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James Kaprielian Undergoes Shoulder Surgery, Expected To Be Ready For Spring Training

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Right-hander James Kaprielian underwent surgery to fix his right AC joint, Athletics manager Mark Kotsay told reporters (including Evan Webeck of the Bay Area News Group) today at the Winter Meetings.  It doesn’t appear to be a terribly serious procedure, as Kotsay didn’t “think it’s a concern,” and the skipper felt Kaprielian should be recovered in time for Spring Training.  “There’s all kinds of variables that can place from now until February but the expectation is that he will be ready,” Kotsay said.

2022 was Kaprielian’s third Major League season, and he posted a 4.23 ERA, 17% strikeout rate, and 10.2% walk rate over 134 innings.  Those rates are well below the league average, adding to an altogether uninspiring Statcast page for the 28-year-old.  Kaprielian’s ERA well outpaced his 5.02 SIERA, and he benefited from a .263 BABIP, with his solid hard-contact numbers also helping limit the damage on balls hit into play.

While the bottom-line numbers are pretty similar to Kaprielian’s 2021 statistics, his strikeout and walk rates both dropped off heavily, and his hard-hit ball numbers significantly improved (Kaprielian also had a .274 BABIP in 2021).  It could be that the right-hander might become more consistent and perhaps just better overall now that he has undergone this procedure, as Kaprielian missed time early in the 2022 season due to an inflamed AC joint, and he also spent time on the injured list in 2021 with a shoulder impingement.

Good health is obviously key to Kaprielian’s chances of returning to the Athletics’ rotation, but he’ll be helped by something of a wide-open competition for starting jobs.  According to Kotsay, Cole Irvin is the only in-house starter guaranteed a spot in the starting five, with Kaprielian, Paul Blackburn, Ken Waldichuk, JP Sears, Adrian Martinez, Adam Oller, Zach Logue, and A.J. Puk among the candidates battling for starting roles.  The rebuilding A’s probably figure to add at least one veteran pitcher on a minor league contract or a low-cost big league deals, perhaps with an eye towards flipping that veteran to a contending team at the trade deadline.

Catching Notes: Cubs, Murphy, Astros, Contreras, Cardinals

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9:45PM: The Cubs are also showing interest in Murphy, as per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link).

8:56PM: The Astros are the latest team to explore a trade for Athletics catcher Sean Murphy, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link).  Houston joins a lengthy list of suitors known to include such teams as the Guardians, Twins, White Sox, Red Sox, Rays, and Cardinals.

The A’s are surely commanding a high price tag in any Murphy deal, and the cost could possibly be a little steeper for one of Oakland’s AL West rivals.  Nonetheless, the Astros have a good amount of young talent that could catch the Athletics’ interest, and Houston might feel the acquisition cost is worth it to add a former Gold Glover who is under control through the 2025 season.

Defense and game-calling has long been a priority behind the plate for the Astros, which is why the team has stuck with Martin Maldonado even though Maldonado’s offense has sharply fallen off in the last two seasons.  However, the Astros did acquire Christian Vazquez at last year’s trade deadline, and Vazquez, Willson Contreras, and now Murphy has emerged on Houston’s radar this offseason.  Whereas Contreras could be fit into the lineup as a DH or as a left fielder, Murphy has played exclusively as a catcher during his pro career, and moving a strong defender like Murphy away from the catcher’s position could be seen as a bit of a waste.

That said, the Astros might also simply install Murphy as the regular catcher and move Maldonado into more of a clear backup role.  Maldonado is only under contract through the 2023 season, and thus Murphy provides more of a longer-term answer behind the plate.

If Houston didn’t want to meet Oakland’s demands for Murphy, signing Contreras would cost only money and a compensatory draft pick rather than prospect depth, which might be preferable for the Astros in the bigger picture.  Contreras has long been of interest to the Astros, and former general manager James Click had arranged a trade at the deadline that would have sent Jose Urquidy to the Cubs for Contreras, but Houston owner Jim Crane vetoed the proposed deal on advice from manager Dusty Baker.

