How Sean Murphy has recovered from broken finger that derailed his season
There was really no denying the finger was broken.
“It was bent in a way it typically doesn’t,” catcher Sean Murphy told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.
On May 10, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Murphy was behind the plate readying to catch a pitch from Braves reliever Robert Suárez in the seventh inning. Left-handed hitting Dodgers shortstop Hyeseong Kim was in the box. Dodgers left fielder Alex Call, who had walked to start the inning, was on first.
Suárez threw a 99 mph fastball tailing away. Call broke to steal second. Murphy reached for the pitch with his left hand — his glove hand — as he stood to throw to second base. Kim swung and fouled the pitch off, and his bat connected with Murphy’s glove resulting in a catcher’s interference.
In the moment, the play died there and the game continued. But Kim’s swing had broken the middle finger on the left hand of Murphy — who remained in the game until being pinch-hit for in the bottom of the ninth.
Murphy officially went on the injured list two days later, a devastating blow for the veteran catcher who had worked his way back from September 2025 hip surgery and who had played in just three games before the Kim incident.
“Extremely frustrating,” Murphy said. “But it is what it is. I don’t know, it was very frustrating.”
The Braves (82-56) had envisioned their dynamic duo — Murphy and 2025 National League Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin — being a formidable force behind the plate in ’26. Instead, while Baldwin was named an All-Star and has continued to shine, Murphy has missed the majority of the season.
Jonah Heim, Joey Bart, Jair Camargo, Austin Wynns, Chadwick Tromp and Sandy León have all played catcher for the Braves in the interim. Not exactly ideal for a squad that goes into September still leading the NL East by four games over the second-place Phillies.
Murphy, meanwhile, initially wore a series of casts and splints on his left hand while, “just waiting for the bones to fuse,” he said. He remained in Atlanta and continued to rehabilitate at Truist Park while the regular season crept along. On June 4, the Braves transferred Murphy to the 60-day injured list.
“I was just gonna let it (the finger) tell me when it was ready,” Murphy said. “I’d test it, and then, ‘nope.’ A couple days later, we’re like, ‘Let’s try again.’ And then, ‘nope.’ And then finally, I was like, ‘All right, we can build on that.’
“I stayed here, and then we went to Florida for a little bit. Once I felt like I was ready to start doing some more baseball work, there’s just more opportunities down in Florida to get at-bats and stuff like that.”
It wasn’t until July 24 that Murphy began a rehab assignment, and it wasn’t until Aug. 3 that he was reinstated to the Braves. As of Tuesday, Murphy had played in just 17 of the team’s 138 games.
Yet, there is hope, after plenty of signs of offensive life as of late, that Murphy can be a major boost to the Braves as they hunt down another division title.
“I’ve played with ‘Murph’ for a while now, and when he’s got that right-center stroke down is normally when he you see stuff kind of start taking off for him,” said Braves first baseman Matt Olson, also teammates with Murphy when the two played for the Athletics. “And to be able to go bullpen (Sunday) was a great swing. He shot one to right (Saturday) I think it was, then another right-center. And he’s as powerful as it gets. When he starts getting that offside gap down is normally when you start seeing stuff fly even pull-side.”
In his last six games, over 23 plate appearances, Murphy is hitting .400 with two homers, two doubles, four RBIs and three walks. It’s a short sample size, yes, but the Braves only have 24 regular-season games remaining. They don’t need Murphy to provide an offensive boost for an entire season, just the most important time of the year.
And anything that the 31-year-old — who has raised his batting average from .091 on Aug. 7 to .224 — does with the bat is a bonus to what he adds defensively.
“Look, ‘Murph’ brings a lot of experience and has a lot of value on the defensive side. Probably a lot of things that are behind-closed-doors and behind-the-curtain-type of stuff, the ‘Wizard of Oz’ over there behind the curtain doing things that people probably don’t see in real time,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “But the game planning, the conversations, putting sequences together, helping to get a guy through a tough inning or a tough outing, those are extremely valuable. And ‘Murph’ brings that stuff.
“(Baldwin’s) bat is critical to our lineup. One part of that is I want to keep him fresh all the way to the finish line. At the same time, ‘Murph,’ like I said, brings a lot of value on the defensive side at that position. We want to try to get him going, too. When ‘Murph’ has had consistent playing time is usually when he has played the best.”
Murphy’s middle finger is still crooked, bending at a slight angle to the left as if reaching for his ring finger. “That might never change,” he said with a grin.
What has finally changed is Murphy being healthy and part of a Braves lineup that needs him down the stretch run. Now his focus can fixate on being the best version of himself over the next month and into the postseason.
“Always inching toward better. That’s just always what everyone here is doing, right?” Murphy said. “There’s never a perfect. No one’s batting 1.000. So there’s always adjustments, improvements have to be made. But it is nice to be producing, I feel like I’m helping.”