The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve released left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer and placed catcher Drake Baldwin on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique strain. Atlanta also activated lefty Dylan Dodd from the 10-day IL, recalled righty Victor Mederos from Triple-A, selected the contract of catcher Chadwick Tromp and optioned right-hander JR Ritchie to Triple-A.
The Baldwin injury is a massive setback for an Atlanta club that’s also once again without veteran Sean Murphy (fractured finger). The 25-year-old Baldwin won National League Rookie of the Year honors in 2025 and has thus far played like he has his eyes set on some additional hardware; Baldwin has played at an MVP-caliber pace in 2026, sprinting out of the gate with a .303/.389/.543 batting line. After swatting 19 home runs in 446 plate appearances as a rookie, he’s already clubbed 13 in just 216 trips to the batter’s box in his sophomore season.
By measure of wRC+, Baldwin has been 60% better than average at the plate this season — the eighth-best qualified hitter in the sport. That’s a feat in and of itself, but considering the average catcher is about 12% worse than average at the plate, Baldwin’s immense production is all the more valuable. Couple that with strong blocking skills and average framing grades, and Baldwin has been one of the best all-around players in baseball. Both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference peg him at 2.2 wins above replacement through just over one quarter of the regular season.
The Braves have yet to put a timetable on Baldwin’s potential absence. Every injury case is different, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of one month. A more severe strain would come with a lengthier absence. Atlanta skipper Walt Weiss will surely provide more details prior to this afternoon’s contest against the Marlins, who pounced the now-optioned Ritchie and the now-released Bummer for a combined 12 earned runs — six apiece — last night.
With Baldwin and Murphy both shelved, Atlanta will go from one of the sport’s most potent catching tandems to perhaps the lightest-hitting backstop tandem in baseball. Tromp joins 37-year-old Sandy León in handling catching duties for the foreseeable future. León hasn’t topped 100 plate appearances in a big league season since 2021 and carries a .176/.245/.268 batting line over his past 930 trips to the plate in the majors. Tromp is a career .221/.230/.390 hitter in 178 major league plate appearances. They’re both solid defenders, and Tromp has some modest pop in his bat, but both can be reasonably projected for an OBP in the .250 range.
More to come.
