Braves Sign Sean Murphy to 6 year $73 Million Extension

[Brewcrew82]

We should've asked for the Braves extension negotiators instead of William Contreras...Could've helped us with Willy, Corbin, and Woody. 

Man, that's a steal of a contract for the Braves. 

[nate82]

Is there something in the water in Atlanta that these players are taking these team friendly deals?

[MrTPlush]

Well he has one year of full-time work under his belt and three of these years cover arbitration. They already had him through his age 30 season.

It sounds like a steal now, but lots of catchers totally implode at 31+ years old. I’m sure he will be serviceable without offense at that age, but he may not exactly be some huge bargain for those FA years. 
It is more shocking from Murphy’s end. This is his big payday and pretty much the entire remainder of his career. Max $88mil instead of hitting free agency and likely getting $100mil+ on top of his arby earnings. Of course, three years is a long time with little track record.

Seems like a pretty fair deal for both ends of it. 

[Devinep]

All the Braves’ early long-term signings is something the brewers should emulate. 

[sveumrules]

2 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

Well he has one year of full-time work under his belt

Sure, 2020 was the pandemic, but Murphy still ranked 5th in innings caught.

104 games started and 923 innings both ranked 8th in 2021, that’s a pretty full time season for a catcher nowadays, no?

Add it all up and the only catchers that have caught more innings than Murphy (2266) over the last three years are JTR (2395), Maldonado (2351) and Vazquez (2277).

Hard to get much more full time than that behind the dish.

[UpandIn]

5 hours ago, nate82 said:

Is there something in the water in Atlanta that these players are taking these team friendly deals?

Yeah...the front office goes to the players and the players agents and they MAKE-THEM-AN-OFFER!

Sounds like they've tried to do so with Fried and he's rebuffed them. 

But outside of Riley and Olson, if one of these deals doesn't work out, they'll still come out WAAAY ahead in the long term as virtually all of their guys are signed through age 31-32. Riley is older, but still not into his late 30s.

They've locked up SIX players now, Acuna Jr, Albies, Harris, Olson, Murphy, and Strider. 

5 everyday players who are all All-Star caliber players and a couple who have the potential to finish top 5 in MVP voting like Harris, Riley and Acuna Jr. 
Strider could be an ace. 

And that gives them cost certainty and they've got a farm system full of pitching, so they can build their rotation around Fried and Strider now while rebuilding a weakened Farm System...

 

 

But this is how you compete with the Mets while spending 250M less. 

[rickh150]

Great defensive catcher…. BUT……He has like a .236 career avg, .755 OPS, walks well, and has a little power. Omar Narvaez had better offensive stats than this guy through the first four years of service. I get why he is wanted especially with a top glove and arm, but his offensive numbers are not super great, even for a catcher. Even the article at the beginning inflates his numbers not based on averages but totals, mainly because he had over 100 at bats than most other catchers in baseball.  
I’d rather have our Contreras and five years of control and development. Not overly jealous of Murphy or the deal.

[rickh150]

7 hours ago, Devinep said:

All the Braves’ early long-term signings is something the brewers should emulate. 

First off, we cannot afford what they are doing. The years are too many and the money is still too much. Second, we have extended Yelich, Peralta, and Ashby at team friendly contracts. This is what we can afford. It would have been nice to get Burnes or Woody on a team friendly deal a few years ago granted, but I feel the Brewers are trying to lock up guys early on team friendly deals when they can.

[SF70]

7 hours ago, Devinep said:

All the Braves’ early long-term signings is something the brewers should emulate. 

Can’t emulate to Atlanta’s extent because of the difference in revenue between teams, but I think we will start to see extentions from this team over the next 2-3 years to some of our positionals now that the team has quite the talented core being developed.

This will be the key that this team needs to compete long-term. Discern the keepers as early as possible and extend only until their early 30’s.

All of Atlanta’s extension’s but 1 (Strider) have been to positionals. This will be the tact that MKE will take. Chourio-Quero will be the two I see them going after the hardest. Wiemer, with his small signing bonus, could be one the team zero’s in on to get a big discount if they think he’s a keeper.