With the Astros now set to meet with Contreras as a free agent, Baker clarified his objection to the midseason deal.  “It’s not that I didn’t want him, at the time, I just didn’t think it was the proper fit with two months to go in the season,” Baker told The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome and other reporters today.  “You have to learn the pitching staff, how we go about doing things, and I didn’t feel there was enough time to do that.”

Obtaining a more defensively-sound catcher like Vazquez was apparently more acceptable in Baker’s view, and it also certainly helped that Vazquez only cost the Astros two position-player prospects (Enmanuel Valdez and Wilyer Abreu) rather than a solid pitcher like Urquidy.  Since Justin Verlander has now left the Astros to sign with the Mets, Urquidy has some added importance to an Astros rotation that is still quite strong, even without the AL Cy Young Award winner.

While the catching market is usually pretty thin, there have been plenty of rumblings about backstops this winter, given the presence of Contreras and Vazquez in the free agent market, as well as major trade chips (i.e. Murphy, or the Blue Jays’ and Braves’ catchers) all perhaps in play.  Since Yadier Molina has now retired, the Cardinals have one of the more pressing needs at the position, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that trading for Murphy “is atop their list” among the many options.  If the Cards traded for a catcher rather than spending bigger to sign a free agent like Contreras, Goold speculates that the team could then re-allocate any extra budget space towards a free agent, potentially even one of the remaining top shortstops like Dansby Swanson.

Twins Have Shown Interest In Sean Murphy

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Wolfson suggests that the Twins don’t appear to be after Willson Contreras as of right now but have spoken to the Athletics, Blue Jays and Braves about their catching depth. The A’s are expected to trade Sean Murphy as the next step in their rebuilding process, while the Jays are dealing with something of a surplus, having Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno as MLB-caliber options on the 40-man roster. Atlanta has Travis d’Arnaud signed for $8MM this coming season plus a 2024 option at the same price, and William Contreras’ breakout could make it easier to part with d’Arnaud, speculatively speaking. The Braves also have veteran Manny Pina signed at a year and $4.5MM, but he played just five games last year before requiring season-ending wrist surgery and, as a career-long defensive-minded backup, wouldn’t fit the Twins’ stated preference of adding a catcher who can provide more offense.

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Athletics Moving Closer To Sean Murphy Trade; Braves Not The Acquiring Team

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5:47PM: The Braves aren’t going to be the team that lands Murphy, Feinsand tweets in a new update, though the A’s do still look like they’re nearing a deal.  Anthopoulos told Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter links) and other reporters that the Braves are planning to go into the spring with Contreras, d’Arnaud and Pina behind the plate.  Offers could be considered out of due diligence, but Anthopoulos said “I do not anticipate a trade, so just to shut that down.”

5:03PM: After months of trade speculation, Sean Murphy may on the verge leaving Oakland, as MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link) reports that “the Athletics appear to be getting close to” moving the catcher.  While multiple teams are in the running, the Braves are somewhat surprisingly “considered the frontrunners” to pry Murphy away from the A’s.

This isn’t the first time Atlanta has been linked to Murphy, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported about the Braves’ interest just two days ago.  However, that interest was characterized mostly as a case of due diligence, and how Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is open to exploring all trade possibilities, even if his team is seemingly set at a position.

Even with William Contreras, Travis d’Arnaud, and Manny Pina all on the catching depth chart, it makes sense why Atlanta could view Murphy as a preferable option to its in-house choices.  Murphy is both a quality hitter (.236/.326/.429 slash line over his career, 116 wRC+) and a quality defender (excellent framing numbers and a Gold Glove in 2021), plus he is still arbitration-controlled through the 2025 season.  Projected for a modest $3.5MM salary in 2023, Murphy’s team control is naturally attractive to any club, and perhaps particularly so for a Braves team that has started to approach the luxury tax threshold for the first time since 1998.

