There was once so much joy as an Atlanta Braves fan, now they’re starting to piss me off.
The Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers conducted a three-way trade Dec. 12 that saw the Braves acquire star catcher Sean Murphy, the three teams announced. In total, the trade featured nine players switching uniforms.
At 28-years-old, Murphy was considered one of the top prizes in this offseason’s trade market, however, Atlanta was forced to give up their young all-star catcher William Contreras to the Milwaukee Brewers — who were just randomly in this trade for whatever reason. Atlanta, in the process, held on to Travis d’Arnaud.
Here’s how the trade looked in its entirety:
Full trade, per ESPN sources:
Atlanta gets: C Sean Murphy
Oakland gets: LHP Kyle Muller, UT Esteury Ruiz, RHP Freddy Tarnok, RHP Royber Salinas, C Manny Piña
Milwaukee gets: C William Contreras, RHP Justin Yeager, RHP Joel Payamps
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 12, 2022
Okay, so obviously the Milwaukee Brewers were the biggest winners of the trade. I do admire their style of how they just randomly appear in a trade and walk away with an all-star for a stick of bubble gum. Kudos to the Brewers there.
Now, as an Atlanta Braves fan, what the hell are we doing?
I’m a little bit confused as to how we went from sexy little moves last year that ultimately took us to a World Series championship, to now trading a younger and statistically better all-star catcher for one who is older and not as statistically good, though Murphy is solid — I don’t want to take anything away from him.
In a recent piece, I criticized Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos for not making any moves, especially considering both the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies are spending incredible amounts of money to win a World Series. We, on the other hand, are making very questionable moves. What exactly is going on in Atlanta? (RELATED: Xander Bogaerts Joins Padres On 11-Year, $280 Million Deal, Leaving Red Sox In Tough Situation)
And I think I should bring up ownership as well in Liberty Media, why aren’t we spending competitive money against the Mets and the Phillies?
Why are we trading young and better all-star catchers for older and worse ones?
And why are we trading them to random teams who just pop out of nowhere when it looks like we could have just kept them?
I’m really not understanding the logic here.
Just doubting things heading into 2023.