Frelick would need zeroed in on early since he’s already a millionaire prospect.

[Jopal78]

Seems like a market rate deal to me. 28 million for his three arbitration years, then three successive seasons at ages 31, 32 and 33 at 15 million per year. 

Grandal got 3 years and 18.25 million per as a free agent for the same aged seasons, and was a more accomplished hitter 

 

[Devinep]

1 hour ago, rickh150 said:

First off, we cannot afford what they are doing. The years are too many and the money is still too much. Second, we have extended Yelich, Peralta, and Ashby at team friendly contracts. This is what we can afford. It would have been nice to get Burnes or Woody on a team friendly deal a few years ago granted, but I feel the Brewers are trying to lock up guys early on team friendly deals when they can.

They don’t have to spend the exact same amount of dollars as the Braves to emulate them. I meant that they should be locking up younger good players earlier and get a couple years extra of control in return. Like with Peralta. Now that they might be interested in extending Adames, Burnes, or Woodruff it’s too late because costs have risen and they’re too close to free agency.  A couple years ago, they’d have been more affordable. 

[sveumrules]

2 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Great defensive catcher…. BUT……He has like a .236 career avg, .755 OPS, walks well, and has a little power. Omar Narvaez had better offensive stats than this guy through the first four years of service. I get why he is wanted especially with a top glove and arm, but his offensive numbers are not super great, even for a catcher.

Better raw stats, sure, but once one accounts for 2016-19 (Omar’s 1st four years) being a much stronger offensive era than 2019-22 (Murphy’s 1st four years) and US Cellular (where Omar played three of his 1st four years) being a much better hitters park than the Coliseum (where Murphy played all four) it shakes out to 2016-19 Omar at 113 wRC+ and 2019-22 Murphy at 116 wRC+.

While the end result was within mere % points, the way they went about their offense was pretty different.

Narvaez (135 BB%+ | 81 K%+) had the edge over Murphy (120 BB%+ | 102 K%+) on plate discipline and getting singles, 109 AVG+ | 107 BABIP+ for Omar vs 97 AVG+ | 95 BABIP+ for Murphy. But Sean made up for it and then some with XBHs posting a 120 ISO+ vs only a 76 ISO+ for Omar, a massive gulf. 

I’m not sure what constitutes super great, but Murphy’s 116 wRC+ ranks 8th among 59 catchers with at least 500 PA since 2019 with league average backstops posting an 89 wRC+ over the last four years. 

[StearnsFTW]

9 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Better raw stats, sure, but once one accounts for 2016-19 (Omar’s 1st four years) being a much stronger offensive era than 2019-22 (Murphy’s 1st four years) and US Cellular (where Omar played three of his 1st four years) being a much better hitters park than the Coliseum (where Murphy played all four) it shakes out to 2016-19 Omar at 113 wRC+ and 2019-22 Murphy at 116 wRC+.

While the end result was within mere % points, the way they went about their offense was pretty different.

Narvaez (135 BB%+ | 81 K%+) had the edge over Murphy (120 BB%+ | 102 K%+) on plate discipline and getting singles, 109 AVG+ | 107 BABIP+ for Omar vs 97 AVG+ | 95 BABIP+ for Murphy. But Sean made up for it and then some with XBHs posting a 120 ISO+ vs only a 76 ISO+ for Omar, a massive gulf. 

I’m not sure what constitutes super great, but Murphy’s 116 wRC+ ranks 8th among 59 catchers with at least 500 PA since 2019 with league average backstops posting an 89 wRC+ over the last four years. 

I knew I could count on you to post exactly what I would've, only better.  Thanks again.

 

This is an incredible deal for Atlanta for the 2nd best catcher in the game.

 

I was just looking at Mark Canha's contract while browsing the T&T thread.  He's making 11.5/year.  They got Murphy for basically the same rate for 6 years. 