Due mostly to several contract extensions for incumbent players, Atlanta is projected for a luxury tax number just shy of $228MM in 2023, and thus not far below the $233MM tax threshold.  To be clear, the threshold isn’t a barrier, as the team is already considering exceeding the tax line to help further reinforce a contending roster.  With new ballpark revenue streaming in and one World Series title in 2021 already claimed, it makes sense that the Braves would be willing to keep spending at franchise-record amounts to keep the good times rolling.  That means Atlanta could consider moves like acquiring Murphy and also possibly re-signing free agent shortstop Dansby Swanson.

Adding Murphy would also naturally create a surplus behind the plate, even with Contreras perhaps getting the bulk of his time at the DH spot.  d’Arnaud is owed $8MM in 2023 with an $8MM club option for 2024, while Pina is owed $4.5MM next season with a $4MM club option for 2024.  Pina already seemed like something of a trade candidate even before the Murphy rumors began swirling, but the injury-prone d’Arnaud could also potentially be shopped.  Moving Contreras would be the biggest of the possible moves, as between his hitting potential and team control through the 2027 season, the Braves could land a nice return in any Contreras trade.

If the A’s did trade Murphy to Atlanta, it would mark the third time that the Billy Beane/David Forst front office (now with Forst in charge of baseball operations) has swung a blockbuster trade with Anthopoulos.  It was less than a year ago that Matt Olson was acquired by the Braves as Freddie Freeman’s replacement, with Oakland receiving Cristian Pache, Shea Langeliers and right-handers Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes in return.  Back when Anthopoulos was the Blue Jays’ general manager, he and the A’s combined on the major deal that brought Josh Donaldson to Toronto in December 2014, with Oakland getting another four-player package back.

This familiarity between the front offices and the Athletics’ familiarity with the Braves’ farm system are certainly reasons why Atlanta may be outpacing other teams for the heavily sought-after Murphy.  The White Sox, Guardians, Rays, Cardinals, and Red Sox are just some of the teams known to have asked about the All-Star, and it’s probably safe to say that any team with a vacancy behind the plate has been in contact with the A’s.  In fact, Murphy’s overall value is high enough that probably even some seemingly unlikely suitors like the Braves have also been checking in about his services.

A.J. Puk To Compete For Spot In Rotation

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When discussing the Athletics’ 2023 rotation, general manager David Forst told reporters that reliever A.J. Puk will prepare for the season as a starter and enter spring training with a chance to earn a spot on Oakland’s staff, per Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. Forst noted how Puk “got through a season healthy,” with the lefty only spending time on the COVID injured list during 2022.

Minor League Moves: Hartlieb, Koch, Motter

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The Marlins added pitcher Geoff Hartlieb to a minor league deal, per Baseball America’s minor league transactions page. Harltlieb, 29 next week, pitched for Boston’s Triple-A affiliate in 2022, tossing 61 innings of 5.16 ERA ball. He appeared in the big leagues for the Pirates and briefly the Mets, throwing 66 1/3 innings across three seasons with a 7.46 ERA. He had a slightly below average 20.5% strikeout rate against a 14.4% walk rate.

Here’s some other minor league signings from around the sport:

