Seriously want to know what the Sox were offering, what the A's were asking, and why the F they said yes to this.

Just now, JoeCredeYes said:

Not a team in the league offered more than that bag of s%*# for Murphy?  I'm not sure I understand the state of this league anymore. 

For real. All these teams are spending boatloads of money on FAs because they don't want to make trades. Then one of the biggest guys on the trade market gets moved for a package of meh. The most valuable guy in the deal, Contreras, then gets flipped for a guy whose best tool is speed without much of a power profile. Please make it make sense. 

Sounds like Oakland was asking for MLB ready talent for the most part. 

Too bad they wanted nothing to do with Crochet, Burger, and Sheets. Murphy is a stud. 

7 minutes ago, LittleHurtCG said:

Sounds like Oakland was asking for MLB ready talent for the most part. 

Too bad they wanted nothing to do with Crochet, Burger, and Sheets. Murphy is a stud. 

Sheets and Burger have next to no trade value

7 minutes ago, chw42 said:

For real. All these teams are spending boatloads of money on FAs because they don't want to make trades. Then one of the biggest guys on the trade market gets moved for a package of meh. The most valuable guy in the deal, Contreras, then gets flipped for a guy whose best tool is speed without much of a power profile. Please make it make sense. 

The only thing I can think of is FO's feel Murphy doesn't produce enough offensively for his future arb salary projections, but that is a pretty big stretch since he's pretty damn solid at hitting for a C.  

1 minute ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

Sheets and Burger have next to no trade value

Yeah A’s wanted nothing to do with Sheets last offseason 

1 minute ago, JoeCredeYes said:

The only thing I can think of is FO's feel Murphy doesn't produce enough offensively for his future arb salary projections, but that is a pretty big stretch since he's pretty damn solid at hitting for a C.  

Maybe Oakland just doesn’t view our guys that highly or they are going with guys their scouts likes? Iirc the return for Samardzija from us wasn’t viewed that highly at the time but it turned out great for them. When they acquired Samardzija they gave up a guy who was roughly top 10 in MLB on prospect lists and they didn’t get back any top 100 guys when they traded him away only a couple months later, but in the long run they won both of those deals.

3 minutes ago, JoeCredeYes said:

The only thing I can think of is FO's feel Murphy doesn't produce enough offensively for his future arb salary projections, but that is a pretty big stretch since he's pretty damn solid at hitting for a C.  

He should only hit better once he's out of Oakland. He had a 129 wRC+ on the road last year and only 114 at home. The gap is a whole 20 points in wRC+ for his career. 

The other real head scratcher here is Pina makes $4.5M in 2023 with a $4M player option for 2024.  So unlike the A's.  You'd sure think they'd prefer Seby to Pina based on the cost alone.

Clearly the A's wanted some pitching back, getting 2 MLB ready arms.  The Sox clearly don't have the upper minors pitching depth the A's wanted. 

Man what a bummer.

Would have also loved to replace Milwaukee in this discussion.

3 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Maybe Oakland just doesn’t view our guys that highly or they are going with guys their scouts likes? Iirc the return for Samardzija from us wasn’t viewed that highly at the time but it turned out great for them. When they acquired Samardzija they gave up a guy who was roughly top 10 in MLB on prospect lists and they didn’t get back any top 100 guys when they traded him away only a couple months later, but in the long run they won both of those deals.

I'm just struggling with the nobody else wanted Murphy for this price part, especially Cleveland. 

1 hour ago, BamaDoc said:

I had blown off talk about Sox and Murphy with Grandal on the team.  I hoped/figured that with a full off season, Grandal could rehab and return to 80-90 percent and thus be worth catching 80-100 games and DH/1b 40-20 games.  If we were really in on a new catcher, maybe our front office thinks Grandal may be much less available/playable?  In his current medical condition and with his contract, I had considered him untradeable.

Here’s the good news, doc. Last year they thought same thing about Rodon. 

12 minutes ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

Sheets and Burger have next to no trade value

That's not good. Especially since both guys are considered major depth pieces for the Sox in case of serious injury. 

8 minutes ago, bmags said:

Man what a bummer.

Would have also loved to replace Milwaukee in this discussion.

Contreras sucks at catching, but at least he can hit. 

Hahn could f*** up a one car funeral. 

I could have seen Crochet as a pretty good top guy (just looking at what the package was) but with that said - A's may not have wanted to take a shot on him (limited upside given how many years of service already used and where he is in the rehab process)?  

I think Crochet has more upside than anyone the A's got, but that doesn't mean the A's buy it. 

Wasn't it like yesterday we were getting taunted with what the Cards were offering for Murphy?  What happened?

1 minute ago, southsider2k5 said:

Wasn't it like yesterday we were getting taunted with what the Cards were offering for Murphy?  What happened?

Cards said f*** your asking price we're just gonna spend money. 

Davis Martin, Crochet, Cespedes, Zavala, Stiever for Murphy

I really wish the Sox would be like the Braves. Developing and spending money when needed. I don't care if the Sox give out these 11 yr 300 million contracts but be smart not cheap

Braves GM Alex Anthropolus. Just guessed at the spelling. Has free reins with no owner. Anthropolus is at another level of Baseball IQ compared to Kenny and Hahn. 

Edited December 12, 20223 yr by PolishPrince34
Forgot

13 minutes ago, chw42 said:

Contreras sucks at catching, but at least he can hit. 

I remember when Narzaez sucked at catching. Then he ended up with the Brewers.

I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Oakland’s return. I just can’t believe of all the possible trade partners and packages they settled on one that, at face value, doesn’t appear to been very appealing. 

If the White Sox had a similar return for Anderson, by all means I would have said it was robbery. Oakland atleast deserves more credit for identifying talent, even if the fans and media are suggesting otherwise

5 minutes ago, Flash Tizzle said:

I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Oakland’s return. I just can’t believe of all the possible trade partners and packages they settled on one that, at face value, doesn’t appear to been very appealing. 

If the White Sox had a similar return for Anderson, by all means I would have said it was robbery. Oakland atleast deserves more credit for identifying talent, even if the fans and media are suggesting otherwise

Yes not so much lately, but 5-6 years ago it was consistent that As would make trades people thought was light. But they got a lot of players right (including Semien, Bassitt)