When the Atlanta Braves traded for Sean Murphy, he was known for being one of the best defensive catchers in the MLB. During his first year in Atlanta, he further proved that stat. You can see partly why he was so elite in this clip below.
Let's go even further than that, though. Let's get into the real meat and potatoes of the conversation. When you are talking about stats for a player, MLB Statcast is probably the best place to go. Murphy's statcast numbers are unbelievable.
All of the traits measured by MLB Statcast are graded on a scale of 1-100. With that being said, I would like for you to take a look at the Blocks Above Average statistics. Murphy is in the 100th percentile of blocks above average. He was the BEST catcher in the MLB when it came to blocks last season. He led the league in Blocks Above Average and he was a block ahead of Alejandro Kirk (Toronto Blue Jays), who finished with 14 BAA.
Murphy had the highest blocks above average of his career and the highest caught stealing above average of his career. Even with those numbers, Murphy's pop time did not change and he fell down the rankings in that stat. Murphy fell from 2nd to 6th in the MLB in Pop Time to second base and he fell from 1st to 33rd in the MLB for pop time to third base.
Murphy lived up to his billing in year one as he proved to be exactly who Alex Anthopoulos thought he would be, one of the best defensive catchers in the MLB.
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