  • Matt Koch has landed a deal with the Rockies for 2023. The 32-year-old pitched a handful of innings for the Mariners in 2022, but spent most of the year at Triple-A, tossing 38 1/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball. He spent four seasons in Arizona, throwing 129 2/3 innings of 5.00 ERA ball across 16 starts and 20 relief appearances. He doesn’t walk many batters, but doesn’t strikeout many either, averaging just five per nine innings across his big league career.
  • The Braves re-signed Brooks Wilson and Alan Rangel to minor league deals. Wilson, 26, largely worked as a reliever at Double-A, tossing 44 innings with a 2.45 ERA while striking out 14.9 batters per nine innings. He made a handful of appearances at Triple-A, and should start the year there in 2023. Rangel, 25, made 26 starts at Double-A, working to a 5.81 ERA across 114 2/3 innings.
  • The White Sox brought back 30-year-old outfielder Mark Payton. He appeared in just eight games in the big leagues this year, tallying three hits in 25 plate appearances. He had a strong season at Triple-A, hitting .293/.369/.539 with 25 home runs. He’s yet to translate that to the majors though, and has a lifetime .164/.261/.180 line in 40 games for the Reds and White Sox since his 2020 debut.
  • Daniel Duarte re-signed with the Reds for 2023. Celebrating his 26th birthday tomorrow, Duarte spent most of the season on the injured list, but appeared in three games for the Reds in 2022, giving up three runs in 2 2/3 innings. At Triple-A, he worked to a 9.39 ERA across 7 2/3 innings.
  • The Athletics added right-handed pitcher Jasseel De La Cruz to a minor league pact. The 25-year-old was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Braves, and came up through their system as a solid pitching prospect. He struggled with injury in 2022, tossing just 26 1/3 innings in total, with 12 1/3 of those coming at Triple-A. There, he had an 8.03 ERA across seven appearances.
  • The Padres brought back Mexican pitcher Efrain Contreras on a minor league deal. The 22-year-old made 17 starts at High-A in 2022, working to a 5.74 ERA across 53 1/3 innings. While those numbers don’t look promising, he has averaged 10.2 strikeouts and 2.8 walks per nine innings across three seasons in the minor leagues.
  • Utilityman Taylor Motter has joined the Cardinals for the upcoming season. Motter, 32, has appeared in the big leagues for six different teams since 2016, hitting a combined .191/.262/.309 with ten home runs. He’s appeared at every defensive position outside of catcher and center field, but primarily handles the middle-infield spots. He made a handful of appearances for the Reds in 2022, but spent most of the year at Triple-A where he slashed .254/.357/.523 with 20 home runs for the Reds’ and Braves’ affiliates.
  • Puerto Rican shortstop Shawn Ross and the Pirates agreed to a minor league contract for the 2023 season. Ross, 22, played for Grand Junction in Independent ball in 2022, hitting 280/.408/.614 with 24 home runs.

Cardinals, Braves Among Teams That Have Spoken To A’s About Sean Murphy

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A’s catcher Sean Murphy stands as one of the likeliest trade candidates of the offseason, and Oakland is unsurprisingly receiving a fairly wide array of interest in the former Gold Glover. The Cardinals have spoken to the A’s about Murphy, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. They’ve also spoken to the Blue Jays about their catching surplus (Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk, Gabriel Moreno), per the report.

Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that even the Braves — a team ostensibly set behind the plate — have checked in with the A’s about the potential asking price. Murphy has also been linked to the Guardians, White Sox, Rays and Red Sox since the offseason began, and there are assuredly others reaching out to the A’s to throw their hat into the mix.

The Cardinals stand as arguably the most obvious on-paper suitor for Murphy. Franchise icon Yadier Molina has formally retired after a 19-year career, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has been candid about his team’s interest in acquiring a new starting catcher. Backup Andrew Knizner is a .204/.292/.288 hitter in parts of four seasons and thus not likely to step into the starter’s role, and while the Cardinals have a promising young prospect in Ivan Herrera, they’re also a win-now club looking to make the most of the remaining prime years of MVP Paul Goldschmidt and third-place finisher Nolan Arenado.

Much of the same logic would apply to a Cardinals pursuit of a Toronto backstop. Jansen is the most heavily speculated target of the bunch, given that he’s “only” controllable for another two seasons, compared to four for Kirk and six for Moreno, but any catching-hungry team would have varying levels of interest in the whole trio. Goold notes that the Jays have been looking for a young, left-handed-hitting outfielder, which the Cards do possess in Lars Nootbaar and Alec Burleson. To this point, there’s no indication that talks with either Oakland or Toronto have meaningfully advanced.

Turning to the Braves and Murphy, it’s not as clean a fit, nor is it a surprise to see Rosenthal characterize the chances of an actual deal manifesting as “slim.” That said, it’s easy enough to see how Murphy, who’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $3.5MM in his first arbitration season and is controlled through 2025, would still appeal to Atlanta.

William Contreras’ breakout season at the plate (.278/.354/.506, 20 homers in 376 plate appearances) clearly put him on the map as a potential long-term option, but Contreras’ defensive contributions were far more suspect. He posted negative framing marks according to each of Statcast, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus, and his 14% caught-stealing rate was among the worst in the league. In 955 big league innings behind the plate, Contreras has posted a rather unsightly -11 Defensive Runs Saved.

