While the Cleveland Guardians had shown interest in Sean Murphy, the Oakland Athletics decided to deal their star catcher Sean Murphy to the Atlanta Braves. Now, there appears to be some clarity on what Cleveland would've had to give up to acquire Murphy themselves.
Bally Sports in-game reporter Andre Knott spoke about the Guardians' efforts to trade for Murphy on ESPN Cleveland. He stated that Oakland wanted, “an every day player and two top prospects.” Knott noted that the Athletics insisted on one of those prospects being pitcher Daniel Espino.
The Guardians clearly felt that the asking price was too high and decided to pass on the deal. Oakland ended up dealing Murphy to the Braves in a three-way deal with the Brewers that landed them a litany of quality prospects.
While there's no exact word on what Knott and the A's meant by, “every day player,” there's clear indiction that any deal between the Guardians and A's involving Sean Murphy would also involve Espino. The right-handed pitcher is currently ranked as Cleveland's top prospect according to MLB Pipeline.
Cleveland has another prospect in catcher Bo Naylor who MLB Pipeline ranks as their fifth best. Perhaps with Naylor approaching the MLB level, the Guardians didn't want to send a king's ransom of prospects to Oakland.
With Murphy now off the table, the Guardians must get back to the drawing board as they look to re-tool their roster for the 2023 season. Murphy is a Gold Glove-winning catcher, but Cleveland wasn't willing to match the Athletics' demands.
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