Sandy

Leon

León, who turns 37 in March, appears set to spend a third straight season in the Braves’ organization, probably at Triple-A Gwinnett. He appeared in five major league games this year, with a homer off Craig Kimbrel being his only hit in 12 at-bats.

León got into five contests this past season as an emergency depth option for Atlanta following an injury to Sean Murphy. The 36-year-old journeyman backstop should be able to latch on somewhere this offseason as organizational catching depth if he chooses to continue his career. He’s gotten into 559 games at the big-league level dating back to 2012.

The lone surprise here is Kelenic as the former top prospect passed through waivers unclaimed and loses his spot on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. The 26-year-old batted just .195/.275/.268 across 91 plate appearances following an early-August demotion to the minors after posting a calamitous .531 OPS in 24 games at the big-league level this season. He’ll likely need to show some signs of life in the minors before he receives another opportunity at the highest level.

He also had another RBI on a fielder’s choice. The 36-year-old León has spent about a month with the Braves this season, but most of that was as the No. 3 catcher behind Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy. Now that he’s No. 2, he finally got a chance to start, and he hit his first major league homer since September 22, 2021, and it came off a guy he caught with the Red Sox from 2016-18 (and won a World Series with) and also caught for a time in the minors at Triple-A Gwinnett this season. It was the second time the two had faced each other in a major league game. The other occasion was on July 20, 2012 in León’s third career game for the Nationals. León flied out then.

Baldwin takes a seat after making nine consecutive starts between catcher and DH since September 3. The 24-year-old rookie backstop has seen a significant uptick in playing time since veteran counterpart Sean Murphy hit the injured list last week. It’ll be journeyman Sandy León handling the catching duties in this one.

The 36-year-old León was previously up from July 21-Aug. 15, but he got just one at-bat then while serving as a third catcher. He’ll be No. 2 behind Drake Baldwin now, so he’ll get the occasional start, probably against left-handed pitching.

León is now off the active and 40-man roster. The 36-year-old could be back before the end of 2025 as a depth piece, but he’ll need to rejoin the 40-man roster in order for that to take place.

With the Braves now playing both Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin regularly at the expense of Marcell Ozuna at the DH spot, the team decided it could use León as a true back-up catcher. He figures to start maybe once a week, but will give the team options behind its two starters.

Leon will not be the backup backstop to open the season for Atlanta. That honor will likely go to Chadwick Tromp with Drake Baldwin expected to catch until Sean Murphy (ribs) is ready to go around May.

León, who turns 36 years old next spring, continues to hang around on the periphery of the big leagues as emergency catching depth. He didn’t appear in the majors last season, but got into 21 contests for the Rangers during the 2023 campaign. He’s appeared in 554 games at the highest level dating back to 2012. With top prospect Drake Baldwin ready to ascend to Atlanta, León figures to open the year at Triple-A Gwinnett.