up against the runner up from a year ago? We haven't had that happen to the Braves in 30 years. You gotta go back to 1993. The last time a Cy Young Award winner faced a runner up. Of course that was Greg Maddox. It hasn't happened in Major league baseball in four years back in 2021. So that's going to be a really fun one to watch. But the news of the day, Sean Murphy is back reinstated from the il. We'll get to that in a second. That does mean that somebody had to go and it's going to be Chadwick Trump who was designated for assignment, which is a bummer. Everybody loves Chadwick Trump. He's just a really good guy. He's a really good defensive catcher as well. He had a nice note for Braves F next that I saw. He's going to be missed and I don't think he's going to be back with the organization. There's too much need right now around Major League Baseball. Look for the Giants, the Red Sox and the Pirates. For me, when I took a quick look around the league of teams that might be interested in Chadwick Trump, they need some help right now at catcher. All of them do. So that could be one of the organizations that he ends up with. He was always such a pleasure to talk with. You know, some guys don't like to talk to the media as much and I totally respect that. Chadwick Tromp was the opposite. He was just always so pleasant and easy to talk to. So he will be missed and we wish him the best of luck. Like I said, I doubt he ends up staying in the organization. He is bringing too much value to the table. That does mean that we get Sean Murphy back and that is a really good thing right now, especially offensively. Think about who he was a couple of years ago with that career year back in 2023 with the 21 home runs and that 360 on base and that matters right now a lot. I think to this team. He brings all kinds of value in different ways. But if we can get something close to that version of Shaun Murph and I'm not saying he's going to produce right away. But the Braves need that Pat. That's why they signed him up for the long term contract the way that he did. He is a good hitter. He's also a good catcher. It'll be good to see him in the lineup. How it works with Drake Baldwin I'm really glad he stayed because we've talked about him a lot. I think you know how much we like Drake Baldwin will be interesting. My guess, Sean Murphy probably playing 4 out of 6. At least 3 out of 6. How they split time. Obviously it is also kind of nice that you do have a right handed hitter and a left handed hitter in the way that you can work that and play some matchups. You're certainly not looking at strictly a platoon, but I do think it'll be to some degree at times for those right matchups. Maybe that tough righty for Sean Murphy that doesn't match up well for him that we'd see Drake Baldwin in there. But he'll continue to play. He wouldn't keep Drake Baldwin here if he was not getting any kind of significant playing time. Was the rain out good for us and I say us, but for the Braves on Sunday, I don't know. A lot of people believe it was that's two days off plus last Thursday off, three days off in five days. Never loved that as a player. To each their own. I think for these guys you'll take them when you can get them because the season can get really busy. But I don't know if I believe in that maybe as much as others. Again, I never liked having all those days off. Was it nice to skip Sandy El Contra? Absolutely. He's really good and by the time the Braves make up that game, he's probably not going to be a Miami Marlin anymore. So I guess you take it when you can get it. I had a funny question asked to me the other day. I did a hit on MLB Network Radio with Steve Phillips and Jim Bowden and Steve asked me, he was my former general manager and radio partner that I worked with for years at MLB Network Radio, but he asked me if you could only get one back right now, would you take Ronald Acuna Jr. Or would you take Spencer Strider? Now obviously it's kind of a silly question because we're not in that position, but it wasn't an easy one necessarily to answer. And I guess you could also look at it as who do the Braves need the most right now? It's probably Ronald based on what's going on with the offense and I think it probably, if you had to choose one, that's the one that you would take. Obviously we believe we're going to get Spencer Strider back earlier, but it was kind a fun little exercise to go through and. But it also highlighted the needs that the Braves have with both of those positions. So I ended up saying Ronald Acuna Jr. Which it hurt my heart a little bit. I don't want Spencer Strider to think that we don't want him back because of course we're greedy and we want everybody back and hopefully we'll have both of those guys back in the middle of May at the latest, obviously for Acuna and we'll get Strider back sooner than that. So we look forward to that. The other part of that interview that really caught me off guard was that as I was referencing the Braves, I said we a lot and I've never really done that before and it felt kind of weird. I wasn't doing it intentionally, it was just felt a little natural. And I actually sent a text to Steve and I was like, man, I apologize. That's a weird thing to kind of do. And he's like, I didn't even notice. I don't know what that's about. I don't necessarily judge broadcasters and fans when they do that, but I'm usually not that guy. But somehow I ended up that guy during that uniform. So that was a little bit weird. But I guess take it for what it's worth. Another thing was kind of funny actually non baseball related with my 17 year old son, he's my youngest, he was texting with a coach somebody's gonna play with this summer baseball this summer. And they were working out some details and he had to give him his email address and he was just kind of following up and so they're texting. Whenever he's texting with adults, he always asks me to kind of keep an eye on, make sure he's saying things right or whatever it might be. And so he sends the coach's email address and the coach replies to him and he says, dad, I don't know what this means. And I said, what did he say to you? He goes, he just wrote 10 4. I was like, what? He's like, what does that mean? I said 10. Oh, I said 10 four. He's like, yeah, I guess so what does that. And of course I laughed and realized how old I was and how young he is and had to explain to him what 104 means. As a reaction to letting him know that. Yep. Confirmed. Affirmative, whatever way you want to look at it. Funny little moment for us. But again, also a nice little reminder of how the generations have separated themselves. But always a good time. But anyway, that's that. As you can tell, I've had to do some circles because I got here a little bit faster than I expected. I'm at the ballpark really early today. And that reason is because I'm doing my radio show on MLB Network radio loud outs 2 to 5 Eastern Time with Ryan Spielborgs. I'm doing it today. I'll do it tomorrow, taking off Thursday and Friday. So that'll be it. But yeah, fun one tonight, Chris Sale, Zach Wheeler live from Truce Park. And of course, tonight on FanDuel Sports Network. It's going to be awesome. Hope you guys will tune in. If you're not going to be here.