5 Trade Targets for the Milwaukee Brewers this offseason
By Todd Welter
The Milwaukee Brewers should go after Sean Murphy.
The Oakland A’s seem to be in seller mode every offseason. It appears catcher Sean Murphy might be on the trade block.
The Milwaukee Brewers would have a lot of competition for Murphy’s services as many teams are interested in acquiring the right-handed catcher. The Rays and the White Sox are rumored to be in the mix to pull off a trade.
Matt Arnold would have to offer an attractive package of prospects to get the A’s attention. Murphy might be worth it.
He hit .250 with 18 home runs in just his third full season. He was a 3.5 wins above replacement-level player with a .332 on-base percentage and a .426 slugging percentage. He had a 5.1 fWAR and a 122 wRC+ last season.
He has a career .993 fielding percentage. His numbers are way better than Omar Narvaez and Victor Caratini’s.
Plus, Murphy comes with three years of team control. He will be 28 next season and is projected to make around $3.3 million. Murphy would be a nice upgrade at catcher and would be a player that would not completely break the bank.
The Brewers could try to trade for Danny Jansen.
The Toronto Blue Jays have an abundance of talent at catcher.
Alejandro Kirk would be a great get, but he is still not arbitration eligible and is 23. It would take a haul to pry him out of Toronto.
Jansen is in his second year of being arbitration-eligible and projects to get around $3 million. Jansen might also be ready to be an everyday catcher. He has never played in more than 107 games.
He is coming off a season where he had 260/.339/.516 slash line and a .855 OPS. Jansen belted 15 home runs and is a 2.9 WAR player. He also had 140 wRC+, and Fangraphs projects that he will hit 25 home runs next year.
The Brewers could probably acquire him without having to give up their top prospects and get a potential ascending player.