The Atlanta Braves announced on Tuesday night that they had reached an agreement on a one-year, $8 million contract extension with catcher Travis d’Arnaud. The deal includes an $8 million club option for 2025 with no buyout.
d’Arnaud, who was named an All-Star for the first time in 2022, is one of the better catchers in the game today. He very likely could have made more on the open market, considering how adept he is both offensively and defensively, but the Braves and manager Brian Snitker do a good job of mixing and matching him with his fellow coaching counterpart Sean Murphy.
The Atlanta #Braves today signed C Travis d’Arnaud to a one-year, $8 million contract for the 2024 season which includes an $8 million club option for 2025 with no buyout. pic.twitter.com/SkN4NgZIbr
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 18, 2023
This season, d’Arnaud is slashing .265/.338/.478 with eight home runs, 23 RBIs and a .816 OPS. He’s played in just 38 games this season, due to his role and the fact that he missed a month after suffering a concussion on a collision at home plate.
Over four years in Atlanta, d’Arnaud has compiled a .266/.326/.465 line with 42 home runs and 143 RBIs in 249 games. In addition to being named an All-Star last season, d’Arnaud was a World Series champion in 2021 and won the Silver Slugger Award in 2020.
d’Arnaud caught all 140.0 innings of Atlanta’s postseason run in 2021, including all 53.0 frames of the World Series.
After being drafted in the first round of the 2007 MLB Draft, d’Arnaud has been traded for two Cy Young Award winners in his career (Roy Halladay and R.A. Dickey). He made his major league debut with the New York Mets in 2013 and spent six seasons in Queens, but was released after a slow start back from Tommy John surgery.
It’s fair to say that the 34-year-old d’Arnaud has finally rounded into form with the Braves.