That’s not to say Atlanta should or would (in the event of a long-shot Murphy acquisition) move on from Contreras, of course. He has more than enough bat to spend considerable time at designated hitter, and the Braves have experimented with getting him some work in the outfield corners. Speculatively speaking, there’d be room to carry Contreras, Murphy and a third catcher, allowing Murphy to take the bulk of the work and Contreras to rotate between DH, catcher and perhaps some corner outfield work.

The Braves have both Travis d’Arnaud and Manny Pina signed through the 2023 season, and they hold a 2024 option on d’Arnaud. Pina played in just five games after signing a two-year, $8MM contract, however, as a wrist injury required season-ending surgery early in the year. Rosenthal suggests that the Braves have gotten some trade interest in Pina this offseason, despite that injury. The 35-year-old has long been a light hitter, but his glovework is well regarded. A team looking for a glove-first backup could certainly consider Pina an intriguing option.

A trade of Murphy to Atlanta feels like far more of a long shot than a conventional fit like the ones in St. Louis, Cleveland, Tampa Bay or Boston, but the mere fact that the Braves are even pondering the possibility underscores the manner in which Murphy is regarded throughout the league. The 28-year-old hit .250/.332/.426 with 18 home runs last season despite playing his home games at the Athletics’ cavernous home park. He slashed .271/.343/.465 on the road. After a so-so start to his 2022 season, Murphy mashed at a .278/.363/.458 slash in his final 409 plate appearances.

By measure of wRC+, Murphy was 22% better than a league-average hitter. Catchers, however, are notoriously below-average hitters on the whole, making Murphy’s contributions all the more impressive. In 2022, the average catcher was 12% worse than the league-average hitter; the gap between Murphy’s bat and that of a garden-variety catcher is enormous.

Adding to the offensive side of his game, Murphy is regarded as a strong defensive backstop. He won a Gold Glove in 2021, has been a plus framer by any publicly available metric, and has nabbed 28% of potential base thieves in his career (including 31% in 2022). That skill set, combined with an affordable 2023 salary and three more seasons of club control, should make him appealing to all but a select few teams with stars entrenched behind the plate. The A’s, squarely in the midst of a rebuild and with prospect Shea Langeliers perhaps ready for a full audition in the Majors, will likely be able command a sizable return for Murphy in the coming weeks or months.

Guardians Showing Continued Interest In Sean Murphy

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The Guardians are among the teams in discussions with the A’s about Sean Murphy, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com (on Twitter). The backstop is one of the more frequent trade targets of the offseason, and Morosi suggests Oakland could complete a deal by the end of the Winter Meetings next week.

Murphy is of interest to virtually every team seeking catching help. He has been a quality hitter throughout his three-plus seasons in the big leagues, showing solid power and plate discipline with roughly average bat-to-ball skills. Murphy tallied a career-high 612 plate appearances this past season, hitting .250/.332/.426 with 18 home runs and a personal-low 20.3% strikeout rate.

While that may not be an eye-popping slash line at first glance, it marked well above-average production once one accounts for the depressed offensive environment around the game and Oakland’s pitcher-friendly home ballpark. By measure of wRC+, Murphy was 22 percentage points better than the average batter. Those numbers look even better when comparing Murphy to his peers behind the plate. Catchers overall mustered a putrid .228/.295/.368 line in 2022. Murphy ranked seventh at the position (among those with 300+ plate appearances) in on-base percentage and finished tenth in slugging.

In addition to that quality performance at the dish, the Wright State product is regarded as an excellent defensive backstop. Statcast consistently pegs him as an above-average pitch framer. The possibility for an electronic strike zone in 2024 or beyond could take pitch framing out of the sport, but Murphy also possesses an elite arm. He cut down 31.1% of attempted basestealers, well above the 25% league mark. Statcast credited him with a 1.89 second pop time (average time to throw to second base), the fourth-best mark among 72 catchers with 10+ throws. He was only charged with two passed balls despite playing more than 1000 innings behind the dish, a workload that trailed only that of J.T. Realmuto.

