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The Braves have acquired catcher John Ryan Murphy from the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash considerations, per The Athletic’s Robert Murray:
#Braves acquiring John Ryan Murphy from #DBacks in exchange for cash considerations, sources tell The Athletic.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) July 31, 2019
Murphy, 28, was the Diamondbacks’ primary catcher last season and posted a .202/.244/.375 slash line with nine homers, though he slumped to a miserable .263 OPS with no homers in 51 second-half plate appearances. He stuck with Arizona this season, but with 25-year-old Carson Kelly establishing himself as the Diamondbacks’ primary starting catcher and Alex Avila having a much larger salary than Murphy, the D-Backs designated Murphy for assignment on May 25 and later outrighted him to Triple-A Reno after he slashed .177/.250/.419 with four homers over 69 plate appearances to start the season. He’d thrived since going down to Reno, hitting .250/.316/.524 with nine homers in 136 PAs.
In a way, Murphy is more valuable than your standard third catcher who is moved at the deadline, because he’s not on the 40-man roster, allowing Atlanta to stash him in the minors until September call-ups take place (or until Tyler Flowers or Brian McCann suffers an injury).