Underrated Player From Braves Sean Murphy Trade DFA'd by Milwaukee Brewers

To say that the Athletics ended up doing a pretty bad job with the return in the Sean Murphy trade would be an understatement. The Atlanta Braves, thought to be receiving the best player in the deal, did fairly well for themselves, landing Murphy from the A's. But it was the Milwaukee Brewers that snuck their way into the three-team deal that ended up well ahead of both of the other clubs.

In the trade, Atlanta received Murphy, and traded away a slew of players to make it happen. Among the players going back to Oakland were Freddy Tarnok (now with the Miami Marlins), Kyle Muller (now pitching overseas), Royber Salinas (DFA'd by A's, claimed by Atlanta), and veteran backstop Manny Piña. He played in four games with the A's.

Atlanta also had to move a pretty big piece in this deal, but he didn't end up in Oakland (or West Sacramento). Instead, William Contreras went to the Milwaukee Brewers, where he has been a two-time Silver Slugger, an All-Star, and finished 11th and fifth in the NL MVP voting in his two seasons with the Crew.

Contreras was easily the best player to switch teams in that deal, racking up 10.3 bWAR. While Murphy is the second-best player, racking up 6.4 bWAR in his three seasons with the Braves, the third-best player was also seen as a throw-in by the A's. That's right, Joel Payamps has been the third-best player in this deal, accumulating 2.0 bWAR in his time with Milwaukee.

That WAR total was even higher, at 2.7, heading into this season, but he's put up an 8.35 ERA across 18.1 innings of work this season, knocking off 0.7 of those wins. Due to his performance this year, Payamps was designated for assignment this week. Such is the life of a relief pitcher in Major League Baseball.

The reason the Brewers even got involved in this deal is because the A's were dead-set on Esteury Ruiz, who ended up setting the American League rookie stolen base record with 67 during the 2023 campaign, but he still graded out as a below average bat, and his defense was a touch above league average.

Looking over the deal now, at least by Baseball-Reference WAR, the A's may have been better just cutting Murphy.

Ruiz, even in the year that he set the stolen base record, was worth -0.3 bWAR, and added (subtracted?) another 0.1 from that total last season, giving him -0.4 in green and gold. Kyle Muller was worth -0.9 in his two seasons in Oakland, though he was at least worth positive WAR last year out of the bullpen (0.4).

Freddy Tarnok held a 4.91 ERA across all of 12.1 innings with the A's, which gained him 0.2 bWAR, despite a 7.14 FIP. In his four games with the A's, Piña racked up 0.0 bWAR. Salinas never made it to the big leagues.

In total, the A's actually ended up getting back -1.1 bWAR in this trade, along with shipping out 8.4 wins themselves. On the one hand, you have to roll the dice on these types of trades sometimes, hoping that one of those dart throws hits. That's understandable.

At the same time, this is a pretty awful return for Murphy, who was the hottest trade chip that offseason. A normal team would have been able to hold out for a better offer, but given the A's self-imposed budget constraints, they had to take what they felt was the best offer on the table.

The problem is, when everyone knows you have to act, then they're not going to provide their best offers in the first place. Maybe, just maybe, the A's should refrain from doing business with the Atlanta Braves for a bit.

Anyway, the Brewers DFA'd Joel Payamps.