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Report sheds light on Sean Murphy trade rumors

Originally posted on SportsTalkATL | By Alex Lord | Last updated Jul 23, 2025 10:31 AM ET

Perhaps the most attractive chip the Braves have at their disposal at this year’s trade deadline is Sean Murphy.

Raisel Iglesias, Aaron Bummer, Pierce Johnson, and Marcell Ozuna are much more likely to be moved, but Atlanta’s All-Star catcher would bring back the greatest haul.

He’s a top-five player at his position and is under team control for three more seasons at a very palatable rate. Most of the league would be lining up at the door to make an offer to Alex Anthopoulos.

After a down year in 2024, caused by injuries and inconsistent playing time, Murphy has rebounded marvously. He’s slugging over .500 and his OPS is 33% above league average, better than his 2023 All-Star campaign in his first season with the Braves.

However, for all of those reasons, the Braves don’t intend to trade him at this year’s deadline. According to Buster Olney, although his name has been mentioned in trade speculation, he isn’t available.

Sean Murphy's name has been tossed around in trade speculation, but according to sources, he is not available. He's playing well this year and he'll be playing under a high value contract for the next three seasons — $15 million a year 2026-2028, plus a team option in '29. And…

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 22, 2025

The market for Sean Murphy would be red hot. Top 5 catchers under multiple years of team control don’t come available very often because it’s an incredibly difficult role to fill in the first place.

With Drake Baldwin in the fold, many believe Murphy is expendable, but a club would have to overpay for the Braves to even consider trading him away. They value having two high-quality catchers, and Baldwin is dirt cheap.

There’s no reason to trade either one right now. Hell, I’d argue Alex Anthopoulos should be able to upgrade the roster enough to improve them while still keeping Murphy and Baldwin as long as he’s afforded the money to spend.

This article first appeared on SportsTalkATL and was syndicated with permission.

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