Unsung hero: Sean Murphy
In 2022 the Braves had one of the best catching tandems in the league. So it certainly came as a shock to see the Braves trade a fan-favorite for another catcher when it wasn’t considered a position of need. In case it wasn’t obvious yet, we should probably stop questioning anything Alex Anthopoulos does.
AA brought in Sean Murphy who was known as a good underrated player, who possibly could improve once he got to a more hitter friendly park, and lineup with a bit more protection around him. He has far exceeded everyone’s expectations for him. We knew the defense was elite, but was holding out hope that the offense would take the next step.
In May I wrote about his MVP candidacy with the thought some offensive regression was due. That simply hasn’t really happened yet. In fact Murphy is on pace to set career highs in batting average, OBP, slugging, wOBA, wRC+, and fWAR.
The offense as a whole has been amazing for the whole year. But only two players have went the entire first half without much of an extended offensive slump. One of those is Sean Murphy, and the other…well we will get to him later.