Catchers are the talk of Braves Country today, with the club surprisingly declining Travis d’Arnaud’s $8 million option, making the veteran a free agent.
With Sean Murphy‘s salary rising and Drake Baldwin banging on the door of his MLB debut, the Braves clearly feel $8 million for a backup is too rich for their blood. Of course, the two sides could rework the deal at a lower figure.
The Braves have too many catchers than they know what to do with, a situation Alex Anthopoulos is all too familiar with. The centerpieces of the Sean Murphy and Matt Olson trades were former top Braves prospects Shea Langeliers and William Contreras, both of whom are up for the Silver Slugger award.
Langeliers, in his third year, launched the second-most home runs by a catcher this season, swatting 29 long balls with a .224/.288/.450 slash line. In his second full season with the Athletics, Langeliers improved in pretty much every statistic. He has stiff competition in the Silver Sluggar race, though.
Wild Bill, who won the award last year, just keeps getting better. Contreras turned in arguably the best season of his career, hitting .281/.365/.466 (129 OPS+) with 23 homers, 92 RBIs, 99 runs scored, and nine steals, all of which were career highs for him.
For the Braves, Sean Murphy had his worst professional season, while those he replaced turned in career years. That’s not who he is as a player, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Braves traded away the best catcher in baseball for his replacement, who has not been nearly as good since coming to Atlanta. That’s not good business, and while Alex Anthopoulos has done way more good than he’s done bad since taking over as general manager, there’s no question this is a trade he’d like to have back.
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Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire
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