Cardinals Rumors: Here is what Oakland is asking for Sean Murphy

Oakland is reportedly asking for major league players in a Sean Murphy trade

The St. Louis Cardinals made a lot of news during Day 2 of the Winter Meetings, and Day 3 is shaping up to be an eventful day for the club. Their number one target, Oakland Athletics catcher Sean Murphy, is being pursued by teams like the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays, among other teams, making the asking price very high for the catcher.

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required), Oakland has a very strong asking price for their catcher.

"The Athletics are seeking major leaguers rather than prospects for Sean Murphy, and telling interested clubs they will keep the catcher if they do not receive a satisfactory trade offer."

Murphy, who is 28-years old, has multiple years of team control remaining and will provide the Cardinals with one of the best catchers in baseball. Murphy is one of the few catchers in the game today who can mash at the plate and provide elite defense as a backstop, all while starting the majority of the team’s games at catcher. You just cannot find guys like him in today’s game.

What Oakland’s reported asking price means for the Cardinals is that guys like Nolan Gorman, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson, and Dylan Carlson will be at the top of Oakland’s wish list, rather than the likes of Masyn Winn or Gordon Graceffo. Names like Matthew Liberatore, Juan Yepez, Jake Woodford, Ivan Herrera, Zach Thompson, and Andre Pallante would be interesting names to watch as well, as they have already seen time in the major leagues.

That begs the question, what could the Cardinals offer look like with this asking price? I made the case for why Murphy is far and away the best option for St. Louis a few days ago, and in that piece, I speculated that a deal of 2B/3B Nolan Gorman, RHP Gordon Graceffo (club’s number 7 prospect according to Baseball America’s new rankings from this week), and outfield prospect Joshua Baez could get the deal done for the Cardinals.

Here is what I think an offer for Murphy could look like under the new reported asking price from Oakland.