FLEECED: Why the Atlanta Braves’ William Contreras for Sean Murphy Trade Continues to HAUNT Fans

33 comments

1. Was improving defense worth sacrificing William Contreras's offense?

2. I don’t see Murphy going anywhere unless AA gets blown away by a trade offer or an internal option pushes him out. He either plays well when he comes back and we keep him and Baldwin and they get DH at bats or he doesn’t play well and he’s untradeable at 15m per.

3. IMO the braves starting their own network can be a huge financial boon for liberty media. Work out a deal with the hawks, they are looking for someone to broadcast their games, get some falcons off the field stuff, all of the minor league affiliates, throw in some college sports, maybe some SEC and ACC baseball content. We have a big enough market that you can make it a year round thing. I know you won’t get rights to ALOT of games from espn and other carriers but maybe there is a deal to be made to get some. Either way if you’re paying say 25 bucks a month for all of the hawks and braves games and that’s pretty much a year round deal you can add whatever else you want or can.

4. Could they not trade Murphy to Pittsburgh for Keller and call up Tromp as the backup? Yes it gives up some defense but gets you another starter at a minimal price.

5. Since the trade, Murphy has been a 5.1 fWAR player per 600 plate appearances, while Contreras has been a 5.2 fWAR player per 600 plate appearances catcher. Both are about evenly productive, it just come down to playing time for Murphy due to the fact that you have had catchers like d'Arnaud and Baldwin as your second catcher, thus the Braves have always have had a good 2nd catcher, thus it reduces playing time, along with Murphy losing some to due to injury as well.

6. Hated it at the time and still hate it now

7. On screen graphics would really help when comparing stats

8. I’ve never hated a trade more in my entire life as a Braves fan. Thank you for accurately covering this albatross, AA tried to get cute, dumb ass move. Sean Murphy has been unwatchable

9. This was a stupid unnecessary deal. Giving up on young catcher who could hit the way he hit for us?

10. Not only has Murphy been injured and underperformed, but he also he lied about a major injury, which makes him a clubhouse pariah. That kind of shit does not go over well with players

11. dArnaud was the guy to trade. The A's didn't even want Contreras. If no one wanted dArnaud then don't make the deal.

12. Well, at least we don't have to hear that foolish nickname, "Wild Bill, someone hung on Contreras.
    I' m glad about that part.

13. Murphy has been a disaster. Why? There was no reason for this move. The fact he concealed his injury is selfish.

14. Contreras over Will Smith is nuts! Lol…
    What people don't understand is that William Contreras would have never been the catcher he is now, if he had stayed with the Braves.

15. I said it was stupid to begin with and I was proven right. Even though I was called dumb at the time.

16. Contreras played through an injured thumb all of 2025

17. Another factor to Contreras' game is his ability to help develop young brewers pitchers at big league level. Priester, Patrick, Misiorowski just last season. His leadership is a big part of the Brewers success.

18. I have ZERO, complaints abput this trade. I more wish we had thrown Contreras in the Olson trade and kept Langaliers instead. I have no desire to have Contreras over Murphy.
    Aside from the fact Contreras was an ass backstop destined for the DH role when he was in Atlanta and it was only moving to the Brewers (literally the best team in MLB ar developing catchers) that he bacame serviceable. Then there's also the fact that it's not at all a coincidence that the Braves pitching improved, like a lot, once Murphy arrived. It's what he's known for and it's why the Braves traded for him. He is an elite backstop. An elite game caller, a great blocker, a great run-game manager, and pitchers who throw to Murphy are just better. One stat that is so good at illustrating this were the 2024 pitching staff ERAs with and without Murphy behind the dish. The pitchers were a full run better when throwing to Murphy than to Travis d'Arnaud. d'Arnaud being a veteran catcher with more experience catching those pitchers. A full friggin run. That's an average of 162 runs per season you prevent just by having Murphy as your catcher. Even if you say he plays 81 games and some other catcher plays 81. If Murphy drives in 25 runs the other catcher would have to drive in 106, in 81 games to equal the value Murphy provides. I don't know that we have Cy Young Chris Sale without Murphy. I'd bet my life we dont have 1.99 ERA Reynaldo Lopez. I know for a fact we don't have fixed Hurston Waldrep. Waldrep said it was Murphy that figured out how to fix his pitch mix. We probably don't have Drake Baldwin. At least not the version of him we have today that's a respectable catcher. Atlanta HAS NOT been great at developing catchers. They sorta just make DHs with catcher's gear. Which is where a lot of reports had Baldwin headed. I don't think it's a coincidence that as he got up to the top of the system where he could work with Murphy he suddenly became a really good catcher who does everything exactly like Sean Murphy. Blocks like Murphy, pops like Murphy. He's clearly developed in the image of Murphy. Which is great. Because Sean Murphy is great. He's Martin Maldanado if Maldanado was not the worst batter in modern MLB history. If Murphy can get back to a top tier bat that is great. If not that's still fine. He adds more to the team than Contreras would have had he continued along the path he was on when he was in Atlanta. We already had Ozuna at DH. I didn't want to watch the Braves enter the new stolen base friendly ruleset with another Marcel Ozuna trying to play catcher. Contreras is a great stick. He's alot like his brother. But without the Brewers Catcher development he probably was about as good as his brother at catching too. There's a reason his brother plays first base and DH now.

19. I think the part thats undervalued is the fire. We've continued to gut the team of players with fire and we've payed for it the last couple years.

    That said, the comment below that breaks down really well the benefits we've gotten from Murphy did give me a different perspective, especially with what he's done for Baldwin, who i like better than all these guys. Hes got the clutch gene and brings an energy we've been missing.

    Braves have all the talent needed to do big things. I really hope they did some team sessions with a sport psychologist this offseason though. Lol

20. What stings the most with this one is that we knew William Contreras could produce at the big league level. It's not like he was an unproven prospect. As mentioned in the video they really should've trusted that they could've developed his defensive capabilities.

21. This will go down as an AA mistake. We all make them. Some are bigger than others.😊

22. Of course Sean Murphy isn't Sean Casey if he was Sean Casey this would look better Convo but he's not the hitter that Sean Casey was.

23. Love AA, but this move was unnecessary at the time. Went through all the trouble of making that trade for what they thought was a “marginal increment” in defense in Sean Murphy.

24. I don’t know why people are still Crying about this trade ? Atl ended up with Drake .

25. Murphy is a joke. All I heard was he can keep players from stealing. Yeah whatever. He’s horrible.

26. We owe AA gratitude for a championship. We also owe him anger for blowing it from there. I guess they balance out?

27. Top ten Based on what behind the plate defensively and calling games? Because murph is terrible hitting at the plate.

28. Ppl need to understand if we kept William we would have traded drake

29. One of AAs few mistakes

30. Ruiz plays for the marlins now

31. I still remember getting destroyed by Braves fans on Reddit who said I was overreacting by saying it was a colossal failure in real time

32. I miss Ted Turner! and TBS!

33. Love ALL your vids!!!