The Braves have every reason to cringe when they look back at the December 2022 catcher swap that sent William Contreras away. Atlanta wanted an upgrade behind the plate and went after Sean Murphy, a player widely regarded as one of the best catchers in the game. Instead, Murphy has dealt with multiple injuries, while Contreras has broken out with the Brewers and now has a 2026 World Series MVP award on his résumé.
That’s a brutal outcome for Atlanta, no question. At the time, the move made sense on paper because Contreras was still young and carried real questions about whether he could handle being an everyday catcher. But the results have been rough enough that this deal now looks like a major misread by the Braves.
Even so, Atlanta is not the team that came out of this looking worst.
The strangest part of the whole thing is that the Athletics were the club that actually had the premium piece in Murphy to move. And when the dust settled, the return they got was basically nothing of lasting value. Milwaukee had to be brought in as the third team because the A’s didn’t even want Contreras, which is how Esteury Ruiz ended up in the mix for Oakland.
That wrinkle mattered. The Brewers didn’t just wind up with Contreras; they also picked up relievers Justin Yeager and Joel Payamps. Meanwhile, the Athletics got Ruiz and the Braves’ prospect package of Kyle Muller, Freddy Tarnok and Royber Salinas.
Ruiz did have his moment, stealing 67 bases for the A’s in 2023, but his production cratered after that and he has since moved on. As for Muller, Tarnok and Salinas, none of them lasted in any meaningful way, and none appeared in MLB last year.
So yes, the Braves absolutely took a hit here. Missing on Contreras hurts, and Murphy’s inability to stay healthy only makes the whole exchange look worse for Atlanta. But if you’re sorting the losers from this trade, the answer is still the A’s, and it isn’t much of a debate.
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Still, this is the kind of proposal that lives in the what if category more than the real one. It comes from Bleacher Report, not either team, and even the piece framing it acknowledges how unlikely a transaction between division rivals like this would be. For now, it serves more as a reminder of how aggressively outside voices are trying to redraw the NL East than as a sign that anything is actually close. [Read more 🡒]