Sean Murphy Traded to Atlanta, Diamondbacks Options Narrow

Throughout the off season it has long since been rumored that the Diamondbacks would trade at least one of their left handed hitting outfielders in an effort to upgrade in other areas. We previously broke down the trade values for those outfielders . The D-backs had been reported to be in talks with the Oakland A's regarding Sean Murphy and we took a look at what it might take to land trade land him from Oakland, based on the equivalent trade packages being discussed at that time.

Today it's been reported through numerous sources that Murphy has been traded to the Atlanta Braves as part of a three team trade between the A's, Braves, and Milwaukee Brewers.

Oakland gets: LHP Kyle Muller, RHP Freddy Tarnok, RHP Royber Salinas and C Manny Pina from Atlanta, and OF Esteury Ruiz from Milwaukee

Atlanta gets: C-Sean Murphy from Oakland

Milwaukee gets: C- William Contreras, RHP Justin Yeager from Atlanta, and RHP Joel Payamps from Oakland

Muller is the #1 prospect on the Braves top 30 list at MLB Pipeline and Tarnok is number #6, and Salinas is #18. Ruiz is number #8 in the Brewers top 30. None of these players are listed in Pipeline's top 100 however.

This is roughly the equivalent of the D-backs giving up Blake Walston, Slade Cecconi, Bryce Jarvis and Dominic Fletcher.

Considering Mike Hazen's recent comments about how much he values young starting pitching, and his perception of how other teams value young pitching, this is a little bit surprising. When asked if he were likely to trade from his stable of young starters he responded with great hesitancy

"I'm probably more hesitant about it right now.......Trading away those guys is complicated. They all have a ton of value, that we would do well in a trade. There's no young starting pitching available via trade. Unless you're trading a stud player. We're not really dangling that off of our major league team. To acquire a young starting pitcher is extremely difficult. So vice versa we would have a very high value on those guys, so a deal may not happen. They're hard to get. A lot."

Well, apparently there IS young starting pitching available.

Meanwhile it was reported today the Diamondbacks have had talks with the Houston Astros regarding Daulton Varsho, but what the return package might be and how far along they are is not known.

The dormant trade market is finally waking up.
The Houston #Astros and Arizona #Dbacks have engaged in trade talks about Dbacks outfielder Daulton Varsho. The asking price remains steep.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 12, 2022

As the best trade targets and free agents go off the board one by one, it remains to be seen what the Diamondbacks will get done. The fanbase is understandably restless waiting for the club to follow through on their stated efforts to improve the club by any means possible.