Atlanta declined d'Arnaud's $8 million club option for 2025 on Monday, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports.
President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said last month that the team planned to exercise d'Arnaud's option, but evidently feelings changed since then. The emergence of catching prospect Drake Baldwin could have played into the club's decision, as Baldwin is viewed as nearly major-league ready and could potentially be paired with Sean Murphy in 2025. D'Arnaud, who turns 36 in February, should be able to land a starting job somewhere after slashing .238/.302/.436 with 15 home runs over 99 games in 2024.
Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said Friday that the team plans to exercise d'Arnaud's $8 million club option for 2025, Grant McAuley of 92.9 The Game Atlanta reports.
Between that and Sean Murphy's $15 million salary, Atlanta will be paying a healthy $23 million to its catching duo in 2025. D'Arnaud usurped Murphy as the club's preferred starter down the stretch this season and finished with a .238/.302/.436 batting line and 15 home runs in 2024. He and Murphy could share the catching duties pretty evenly in 2025, but the latter might also reclaim the starting job if he rebounds from a career-worst .636 OPS.
D'Arnaud isn't in the lineup Wednesday for Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series against San Diego.
After starting Game 1 of the series and going 1-for-4 with a double, d'Arnaud will now take a seat on the bench while Sean Murphy catches for Max Fried, batting eighth.
D'Arnaud is not in the starting lineup for Sunday's game against the Royals.
D'Arnaud will get a breather Sunday after hitting a walk-off solo home run in Saturday's 2-1 win over Kansas City. Sean Murphy will start behind home plate and bat seventh.
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Braves' Travis d'Arnaud: Walk-off homer Saturday
Rotowire
D'Arnaud went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Saturday's 2-1 win over the Royals.
D'Arnaud has had few big moments in September -- he's hitting just .163 (7-for-43) with two extra-base hits this month. The walk-off blast was his 15th homer of the year, making this the fourth season in his career in which he's reached that mark. The catcher has added a .236/.301/.439 slash line with 48 RBI, 39 runs scored, 16 doubles and one stolen base over 335 plate appearances. He has been splitting time evenly behind the dish with Sean Murphy lately.
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Braves' Travis d'Arnaud: Idle Friday
Rotowire
D'Arnaud is out of the lineup for Friday's game against Atlanta.
D'Arnaud will take a seat for a second consecutive game, giving way to Sean Murphy behind the dish. D'Arnaud hasn't had a multi-hit game since Aug. 13.
D'Arnaud is not in the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Mets.
D'Arnaud started the series opener Tuesday, but he'll begin Wednesday's contest on the bench. Sean Murphy will start at catcher for Atlanta and will bat eighth.
D'Arnaud is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Marlins.
D'Arnaud and Sean Murphy have been alternating turns behind the plate since the former returned from the paternity list Sept. 12. After d'Arnaud started at catcher and went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts in Saturday's 6-2 win, Murphy will enter the lineup Sunday.
Braves' Travis d'Arnaud: Giving way to Murphy on Wednesday
Rotowire
D'Arnaud is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Reds.
D'Arnaud has alternated starts behind the plate with Sean Murphy since the former returned from the paternity list last Thursday. Murphy will get the nod Wednesday after d'Arnaud went 1-for-4 with a walk in Tuesday's 6-5 loss.
