Why the Braves Already Regret Signing Kim Ha-seong

The Atlanta Braves added catcher Austin Wynns in the middle of the 2026 season, while both Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy were down with injuries.

The team sent cash considerations to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for Wynns.

In a corresponding move, the Braves designated longtime third-string catcher Chadwick Tromp for assignment.

The reasoning was a bit weird, though it was all meant to be a temporary fix anyway.

Sandy Leon was getting the bulk of playing time, so the Braves opted to acquire a backup to Leon instead of using Tromp in that role.

One silly thing about the Wynns acquisition is that the Braves kind of prompted it with their own DFA of Jonah Heim earlier in the season.

The Athletics, who acquired Wynns in a midseason trade in 2025, designated him for assignment three days after trading for Heim.

He was released and signed with the Angels, but did not get promoted to their big league team.

Three weeks later, the Braves traded cash considerations — which is what they received for Heim — to Anaheim for Wynns.

What were the expectations?

There were not any real expectations, to be blunt.

Coming into 2026, the 35-year-old Wynns had a career 74 wRC+ that featured a pretty sizable xwOBA overperformance in 783 career plate appearances spanning parts of six major league seasons.

His actual wOBA was .282, but his expected wOBA was .265.

He had never topped 180 plate appearances in a single season, nor 1.0 fWAR.

He came kind of close in 2025, riding a massive xwOBA overperformance — .365 wOBA versus .295 xwOBA.

He was not highly regarded defensively, with just one good defensive year (2023) behind the plate and some substantially below-average performance in other seasons.

He was not doing much of anything in 2026, either — a -47 wRC+ (yes, a negative sign) in 43 plate appearances in Sacramento before getting released.

Basically, the Braves acquired a guy who had 0.6 career fWAR in 826 plate appearances at the big league level.

While it is not entirely clear what the Braves were thinking in swapping Tromp for Wynns, it was a fairly inconsequential shuffle to try and survive until Baldwin and Murphy returned.

2026 results: Wynns was only with the Braves for two weeks.

He was acquired on June 3, recalled on June 4, and granted free agency on June 16 — the day after Baldwin returned from the Injured List.

He appeared in six games for the Braves.

This move was part of a broader roster shuffle that also included pitcher Ian Hamilton, who was signed to a non-guaranteed MLB contract in mid-December after the Yankees non-tendered him.

Hamilton had a 1.1 fWAR season in his first year with the Yankees in 2023, but took a step back in 2024, and by 2025 was not particularly helpful.

He ended up functioning as a yo-yo piece for the Braves in 2026, getting cut in Spring Training, recalled in mid-April, designated for assignment six days later, then recalled-DFAed-outrighted again in a two-week stretch in late June and early July.

He threw just 4 2/3 big league innings in 2026, his lowest total since 2022.

He put up a 184 ERA-, 80 FIP-, and 94 xFIP-, earning 0.0 fWAR.

On the financial side, Atlanta Braves Holdings reported strong third-quarter results for 2026.

The team saw a 14% increase in average attendance per regular season home games in the third quarter from the prior year period.

The team won 94 games and clinched the NL East division title on September 20.

Total revenue for the club grew to $325 million in the third quarter, up 4% from the prior year period.

Baseball revenue increased 4% from the prior year period to $296 million, driven by increases in baseball event revenue.

Mixed-use development revenue increased 7% from the prior year period to $29 million, primarily because of an increase in rental income.

But the Wynns acquisition — and the chain of transactions that led to it — remains a curious footnote in an otherwise successful season.

It raises the question of whether the front office overthought a simple roster need.

Instead of keeping Tromp, a known quantity who had served as the third-string catcher, they traded cash for a player who was not performing in the minors and who was released two weeks later.

The Braves essentially paid cash to swap one backup catcher for another, less productive one.

And they did so after creating the opening by designating Heim earlier in the season.

It was a small move in a long season, but it is the kind of move that makes analysts wonder about the decision-making process in the front office.

The Braves won 94 games and the division title, so the move did not hurt them in the standings.