Oakland Sets Steep Asking Price for Sean Murphy
Athletics catcher Sean Murphy may be the hottest commodity in the trade market right now. Murphy, 28, has three years of control left before hitting free agency and is an excellent hitter and defender behind the plate. He's coming off a 3.5 WAR season in which he hit .250/.332/.426 with 18 home runs and a 120 OPS+ in 148 games with Oakland.
The Diamondbacks were among the teams interested in acquiring Murphy. However general manager Mike Hazen didn't confirm or deny the rumor when asked about it, but it also sounded like a deal wasn't close. We may know why.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Dispatch reported that when the Cardinals inquired about Murphy the A's initial asking price was outfielder Lars Nootbaar, infielder Brendan Donovan, and pitching prospect Gordon Graceffo. Nootbaar and Donovan are both solid controllable role players, for five and six years respectively, and Graceffo is their top pitching prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The Cardinals balked at that price and instead elected to sign free agent Willson Contreras to address their catching vacancy.
If we were to equate similar value to what the D-backs could offer, it would be a package of Alek Thomas, Jordan Lawlar, and Brandon Pfaadt. I don't see a scenario in which Hazen would want to part with more than one of those players in a potential trade. Talking to the media on Tuesday, Hazen seemed very reluctant to trade any of his young pitching prospects in a deal and is fine with rolling into the 2023 season with Carson Kelly as their starting catcher if there was no move to be made.
With a high demand for starting catching, as evidenced by the number of teams looking at Murphy on the trade market and Christian Vázquez in the free agent market, we'll see what the D-backs will do at the position in the next two months.