 

 

[wiguy94]

4 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Great defensive catcher…. BUT……He has like a .236 career avg, .755 OPS, walks well, and has a little power. Omar Narvaez had better offensive stats than this guy through the first four years of service. I get why he is wanted especially with a top glove and arm, but his offensive numbers are not super great, even for a catcher. Even the article at the beginning inflates his numbers not based on averages but totals, mainly because he had over 100 at bats than most other catchers in baseball.  
I’d rather have our Contreras and five years of control and development. Not overly jealous of Murphy or the deal.

He has a career 116 wRC+ lol. That’s a really good bat for a catcher. 

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, StearnsFTW said:

I knew I could count on you to post exactly what I would've, only better.  Thanks again.

 

This is an incredible deal for Atlanta for the 2nd best catcher in the game.

 

I was just looking at Mark Canha's contract while browsing the T&T thread.  He's making 11.5/year.  They got Murphy for basically the same rate for 6 years. 

 

 

Don’t think he’s the second best catcher in the game anymore. I think Realmuto and Adley are the top two but Murphy is undoubtedly a top 4 catcher in baseball in the elite tier of catchers with Realmuto, Adley, and Will Smith. 

[wiguy94]

3 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Seems like a market rate deal to me. 28 million for his three arbitration years, then three successive seasons at ages 31, 32 and 33 at 15 million per year. 

Grandal got 3 years and 18.25 million per as a free agent for the same aged seasons, and was a more accomplished hitter 

 

Willson Contreras, a worse catcher than Murphy, just signed a 5/$87.5M covering his age 31-35 seasons. Braves are getting Murphy’s 31-33 seasons for 3/$45 with a player option for his 34 season at $15M. When you compare that to Willson it’s a super friendly deal.

Edit: it is a club option for Murphy’s age 34 season so even more friendly.

[Jopal78]

3 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Willson Contreras, a worse catcher than Murphy, just signed a 5/$87.5M covering his age 31-35 seasons. Braves are getting Murphy’s 31-33 seasons for 3/$45 with a player option for his 34 season at $15M. When you compare that to Willson it’s a super friendly deal.

Edit: it is a club option for Murphy’s age 34 season so even more friendly.

They’re about the same. Murphy will get 15 AAV for his three post arbitration years. Contreras gets 17 AAV. 
 

Braves might get lucky on the first half of the deal  covering Murphy’s  arbitration years for 24 million, but then again Realmuto in a slightly earlier era made 18 million in arbitration. So not to far off the going rate of comparable players. 
 

Bottom line is if a team wants to pay market rates they can sign and extend just about everyone .

[wiguy94]

10 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

They’re about the same. Murphy will get 15 AAV for his three post arbitration years. Contreras gets 17 AAV. 
 

Braves might get lucky on the first half of the deal  covering Murphy’s  arbitration years for 24 million, but then again Realmuto in a slightly earlier era made 18 million in arbitration. So not to far off the going rate of comparable players. 
 

Bottom line is if a team wants to pay market rates they can sign and extend just about everyone .

Murphy getting less than Contreras a much worse catcher is exactly why it’s a team friendly deal and below what Murphy’s market rate would be if he would hit FA in 3 years. 

[rickh150]

Still a lot of guaranteed money to throw around for a .236 lifetime hitter… could’ve simply played it out year to year with arby unless they think he’s primed for better hitting numbers soon. When money is not as big of an issue, I understand why the Braves did it with the defensive consistency you’d expect from a key defensive position (especially with SB set to rise). The Brewers cannot or even should not do anything like this, unless their payroll rises by another $50 million or Yelich is traded.

[jerichoholicninja]

Once again, the Braves are screwing over these young players. That franchise needs to be punished.

[jay87shot]

On 12/29/2022 at 4:11 PM, jerichoholicninja said:

Once again, the Braves are screwing over these young players. That franchise needs to be punished.

Not sure if this is sarcasm, but 73 million guaranteed to a 28 year isn't screwing anyone over.