How should the Braves divide playing time between their two catchers?

The Atlanta Braves have the luxury of multiple options behind the plate

The Atlanta Braves have the luxury of multiple quality options behind the plate. 

Most teams follow the model of "a star and a scrub", where one player gets a majority of the starts with a replacement-level player behind him taking one or maybe two games a week. For example, Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto played in 135 games last season (133 behind the plate), while backup Garrett Stubbs played in 41. 

 The Braves could absolutely do a time share if they want to, as they have two quality catchers. The question: Is it the best idea for Travis d'Arnaud and Sean Murphy to split time? 

Welcome to Braves Today's Opening Day countdown series! We'll use the number of days until Opening Day to look at the 2024 Braves roster through a different lens. Today: 74, the number of games that catcher Travis d'Arnaud played in last season.

Arguments for an even time share

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Baseball is a grind for everyone involved, with 162 games spread across the country during the hottest part of the year.

But it's doubly so for catchers.  

Unlike other positions, a catcher straps on five to ten pounds of gear and then squats in the hot sun for hours, making hundreds of throws back to the pitcher and to the various bases. It's physically grueling. 

We've seen some of the best players to ever strap up behind the plate, from old timers like Johnny Bench and Yogi Berra to recent legends like Joe Mauer and Buster Posey, spend time at other positions to either extend their career into their mid-30s or simply because they physically couldn't play behind the plate anymore. 

So splitting time between two quality players makes sense.

Besides, you never know when an injury will make one of those catchers unavailable for an extended period of time. d'Arnaud missed over a month with a concussion early last season, and Murphy started at catcher for 26 of the 28 games Atlanta played during that stretch (and came in during the 8th inning of another one, ultimately playing five innings.)

So you can see how giving one catcher a heavy workload and then losing the other catcher to an injury could leave a team ill-prepared to handle the short-term absence of one of their two backstops. 

Arguments for an uneven time share

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This boils down to one factor: Sean Murphy is a stud.

Remember how I mentioned started almost every game during d'Arnaud's absence in late April and early May? 

In those 25 games, he batted .302/.429/.698 with 9 homers and 26 RBIs. It was evident that he was in a groove and seeing the ball well, and it was his most productive stretch of the season, leading to his nod as not only an All-Star, but the starting catcher for the game. 

In the second half, as Atlanta worked Travis d'Arnaud in for more of an equal rotation, Murphy's batting average fell to .159 with only four homers in his 40 starts. 

Now, there's an important caveat here: Murphy strained his hamstring on June 17th, missing several games but not going on the injured list. Did that adversely impact his game? Quite possibly, yeah, but he batted .394/.475/.939 in the ten games after coming back from the injury, so I'm not sure how much of a long-term impact there was.  

(I personally think that getting in hit in the head by the backswing from Mets slugger Mark Vientos on August 15th was a bigger deal - Murphy batted only .149 with one homer in the last 23 games of the season after that hit in the head, but he never went on the injured list and even finished that game.)

So what should Atlanta do?

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Sean Murphy should get a heavier load, but not anything like the 80% of games that Realmuto regularly covers for the Phillies. Giving Murphy 60% of the starts with d'Arnaud getting the other 40% allows for more chances to utilize Murphy's power while keeping him fresh. Additionally, it keeps d'Arnaud sharp if he's needed to take a majority of the playtime due to some sort of injury to Murphy. 

Atlanta's lucky to have two high-caliber options behind the plate, both good enough that manager Brian Snitker doesn't bother changing the lineup to account for who's catching that day. 

And with some balance, you can optimize the production and preparedness of both. 

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