A foreshadowing roster move.
With the Braves seemingly set to rotate catchers Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy behind the plate and at designated hitter for the foreseeable future, the club added a third catcher to the roster by way of Sandy Leon to provide Brian Snitker with a break-in-case-of-emergency backup option.
Stuart Fairchild, who has seldom appeared in a game since the return of Jurickson Profar, was designated for assignment to make room for Leon.
The #Braves today selected C Sandy León to the major league roster, and designated OF Stuart Fairchild for assignment.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 21, 2025
The roster move comes after Snitker played both Murphy and Baldwin on Friday and Saturday night at the C/DH spots. The tandem also saw quite a bit of playing time the week before the All-Star Game, the first sign that a shift may be coming.
Marcell Ozuna, who was the team’s primary DH for virtually every inning of every game up until 10 days ago, played on Sunday to give Murphy a breather after catching the night before. Snitker has said he intends to play both Baldwin and Murphy moving forward, which would put a heavy crunch on Ozuna’s playing time.
Ozuna could be traded within the next 10 days to a contender willing to take a gamble that the veteran slugger’s injured hip will improve enough for him to make an impact down the stretch. Frankly, the Braves would probably be happy just to clear the roster jam and save a few dollars in the process. The focus of the season at this point should be 2026.
The Braves begin a three-game series against the slumping San Francisco Giants on Monday evening.