Peach tree concerns and how to approach it? ?

My redhaven peach tree was transplanted last year (I’m in lousiana and its from my local nursery). When I purchased it, it was already growing about 20 peaches. I ended up transplanting it a week after I bought it in the beginning of April. It went through quite a shock as i had to move it to a new location after I noticed the leaves turning yellow and discovered the soil wasn’t draining. I ended up losing all of the peaches before June but the leaves and tree continued to grow. In the fall/winter, the leaves fell off and it either went into dormancy or died. I discovered in January of this year that there was growth at the bottom of the tree with leaves. I had a tree trunk guard (white thing on the tree in the pic) on the tree ever since I transplanted it and the growth was growing under the tree guard. I know you would usually remove anything growing low on the tree but I don’t want to since I think my tree is dead. It is now March 31 and the tree still has no leaves and the scratch test I did doesn’t look promising at all. The growth however is producing new leaves and seems to be thriving. I’m at a loss trying to decide if I should cut down the majority of the tree and see if the growth continues to grow, or to wait and see if the tree “wakes up” before cutting it down. What are your thoughts?