The Braves, Brewers, and A's completed the weirdest trade of the MLB offseason on Monday. emmabaccellieri breaks down the three-way deal ↓
Which means there were plenty of teams that seemed like great landing spots for Murphy. But the Braves … weren’t really one of them. They were perfectly fine at catcher! They have Travis d’Arnaud backed up by All-Star offensive threat William Contreras and, behind him, veteran Manny Piña. That combination placed Atlanta third in FanGraphs catcher WAR in 2022—one of only three clubs in baseball whose catchers posted double-digit offensive WARdefensive WAR.
In terms of the other players they’re giving up—Muller and Tarnok were among the best pitching prospects in this system. Both debuted in MLB in 2022 and should not be far off from being fully big-league ready. As with every assessment of young pitching talent, all the usual caveats about volatility, injury and unpredictability apply: There’s no such thing as a guaranteed pitching prospect. But this was no small pair to lose.
That said, Atlanta’s front office is generally quite smart. There might be a factor here that isn’t publicly obvious right now. Maybe the Braves were sour on Contreras as a long-term option because of his glove, and they felt confident in their ability to extend Murphy, as they’ve made a habit of doing with young players. Maybe they have a deal all but ready to go for d’Arnaud.
little. That’s not intended as a knock on Ruiz. But if someone had asked you to draw up a deal where a team gave up one player to get back William Contreras … Well, let’s just say you would not have landed on that player being the 23-year-old utilityman who rounded out thethe 23-year-old utilityman who rounded out the Josh Hader trade package in August! Yet here we are.Contreras is a young talent at a premium position with a lifetime 120 OPS+.
Yes, Muller and Tarnok are legitimate prospects, and Salinas is a potentially interesting talent, too. But the A’s have been stockpiling arms who are close to major-league ready. They’ve already used their trades to build up a supply of these kinds of young pitchers, and now, they have plenty else to focus on. They should have been in the driver’s seat on this deal. Since Willson Contreras is, Murphy was the best catcher available, and Oakland was seemingly in a position to name its price.
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