The North Port Report: Owen Murphy Does...Something in Live Batting Practice
Here's everything you need to know from Braves Spring Training in North Port, FL from Thursday
Welcome to The North Port Report, your nightly notebook from Braves spring training. Each evening, we’ll run through the biggest developments from camp: roster battles, injury updates, standout performances, and the small details that matter more than they seem in February. The games may not count yet, but the information does.
(Sorry for the lack of updates the last two days, but we’re back.)
Here’s what stood out today
More live batting practice from Braves pitchers, and one of the stars of the show was prospect Owen Murphy.
At least, we think. Gabe Burns of the AJC tweeted that he watched the batting practice and came away impressed, although it was clear that Murphy wasn’t quite ready for the majors. When asked whether the radar gun and other data-collection systems were turned on by a social media commenter, he responded that they were, but didn’t share any velocity or pitch readings.
This week is the black hole of spring training. A portion of the traveling media leave over the previous weekend, having already spent seven or eight days in town, while those late-arrivers or those rotating in to replace colleagues typically get in town towards the end of the week, as road games start on Saturday and the first home game isn’t until Sunday. Consequently, news is hard to come by out of camp this week and things like a top prospect’s live batting practice end up being a bit of a black box to those of us at home.
Just to clarify, this isn’t a criticism of Gabe or anyone on the Braves beat, really. It’s just the reality of the situation - it’s a long season and pacing yourself is smart. They can’t all be expected to spend six weeks in North Port and then launch into a six-month regular season plus (hopefully) a full month of playoffs.
I reached out to Gabe on this; he did get back to me that the fastball just explodes out of Murphy’s hand and while he was a little wild at times, the tools are there for the youngster to be “really, really good” one day.
Quick Hits
Murphy’s not the only prospect turning heads in North Port. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman decided to praise a youngster, relaying a lofty comparison for shortstop John Gil. Making the observation that his body type (listed at 6’1, 175 but clearly with more strength and weight on the frame) looked like former Braves infielder Wilson Betemit (6’2, 220), the unnamed ‘talent evaluator’ reportedly countered with “but he plays like Rafael Furcal”. While Betemit was primarily a third baseman that dabbled a bit at short, Furcal was the 2000 Rookie of the Year at shortstop that hit .284 with a .756 OPS during six seasons in Atlanta while providing 189 steals and highlight-reel defense and an All-Star nod in 2003. Lofty comparison, indeed.
Number nerd alert: We have two potential number debuts for the team, if either player makes the Opening Day roster. Utilityman candidate Brett Wisely is wearing number 0, while NRI reliever James Karinchak is wearing the 00. No Braves player has ever worn either number as a member of the active roster, with only one 00 in the league last year & only six players wearing 0 across all of MLB.
680 The Fan is on site this week and Chris Dimino is killing it. The veteran radio host has had longform interviews with not only Walt Weiss, but also hitting coach Tim Hyers, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, first base coach Antoan Richardson, and several players (including JR Ritchie, Mauricio Dubón, and Mike Yastrzemski). While I don’t normally make a habit of plugging other YouTube channels, 680’s been putting these Dmino interviews into a playlist that’s a must-watch if you want to know more about the newcomers.
Roster Battle Tracker
Stock UP
While he’s not expected to break camp with the team, he’s likely increased his chances of a call-up at some point in time during the season through both the growth of his stuff and his maturity over the last two weeks in North Port. He’s saying and doing all the right things, and folks are noticing.
Here’s more on Ritchie from manager Walt Weiss, as relayed by the AJC’s Gabe Burns: “We tend to have that guy on the pitching side; we tend to have that guy on the cusp. Ritchie is that guy that people are talking about. Haven’t seen a whole lot of him. The live (batting practice) he threw (last week) was the first time I’d watched him pitch other than video and that type of thing. He’s supposed to have a real good feel for pitching. He can spin the ball. He has some command, that type of thing, and there’s some power there, too.”
Stock DOWN
None as of now - it’s hard to find negatives when there’s no actual games being played!
Observation of the Day
I’m thinking about Seth Lugo.
The Braves likely won’t see the right-hander in the season’s opening week, as he probably slots in as the #4 starter for the Royals and will start the first game after the team leaves Atlanta, but he’s still particularly relevant to the 2026 Atlanta roster because of his medical history.
Lugo had a partial UCL tear in 2017, similar to Grant Holmes last year, and successfully rehabbed it without surgery. He pitched 101.1 innings as a swingman for the Mets that season. He also had a bone spur surgically removed on February 16th of 2021 and debuted on June 2nd, returning with better fastball velocity and ending up with better results than he had in the previous season. It’s a timeframe that has to have Braves officials salivating at the concept of getting back Spencer Schwellenbach in early June, as his similar surgery was on February 18th, as well as Hurston Waldrep, who is slated for surgery next Monday.
For more on how the schedule could line up well for the Braves to ‘stay above water’ while they wait for their injured players to potentially return, check out the 2nd segment of Thursday’s episode of the Braves Today podcast (timestamped link below):
Tomorrow’s watch list
One day away from the first game of spring training, so I’m watching to see if they name a starter for the road trip to Tampa. In the last two seasons, the guy who started the first or second game of spring has been the Opening Day starter for the Braves, with Spencer Strider doing it in 2024 and Chris Sale in 2025.
Ritchie and Murphy turning heads? Reynaldo’s velo back to normal? A positive comparison for two of our injury guys? John Gil being jacked? Today’s is a helluva day.