Sandy Leon is tied for the team lead in homers (with 2). Reporters following the team have widely speculated that Drake Baldwin will not break camp with the team and take Sean Murphy’s starting role while he recovers from injury, and that the team will essentailly roll with a rotation of backup catchers by committee: Sandy Leon, Chadwick Tromp, and pray for rain. Murphy was hitless prior to getting his ribs cracked by an inside pitch. For now, he still deserves the presumption that he’s the guy he was from 2020 to 2024, when he was basically worth 4 WAR a year. That presumption should last at least through the All-Star Break. But by July, Murphy’s got to show us something, or we’ve got to update our priors.

However, the team knows they can’t rush him back – last year, the whole team got injured, and most of the guys were shells of themselves after returning from injury, including Murphy, Acuña, and Albies. Harris and Riley struggled for much of the year, too, but showed signs of picking it up towards the end of their respective seasons. That collective malaise cost Kevin Seitzer his job; anything remotely like a recurrence could cost a few more jobs, and there is serious reason to worry about Albies and Murphy.

There’s also good reason to worry about Orlando Arcia, whose terrible performance last year couldn’t be chalked up to injury. He’s 1-10 this spring, too, and that’s not ideal for him, given that his two chief backups, Nick Allen and Christian Cairo, are a combined 9-25. Nacho Alvarez is currently out with an injury but hopes to return shortly. Don’t get it twisted: there’s no reason to believe that Allen or Cairo is capable of hitting enough to play the position on anything but an emergency basis, and given Alvarez’s defensive shortcomings, the Braves depth chart at the 6 feels like a banjo hitter and a bottle of antacids. But at least Nick Allen’s outhitting him this spring!

What’s going well this spring? Pitching! The Braves have only given up 25 runs in 11 games, far fewer than any other team in baseball and less than half the average. (None of this matters that much; the Mariners have given up the most runs in baseball and the Dodgers have given up the third-most. They’ll be fine.)

And other than Dylan Dodd, who got wrecked, most people have shown what we would have hoped to see. Chris Sale and Spencer Schwellenbach have been nails. Grant Holmes and AJSS have been very good. Bryce Elder and Reynaldo Lopez have been okay, though the walk rates aren’t ideal. Ian Anderson has walked a tightrope but so far has avoided disaser. However, he’s leading the team in walks, with five in 4 2/3, and that ain’t gonna cut it for a guy who heeds to prove he deserves another chance at success in the Show.

The folks on the bubble of the pen have done well, too: Jake Diekman, Chasen Shreve, and Buck Farmer have showed well in their innings.

I wouldn’t say we’ve really learned anything about the team we didn’t already know: it’s a strong lineup, outside of the aforementioned question marks, a strong staff, and a strong pen. Last year was Murphy’s Law, and we still won 89 games. That’s still the team’s likely floor, though losing Max Fried and Charlie Morton makes things a little less certain. The ceiling is pretty close to what it was last year: a team that could challenge for the most wins in baseball. The Dodgers are looking as loaded as they have since the Superba days, but the Braves clearly have a playoff-caliber roster and that’s really all you can hope for at this time of year.

There’s baseball to watch, y’all!