White Sox Interested in Sean Murphy
Sean Murphy is garnering a lot of early interest this off-season, coming off of this week's GM meetings in Las Vegas. It shouldn't be surprising if he gets moved this winter, partially because he's set to hit arbitration, partially because he can bring back another crop of prospects for the A's farm system, and partially because if he sticks around, then the catchers in the A's system can't advance with Murphy and Shea Langeliers holding down roster spots in the big leagues.
Bruce Levine of 670 The Score in Chicago is reporting that the Chicago White Sox are one of a half-dozen teams that has checked in with the A's regarding their catcher, and was told by a source that Murphy will definitely be traded this winter.
The White Sox farm system isn't one of the best in baseball, but they have enough pieces to make an interesting offer, even for a player that is going to cost a lot of prospect capital like Sean Murphy.
Using Baseball Trade Values as a loose approximation for a trade, Sean Murphy could land the A's one of a number of big names around baseball due to his play on the field--he was a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger finalist in 2022--and the fact that he has three years of team control left before hitting free agency.
Following the A's general approach for trading away some of their bigger names, we'll be looking for a big league player, at least one in the upper minors, and at least one in the lower minors.
The big leaguer seems like an obvious pick because he has been linked to trade rumors between these two clubs in the past, and that's Andrew Vaughn. His defense leaves a little to be desired, but he should be able to do a roughly league average job at first base. It's his bat that fits the direction the A's are headed.
In 2022 at the age of 24, Vaughn hit .271 with a .321 OBP, a 113 wRC+, meaning he was 13% above league average at the dish, and he hit 17 bombs in 134 games. The A's have seemingly been targeting guys that don't strike out as much in their recent acquisitions, and Vaughn K'ed just 17.3% of the time last season. He may not be a prototypical first baseman, but he's the kind of guy they're looking for.
Vaughn would be the centerpiece of any potential deal, and the White Sox had to know that when they went asking about Sean Murphy. If Chicago were to land Murphy, their current catcher, Yasmani Grandal would have to play somewhere, and that somewhere would probably be first base (if José Abreu signs elsewhere), which gives the Sox some flexibility when it comes to moving Vaughn.
The one downside with Vaughn is that he will also be arbitration eligible following the 2023 season.
From there, the trade could go a number of different directions. One of those directions is the Southsider's #2 prospect, Oscar Colás. He's a 24-year-old lefty bat that signed with the Sox out of Cuba last January, and flew through the minor leagues last season, which has him knocking on the door to the big leagues.
Between High-A (59 games), Double-A (51 games) and Triple-A (7 games) he combined to hit .314 with a .371 OBP and an .895 OPS. He was given a 60 power on the 20-80 scout grading scale over at MLB Pipeline, and a 65 arm. His arm could see him settle in right field.
His strikeout rate sat at 36.4% in his brief Triple-A stint, but that was in seven games, it was his first season in pro ball, and he also started in High-A. I'm not sure it's too concerning. He struck out 20.1% and 24% of the time in the previous two stops.
There's no guarantee that Colás will be made available, but if the White Sox are in win now mode, he may not be quite ready to help out at the big league level.
From there, you can mix and match any number of prospects to fill out the trade. If it were up to me the first guy I'm choosing is Yoelqui Céspedes, the younger brother of A's fan favorite Yoenis Céspedes, and the White Sox #12 prospect. He's also an outfielder, like Colás, is 25, and to the surprise of no one, he has a cannon as well.
He spent all of 2022 in Double-A where he hit 17 homers and stole 33 bags while hitting .258 with a .332 on-base and a .769 OPS from the right side. He spent most of his time roaming center field, while getting a handful of games in right.
If this trade so far were to come to fruition, the idea of an outfield one day with Céspedes, Cristian Pache, and Colás from left to right, at least defensively, could be one of the best in baseball in a time when teams are trying to focus more on defense.
Those three bring the value pretty close to even, but the A's could still use a little more convincing.
Chicago's #9 prospect, right-hander Sean Burke, is a 22-year-old starter coming off a season where he vaulted up the system, like Colás, going from High-A to Triple-A, spending most of his time in Double-A with the Birmingham Barons. He finished with a cumulative 4.75 ERA in 27 games (26 starts) in 108 innings. His fastball sits 93-95 and pairs well with his knuckle curve (per Pipeline). He's still a little bit of a work in progress, but what better spot to land as a pitcher than in the A's system!
Plus, his last name is fantastic.
Finally, we need to add in a "guy that is currently injured but has some upside" prospect to really make this an A's trade. 19-year-old Tanner McDougal, come on down!
McDougal was a 5th round selection in 2021 and after reporting to Rookie Ball, he required Tommy John surgery, so he has yet to make his full-season pro debut. From Pipeline, "McDougal featured some of the best pitch metrics among 2021 prepsters, including quality induced vertical break and high spin rates that give his 90-96 mph four-seam fastball promising carry up in the zone. Both his mid-70s curveball and upper-70s slider exceeded 3,000 rpm at the Combine, though they tend to blend together at times and could use more power. He's still figuring out his changeup, which has some fade but not enough velocity separation from his heater."
He seems like the kind of guy the A's would be willing to take a chance on as a flier in this deal.
The A's come out a little ahead, per the simulator, but not a lot. The White Sox aren't the only team looking to add at catcher this winter that have asked about Sean Murphy. I wrote about what a potential trade with the Cardinals could look like, and talked about some trade scenarios with the host of Locked on Cardinals, J.D. Hafron, linked below.
Here is how the trade above looks, according to the simulator:
