Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on C Tanner Murphy

Scouting Report

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 6-10
• Braves News: Giving the bullpen some love, Trevor Bauer reinstated, more
• Atlanta Braves: Which offseason moves have other NL East teams made?
• Show the bullpen some love
• Braves News: Atlanta’s left field situation, Dansby negotiations, more

Size/Build

Murphy is listed at 6’1″ and 215 pounds. He is athletically built with a good frame for catching.

Hitting

Contact (40) – Based solely on what was seen at the end of the season, this grade would be much higher, but it will require seeing Murphy carry over that success going into 2017 to bump him up.

Murphy adjusted his stance from an open stance with his hands moving a bit in early season 2016 to the point where he was standing nearly straight in line with his front and back foot, holding his hands back further.

The change in approach reduced the significant load that has been an issue with Murphy in his past in contact rates, as he has excellent bat speed in the zone, but his angle of his swing and the load coming into the zone both restricted his ability to consistently contact the ball, let alone barrel the ball.

Power (50) – While Murphy is physically strong enough to be a guy that could threaten double digit home runs annually, he has so far struggled to put barrel to ball consistently in his pro career.

With his adjusted swing, that was really the last component that he hadn’t secured yet, though he was getting to all balls better, which, with his natural raw power, will lead to more home runs in general simply due to making more consistent contact.

Eye (55) – I may edit this later to a true 60 grade as Murphy has one of the best strike zone recognition abilities in the entire Braves system.

His pitch recognition is also quite good as well.

Thus far, the biggest thing that has led to a rough strikeout rate has been his long swing path. However, with his adjusted stance providing for a better entrance into the zone, this could easily become a plus tool for Murphy with sub-15% strikeout rates.

Base Running/Fielding

Speed (30) – Murphy was a multi-sport athlete coming out of high school, with video on YouTube of him as a high school quarterback if you dig hard enough.

He looks much different now than in those high school days, adding significant strength and thickness to his legs and lower half to help build himself up for the rigors behind the plate, but that’s also sapped his overall speed.

That all said, he has more than adequate quickness in movement behind the plate.

Defense (60) – This is where Murphy truly shines. By a long ways, Murphy is the best blocker of balls in the system, with a remarkable ability to get down on balls from batter’s box to batter’s box.

That he allowed 10 passed balls in 2016 tells you two things – first, that scorers are often more favorable to the pitcher in the case of a pitch getting to the backstop when the catcher looks like he “almost” had it, not taking into account how much work the catcher had to do just to get to that “almost” position, and second, that the Carolina staff this last season had some pretty significant control issues on the mound.

Murphy has improved dramatically in his game calling, and many I talk with rave about how well he works with pitchers in-game as well.

Quite possibly, he could be the best defensive catcher currently working in the system, and that’s fairly high praise in a system that emphasizes strong defense behind the plate.

Arm (55) – In his excellent interview with Talking Chop, Tanner discussed his throwing issues in 2016. Many got down on Murphy due to his relatively low rate of throwing out runners.

However, Murphy has a very solid arm in raw strength, even plus in grade of pure arm strength, but what I’ve seen is that he often will get his feet in poor position due to his extreme focus on blocking (especially with the Carolina staff in 2016) and his throw accuracy could use some work.

MLB Player Comp

His build got me thinking quickly of one of my favorite catchers to watch work currently in the major leagues due to his incredible ability to work with his pitchers on the mound.

Francisco Cervelli received minimal acclaim coming up a Yankees system that had offensive catchers like Jesus Montero, yet all he did was continue to provide consistent defense and solid contact rates offensively.

As a professional, he’s hit a total of 18 home runs in 1,688 plate appearances, and I do believe Murphy has more power than that, but the .280/.361/.374 line would not be a terribly crazy line, and Cervelli’s 9.8% walk rate and 17.8% strike out rate as a pro is similar as well.

I think the Braves would be overjoyed to have a Cervelli as is, let alone with added power!

Next: Braves Minor League Database

Murphy will be an interesting case as far as his assignment out of spring. From people within the Braves I’ve talked with this offseason, the two guys they want to be in a situation to get the primary load of playing time are Murphy and Jonathan Morales.

That would likely put Morales in high-A and Murphy in AA, though the Braves do have a tremendous amount of depth at the position overall, so it will be something to note during spring how guys are playing out.