The Rays are one of a number of teams showing trade interest in Oakland catcher Sean Murphy, according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network. The line of suitors for Murphy is expected to be long, and already includes the Red Sox and White Sox, while a host of other teams including the Cardinals, Astros and Yankees could feasibly be interested. It’s also worth noting that the Guardians discussed a Murphy deal in the summer, while Dennis Lin of The Athletic adds that the Padres also pursued Murphy during the season, and both of those teams could conceivably circle back to restart those trade discussions.
Willson Contreras and Christian Vazquez headline a thin free agent catching class, so Murphy represents an attractive alternative on the trade market for catcher-hungry teams this winter. The 28-year-old is under club control for three more seasons, and Matt Swartz of MLBTR pegged him for a $3.5MM salary in arbitration. While the prospect haul to acquire him will be significant, that salary is an incredibly affordable rate for a player who was worth 5.1 fWAR last season, and has firmly established himself as one of the best catchers in the game.
The Rays tendered contracts to Christian Bethancourt ($1.6MM projection) and Francisco Mejia ($2.2MM) so they do have catching options on the roster, but neither are clear starters. Bethancourt came over to the Rays from Oakland last summer and posted a 1.9 fWAR season with a 101 wRC+ in his first big league campaign since 2017. Mejia saw his BB and K rate go in the wrong directions on the way to a .242/.264/.381 line in 93 games.
Murphy would be a clear upgrade on either. He hit 18 home runs on a .250/.332/.426 line in 2022, good for a 122 wRC+ or 22% above league average. He also cut back on his strikeouts, shaving off five percent from his career mark which tended to hover around 25%. Behind the plate Murphy ranked sixth in baseball for Statcast’s Catcher Framing Runs, and threw out roughly a third of runners attempting stolen bases on him. He also won a Gold Glove in 2021.
Tampa Bay’s farm system ranked 12th in the game by Baseball America during the middle of the 2022 season, and featured five of the top-100 prospects in the game – Shane Baz, Taj Bradley, Curtis Mead, Jonathan Aranda and Carson Williams, so there’s certainly the young talent there to get a deal done.
It’s not clear how the Rays’ catching depth chart would shape up were a Murphy trade to materialize. They could look to sell high on Bethancourt on the back of his strong 2022 campaign and operate a Murphy-Mejia tandem behind the plate. Given Murphy has caught 119 and 116 games the past two years, it seems unlikely they’d carry three catchers. Of course, after trading Ji-Man Choi to Pittsburgh, they could opt to utilize Mejia as a bench bat/first-base option, although they’d certainly be looking to see a bounce back from him offensively in that scenario.
Rays interested in spending less than 1 year of Max Scherzer on their next whole season’s payroll
Sean of the dead for Oak, if they give this young stud up…
Not really. With Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom, and Daniel Susac the A’s have plenty of Catching depth coming
Yeah, the A’s are doing great with their young talent, keep’em for a year or two & then giv’em away. It’s really keeping them in contention, isn’t it?
Stfu, Mets spent 200 million more just to last the same amount of games in the postseason
Way too miss the point, great job
Jose Aubreu is in Cleveland tonight too.
Don’t worry, 3rd or 4th place teams can go to the WS…What a joke…
Keep watching, with the extended playoff season (what a joke) Manfart will justify shortening the regular season due to the exhausted condition of the players), therefore eliminating the regular season games & ruining the records we have stamped into BB history. It’s all for the money & not the fantastic history we have in BB.
Oh, cuz the Rays are cheap! So fresh I almost didn’t catch it. Next thing someone will make fun of their low attendance! Good stuff!
Isn’t it hilarious then that since 2015 they’ve won more games than the Mets?
Hmm, spend $200M for one guy, win FEWER games than the team whose entire payroll is less than his AAV.
Which one sounds smarter?
That shows how stupid the Mets are. Rays 4th best record in baseball since 2008…and the mets?
Oddly, the Pirates could put a package tother for Murphy and then flip him.
Instead the Pirates will take another chance on Roberto Perez and hope that at 35 he lasts more than 30 games
Robert is fine too if he could last 80-85 games.
that’s my point, he’s been injury prone over the past several years
I know. My point is I agree.
I think I was looking at combining a surplus of prospects for a desired player. Then flip that player for a higher tier prospect, not to play the season with. Pirates hang onto people who might be prospects instead of taking three or four and getting a top 100 prospect or a player they can flip for one.
