Cleveland Sports Forum

I think he's waiting for a catcher move.

Sea, can you call out the FO for not doing anything ?

That is usually when something happens !

are they doing notihing? They have 2 months until camp opens.

There goes Murphy.

Scooped by the Braves.

Maybe the FO can take the thumbs out of their ass now.

I don't quite understand the complaints; I am sure they made an offer, and the A's choose another deal I don't see details yet. I'm happy to disappear and check back on February 15 and see what they've done. This is like analyzing election results when 35% of the vote has been counted.

John Sabol
@John_Sabol
·
45m
#Guardians’ No. 1 trade candidate, Sean Murphy, is off the market

A’s wanted an everyday player & 2 top prospects (including P Daniel Espino), per
@DreKnott
this morning on
@ESPNCleveland


CLE said no. Smart move IMO.A lot to give up considering Bo Naylor is waiting in the wings

John Sabol
@John_Sabol
·
37m
A’s had asked for Espino back at the trade deadline as well as OF George Valera & P Gavin Williams.

All 3 ranked in #Guardians’ top 3 prospects, per
@MLBPipeline
.

Crazy asking price back in the summer for Sean Murphy who would’ve been replaced by Bo Naylor in 1-2 yrs.

Glad the Murphy thing is over !

Braves acquire star catcher Murphy from Athletics, sources say
4:19 PM ET
Jeff Passan
ESPN


The Atlanta Braves acquired star catcher Sean Murphy in a three-way trade with the Oakland A's and Milwaukee Brewers that saw at least eight players switch teams, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN on Monday.

Murphy, 28, was among the most prized players on the trade market this offseason, and Atlanta -- which dealt young catcher William Contreras to Milwaukee and still has veteran Travis d'Arnaud -- pounced to get him.


In addition to moving Contreras, the Braves are sending left-handed starter Kyle Muller, right-handed starter Freddy Tarnok and veteran catcher Manny Piña to the A's. Also going to Milwaukee are right-handed reliever Joel Payamps (from Oakland) and right-handed reliever Justin Yeager.

The A's, who have made a habit of acquiring young pitchers and watching them blossom in their rotation, get two big league-ready arms in Muller and Tarnok, both of whom pitched for the Braves last season.

Atlanta's pitching depth helped land Murphy, who hit .250/.332/.426 with 18 home runs and played Gold Glove-caliber defense last season. Murphy, who has three years until he reaches free agency, will reach arbitration for the first time this season and was moved in part because of the emergence of catcher Shea Langeliers, who Oakland acquired earlier this year in the Matt Olson trade.

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4 COMMENTS
Braves Acquire Sean Murphy, Brewers Acquire William Contreras In Three-Team Trade
By Darragh McDonald | December 12, 2022 at 2:45pm CDT

The Braves have acquired catcher Sean Murphy from the A’s, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s actually a three-team trade, per Passan, with William Contreras going to the Brewers and Manny Pina to the A’s. Right-handed pitching prospect Freddy Tarnok will be going from Atlanta to Oakland, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The A’s will also get outfielder Esteury Ruiz from Milwaukee, per Murray. Joel Sherman of The New York Post adds that Joel Payamps and Justin Yeager will go to the Brewers. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN reports that left-hander Kyle Muller is going to Oakland. It’s not yet known if this is the full deal or if more players are involved.

This move finally brings an end to a trade saga that has been going on for about a year now. After the 2021 season, the A’s leaned hard into a rebuild that saw them trade away Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Manaea and Chris Bassitt before Opening Day, with Frankie Montas getting flipped at the 2022 deadline.

Murphy was widely seen as the next to go for a number of reasons. Firstly, he just crossed three years of MLB service time in 2022 and will now be making higher salaries via arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected that Murphy will jump to $3.5MM in 2023 with two further bumps before reaching free agency after 2025. Secondly, the A’s received an excellent catching prospect from Atlanta in the Olson deal in Shea Langeliers. He had an excellent season in Triple-A and carried himself well in a 40-game debut in the majors. Given all those factors, it seemed more and more likely that the A’s would hand the job over to Langeliers and trade Murphy for improvements elsewhere on the roster.

By taking this path, the A’s are parting with one of the best catchers in the game. The 28-year-old Murphy has 330 games in the big leagues under his belt thus far and has performed well in just about every facet of the game. He’s hit 46 home runs and has a combined batting line of .236/.326/.429. That production leads to a wRC+ of 116, indicating he’s been 16% above the league average hitter and even further ahead of the average catcher, since they generally come in a bit lower than others. He also took a step forward at the plate in 2022, striking out in just 20.3% of his plate appearances after being above 25% in his career prior to that.

Defensively, Murphy gets rave reviews as well. Since the start of 2020, he’s posted 13 Defensive Runs Saved behind the plate, a number that places him in the top 10 in the league. FanGraphs’ framing metric gives him a 19.5 in that timeframe, the third-highest such tally. Those all-around contributions have allowed him to produce 10 wins above replacement in those three seasons, according to FanGraphs, second among all MLB catchers with only J.T. Realmuto ahead of him.

Career stats are good for a catcher. Are they worth 3 top players ? No, unless you think Naylor will never be a starting catcher !

Still Toronto is out there ! Milwaukee might have an extra catcher. If nothing else Roberto Perez is still out there or Hedges.

Hayden Grove
@H_Grove
·
25m
Josh Bell's wife is from Poland, Ohio-- an hour outside of Pittsburgh and two hours outside of Cleveland.

I would not say 2 hours.

Poland is a southside suburb of Youngstown. William McKinley attended law school there in case you're interested.

All the Braves are trading is:

Their No. 1 prospect, 6-7 LHP Kyle Muller
Their No. 9 prospect 24 year old RHP Freddy Tarnok, projects to back of rotation or bullpen
24 year old 6-4 RH reliever Justin Yeager 3.10 ERA 1.17 ERA in his first full major league season
William Contreras 25 year old catcher whose lousy season in 2022 was 278/354/506. I'll have to assume he's not that great a defender.