The Atlanta Braves have been pretty suspiciously quiet over the course of the offseason. Sure, they traded for Joe Jimenez and while he is a fine reliever, he is in the last year of his deal and has his own warts. We have heard very little on the team’s plans at shortstop and left field is an open question.
The one real rumor we had (which was immediately shot down) was that the Braves were the frontrunners to trade for Sean Murphy which was a weird move to be sure. The Braves had Travis d’Arnaud and William Contreras who are both quite good, but Murphy is good enough to at least make it an interesting story.
Things just got a lot more interesting.
BREAKING: Catcher Sean Murphy has been traded to the Atlanta Braves, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 12, 2022
That was the first big news of the offseason for the Atlanta Braves, but everyone wanted to know what the Braves had to give up to get Sean Murphy who has three years left of team control. When we have more details, we will update this post.
**UPDATE**
This is going to be a three-way deal with the Braves, Oakland, and Brewers involved. We’ll have a separate post with all of the details when the become available.
The deal sending Sean Murphy to Atlanta is part of a three-way trade with the Oakland A's and Milwaukee Brewers, sources tell ESPN. One of the players heading to Milwaukee is catcher William Contreras. Oakland is getting catcher Manny Pina.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 12, 2022
Here is what has been reported:
— Kris Willis (@Kris_Willis) December 12, 2022
Brewers: William Contreras
Braves: Sean Murphy
A's: Freddy Tarnok, Kyle Muller, Manny Pina and Esteury Ruiz
What could this mean for the 2023 Atlanta Braves?
For starters, it seems reasonably clear that the team is not going to be carrying three catchers on the roster. One option is to just shift William Contreras over to full-time DH and then move Marcell Ozuna off the roster completely. We can dream.
The more likely option is that one of Travis d’Arnaud or William Contreras are about to be headed elsewhere. Given the amount of team control that Murphy has, our guess is that that means that Contreras is probably headed out.
Regardless of the cost, this is clearly going to be the most consequential move the Braves have made this offseason. One fun note, just before news of the trade broke, this little nugget was shared by our friends over at Jomboy Media
THE TEAMS HAVE BEEN NAMED
— Talkin’ Jake (@TalkinJake) December 12, 2022
BRAVES
BREWERS
ATHLETICS
Now the final question - WHO?? https://t.co/uOAmUJ9Gqq
Jake would go on to predict that William Contreras would be heading to the Brewers which would mean this is a three team deal. Oh boy, here we go.