No, the Pirates need another first baseman.
Greg Bird?
Regarding “No, the Pirates need another first baseman”.
Very good sarcasm. And timely!
I can see the Rays getting this young stud, they certainly have the prospects and can afford his modest contract. The White Sox though? They have the worst farm in the league and no payroll flexibility, so they afford to trade their underwhelming young big leaguers with contracts Oakland would want.
The A’s want Andrew Vaughn though, that’s why there’s a connect. White Sox could always trade him and resign Abreu if they wanted.
And they shouldn’t, because Vaughn is more controllable and better.
Categorically untrue, Murphy is a top 5 catcher, Vaughn is not a top 5 1B.
Primarily because he hasn’t played a lot of first base because Abreu didn’t want to take a day off and LaRussa gave in to his demand. Vaughn – the te leader in hr and rbi in 2022 – is still on his way up while Abreu is not.
A’s boutta get FLEECED, look out Billy!
Please don’t trade Mead or Taj.
Then you aint getting Murphy, who the Cardinals will outbid you for if you don’t.
Why are you, ostensibly a Rays fan, hoarding prospects when your system is permanently churning out MLB regulars? Who cares, man? Your current #50 prospect will likely be a multi-time all-star elite player, lol
The Rays need to keep Mead. He’s a much needed near MLB ready hitter. Wonder if the A’s be interested in a package around Williams, and a couple of higher ranked pitchers like Wilcox and Montgomery.
Mead would be the main prospect the A’s would want. A’s have a young SS so Williams is not who they would want in a package. A’s need more hitting since Murphy is their best hitter.
@Acr 2 agreed completely, A’s need ready-now big hitting prospects/young players to come back in a Murphy deal to fill out the lineup at 1B, 3B and LF. They already have the gold glove/no bat guys in Pache and a lesser extent Allen (who’s swing is more projectable+he got told to bunt all the time, which hurts the BA as bunting is a low percentage move – expect an offensive breakout from him as soon as next season but it might take another year after it, similar to Altuve).
Mead and Jordan Diaz holding down 1B, 2B (with Tony Kemp) and 3B would make them a lot more interesting for sure.
What shortstop are you talking about? The highest ranked in the farm that I see is Max Muncy at #6 on MLB, and it seems he is more of a bat first player. Williams just won the minor league gold glove at SS and would seemingly fit in with the A’s next period of contention better as they are both at least a couple of years away.
Nick Allen who was one of the top defensive SS in the minors and is only 22. Was the starting SS last year on team USA.
Nick Allen is going to be the best SS in MLB in 5 years.
It’s not going to be that easy. The Rays really don’t have much significant prospect capital outside Mead and Taj. Or you could use assets at the major league level such as McLanahan or Rasmussen but I’m pretty sure that would be worse.
With how many teams want Murphy its going to be a great package of players coming to the A’s. So teams will need to outbid other teams for his service.
Best part about the Rays is they have a lot excess guys someone like A’s would be interested in as a rebuilding team.
Ask for Taylor Walls, Greg Jones, Alika Williams, Dominic Keegan as part of the talks.
So Rays could possibly put together a huge quantity package instead of a somewhat big quality package.
A’s need as many changes to hit on corner stone players they can get.
A’s are gonna need a much bigger headliner than that, even if it’s not a top 100 prospect.
Who said those were the headliners?
“Ask for Taylor Walls, Greg Jones, Alika Williams, Dominic Keegan as part of the talks.”
Asking for them to be included in trade talks doesn’t mean those are the main pieces/headliners.
I think Josh Lowe + one of their top 5 + two of those names you listed gets it done.
Murphy makes the Ray’s instant favorites to win the East, he’s that good. I think they swallow the pill and they have the depth to do it without mortgaging their future.
I definitely see Josh Lowe as the headliner
I think
Josh Lowe
1 of Taylor Walls or Vidal Brujan
Greg Jones
Heriberto Hernandez
Alika Williams
And
Marcus Johnson
Moreso quantity with some high upside guys imo.
The A’s wont trade for Brandon Lowe. He’s paid too much.
Tampa Bay’s farm system ranked 12th in the game by Baseball America during the middle of the 2022 season, and featured five of the top-100 prospects in the game.