Murphy’s well-rounded game makes him one of the sport’s better catchers, and his trade appeal is only enhanced by his affordability. He’s eligible for arbitration for three more seasons, and MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $3.5MM salary in 2023. The 28-year-old will earn successive boosts over the next couple years, but his arbitration salaries will remain well below his open market value if he continues to perform at his recent level.

That window of affordable control means the A’s aren’t under urgent contractual or financial pressure to move him. However, Oakland also looks at least a year away from being able to contend for a Wild Card spot. The A’s tore down their roster over the 2021-22 offseason to cut costs, and they finished 2022 with an AL-worst 60-102 record. Murphy’s trade value will only dwindle alongside his remaining window of club control, and the A’s could seize the opportunity to move him for a massive return in the coming weeks or months.

Doing so would allow the A’s to give a full season of catching reps to top prospect Shea Langeliers. Acquired from the Braves in the Matt Olson trade last spring, Langeliers hit .283/.366/.510 through 92 games with Triple-A Las Vegas. He showed some power but also concerning strikeout and walk numbers in his first big league look late in the season. The former top ten draftee is regarded as a possible plus defender in his own right, and while the A’s could theoretically have Murphy and Lanegliers split catching and designated hitter duties, doing so would negate the defensive value of one of those players each game.

Cleveland places a premium on catcher defense, having turned primarily to Austin Hedges over the past few seasons. Hedges rivals Murphy defensively but offers virtually nothing with the bat. He’s coming off a .163/.241/.248 line and hit free agency at the end of the season. Cleveland could certainly look to bring him back, but acquiring Murphy would keep the club’s excellent defense intact while adding a possible middle-of-the-order bat. Murphy has even platoon numbers over the course of his career, but his right-handed bat would be an ancillary bonus for a Cleveland lineup that skews left-handed. The Guardians had a .646 OPS against southpaws this past season, a mark that topped only those of the Marlins and A’s.

As things currently stand, the only catchers on Cleveland’s 40-man roster are Bo Naylor and Bryan Lavastida. Each player made his MLB debut in 2022 and they have a combined 11 games of big league experience. Lavastida had a rough offensive showing in the upper minors and could fit better as a depth option.

Naylor, who turns 23 in February, is a more highly-regarded prospect who’s coming off a .257/.366/.514 line in 66 games at Triple-A Columbus. He could be a regular, but prospect evaluators have raised some concerns about his defense. At the very least, adding a veteran complement to that duo will be on the to-do list for president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and his staff. The Guardians could look to experiment with Naylor at other positions if they pull off a Murphy trade, and there’s also the possibility Cleveland includes him as part of the package they’re dangling to the A’s.

Athletics Name Darren Bush Bench Coach

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The Athletics have announced a number of coaching assignments for the upcoming season. Darren Bush is the new bench coach, with Mike McCarthy named the bullpen coach, Marcus Jensen quality control coach, Mike Aldrete first base coach and Eric Martins third base coach. Meanwhile, pitching coach Scott Emerson, hitting coach Tommy Everidge and assistant hitting coach Chris Cron will stay on in the same roles.

Brad Ausmus was the club’s bench coach in 2022 but it was reported a few weeks ago that he wouldn’t return to the role. That left a vacancy that Bush will now step into. The 48-year-old played in the minors around the turn of the millenium and then transitioned into coaching after his playing days were done. He joined the A’s in the 2005 season, coaching in the minors, eventually moving up to the big league staff for the 2013 season.

After Bob Melvin departed the manager’s chair in Oakland one year ago for the same role in San Diego, Bush was one of the internal candidates to be considered as his replacement. The job eventually went to Mark Kotsay, with Bush moving from hitting coach to third base/run prevention coach.

Among the other names in today’s announcement, they were all already in the organization except for McCarthy, who had been the pitching coach for the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate this year.

Rays Interested In Sean Murphy

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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.

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