I'm gonna be that guy and say that I actually like this move. People bitched incessantly about the black holes in the lineup. This fixes one of them. Yes, Murphy is better and younger, but the A's would have likely wanted a brutal price for those years of cheap control. Moreover, defense from the catcher position will improve from Knizer and decline only marginally from the washed up version of Yadi. His bat is good enough to profile at DH if Herrera ends up being worthy of more time behind the dish.
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Who knows for sure on Murphy but supposedly the A's wanted Noot, Donovan and and a AA pitcher or either Winn or Gorman straight up.

No idea on the value chart.....
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And either one of those are too much?

I would have given them both Winn and Gorman. Winn is a redundant prospect and who the fuck is Gorman? Kyle Schwarber minus the ability to play even bad defense? Look at how much value Schwarber provides when he hits 40+ HRs. He's slightly above average for an every day player.
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I have a hard time believing they'd take the first package. Noot is a 5th OF and Donovan just a utility guy.
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WTF! Gorman for Murphy straight up is a decent deal and I like Gorman still. You get a cost controlled catcher for the next 2 full years who will hit better, play solid defense and then hopefully you either extend him to a team friendly deal or if Herrera is ready you go that direction.
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You get him for the next 3 full years.
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Goold reported Gordon Graceffo was the pitcher that the A's asked for.
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Then Mozeliak is a moron.

Both a Noot/Donovan/Graceffo package or Gorman straight across for Murphy is 100% reasonable. Gorman straight across is goddamn robbery.

Mozeliak has traded the wrong guy so damn many times at this point that he's simply paralyzed. He realizes he has no idea who's actually good so he just won't move ANYBODY. And thus we end up with a roster full of B tier prospects who are quality players but who aren't going to win you a championship.

Noot had bettter be legit. There's some real sneaky Brandon Nimmo potential there. But that's the top 10% of his development curve and ain't all that likely.

Mozeliak is just so damn risk averse because of his own mistakes that he's a governor on this team's ability to actually contend. He needs to go.
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3.

This is his arb1 season.

And Murphy does more than play 'solid' defense - he's one of the best defensive catchers in the game.

If Gorman/Murphy was actually on the table, it's just a completely absurd miss from Mozeliak.
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Ben Clemens of FanGraphs contract prediction: 4/$80
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Didn't mean to cut him short...still just flabbergasted it was that attainable. I thought when they said they were asking the moon, it was something like Jordan, Winn, Tink Hence, and one or two of our top current outfielders.
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He also waits too long often on prospects and then can't get what he could have earlier. He can't evaluate talent period.
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And then when he does pull the trigger on dealing prospects that everyone knows are big leaguers he screws the pooch bigtime. Ozuna helped us win a playoff series but imagine if we had those two pitchers on our staff and not won a playoff series. Would we have been better? I think the answer is clear.

Mo is just an idiot who knows how to make money for Dewitt. That's fine and dandy. Make him president of operations, let him make that money for Dewitt. Let someone who knows talent make player decisions.
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https://fansided.com/2022/12/11/st-l...los-rodon/amp/

Setting Mo up for his “missed it by that much” yearly act.
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I call BS. More Mo propaganda for the inevitable article that we tried really hard but came in 2nd. Wr see this every damn year.
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