I take these rankings as somewhat guesswork. It would be interesting to do a retrospective analysis on them as well as on the Top-100 prospects. You could even include the prospects that “got away” in trades as part of the assessment. You not only need to have talent, but you need to know it’s there, and you need to develop it to its maximum capability.
Anyone who underrates the Rays or Cardinals farm systems cannot see the forest from the trees. Both are permanently top 10 until they stop creating so many MLB players.
Dodgers also.
Dodgers, Astros and the A’s added to that tier.
Rays, Cardinals, Dodgers, Astros and A’s are the “dont leave out of your top 10 or else you likely will look stupid” tier. As those teams always produce MLB players, regardless of whether or not they debut on other teams (not talking about whatever “rankings” there are, this is pure “producing quality and quantity MLB players” nothing else).
Who of significance have the Cardinals developed in the last decade? So they continually produce league average journeymen, color me impressed. So they had Gallen, Alcantara and Arozarena, but they never thought highly of them because Mozalak doesn’t trade those he over values.
Again, my statement was mostly based on MLB grads only, journeymen or not. But you listed three STL farm system players, which was my point. They have had so many MLB grads.
They have to bring up and play all of their AAAA guys. No free agent wants to play for them. And now no one, except those trying to just break in want to coach for them.
“No FA wants to play for them” – proof?
But that’s my point, you need Kenny Rogers running your system, so you know when to hold them.
The Cardinals have made the postseason 10 out of the last 14 seasons, what are you even talking about?
Proof? Who have they signed? Steven Matz? A 42 year old Albert Pujols? which was just a PR move to increase attendance that happened to go well. Every offseason Mozalak says they are going to be aggressive in free agency. Every offseason there are tons of articles about them having interest in a several players. They have the money to spend with any team in the league. One would have to believe they have conversations with agents about players but yet every year they just end up with the low hanging fruit. Stanton refused to wave his no trade clause because he didn’t want to play for the people running the organization and it looks like others follow suit. A 35 year old Beltran? Dexter Fowler? Corey Dickerson? None of which were highly sought after? Goldschmidt was already under contract and wasn’t likely to move again if the offer was fair. Arenado didn’t opt out because he was already getting paid what he could have gotten in the open mark, probably getting a higher AAV at less years then he would have otherwise received. Since money is not the issue, what else could it be? You never even hear post signing rumors that they offered a player, it never even gets to that point.
Clearly Mozalak is no Kenny Rodgers. The ones he doesn’t keep end up being known outside of St. Louis while the ones he touts so highly are just league average fillins or are MiLB studs who don’t fit the philosophy of the MLB team.
Because they play in the weakest division in baseball. As all of TLRs players have cycled out the team has been on a downward trajectory. It’s it’s been masked by beating up on the Reds, Cubs and Pirates. They got bounced in the WC round the past 3 years because they had no business being there. It took a 17 game winning streak to make the playoffs in 2021. From afar sure, they make look good, take it from a former season ticket holder and someone who watches them for 150+ games a year, up close they are barely average at best and it shows when they play outside their division. This year will help bring that more to the forefront.
Could STL use these?
Carson Kelly
Luke Voit
Kolten Wong
Edmundo Sosa
Randy Arozarena
Harrison Bader
Adolis García
Lane Thomas
Randall Grichuk
Tommy Pham
Matt Carpenter
Sandy Alcantara
Zac Gallen
Michael Wacha
Marco Gonzales
Luke Weaver
Morosi just putting stuff out there again that he thinks makes sense, but based on no actual information he has obtained. Gotta keep those hits coming I guess.
Morosi is set to launch his own app: MLBSM (Major League Baseball Solid Maybes)
He’s a total hack. No one should ever listen to the garbage he puts out there
Well blow me down!
No thank you.
Rays interested in all the free agents. Got it!
rays interested in water
Rays are just doing their due diligence.
I’ll say this for the rumor’s published thus far……
When the signings and trades start, these rumor’s will look worse than usual – and every year the rumored moves and the actual moves are off quite a bit.
Yeah……. That’s why I pretty much will bomb the top 50 contest on here.
Welcome to the club. I think the winningest contest cards get like….10% right? At least that’s what I tell myself to feel better.
Murphy and Nimmo would be a good offseason for them.
It would be spectacular to get both of them, but it’s highly unlikely.
“The line of suitors for Murphy is expected to be long, and already includes the Red Sox”
Not like the Red Sox had a great catcher in Christian Vazquez just last year. SMH