ATLANTA — Ronald Acuña Jr. ended April as an early favorite to win the National League MVP award. But if Sean Murphy extends his impressive and unexpected power surge, Acuña won’t be the only Brave legitimately considered for the honor.
“He’s a great player, a great guy and a great teammate,” said Spencer Strider, starting pitcher for the Braves. “I couldn’t ask for more from him in any way. I’m just really grateful that he’s on our team.”
There was much praise for Murphy after hitting two home runs and amassing a career-high six RBIs while helping the Braves earn a 9-8 win over the Mets in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader at Citi Field. The veteran catcher added two more strikes as Atlanta suffered a 5-3 loss in the second game.
“I’m doing the same things I’ve always done,” Murphy said. “I try to be consistent with the same things every day. Hopefully there will be incremental improvements.”
This was quite a journey for the Braves, who clinched a rain-shortened five-inning win on Friday and then sat idle as rain delayed both Saturday and Sunday games. It didn’t look like the time-out would be an issue as Atlanta hit six runs in the first two innings of that double count. But both games were thrills.
Two wins in that three-game set saw the Braves improve in first place to 19-10 and put them three games ahead of the Mets (16-13). This is the first time since 2003 that Atlanta has won at least 19 of their first 29 games.
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But there might be at least some who would argue that Murphy has been just as valuable, given he’s done almost every catching job since Travis d’Arnaud suffered the fourth concussion of his career on April 8. In addition to proving to be a solid catcher defensively, Murphy has exceeded all expectations offensively since being acquired by the A’s in December.
“He’s a threat every time he goes up there,” manager Brian Snitker said.
Murphy started Monday with a 1.2 fWAR, which ranked ninth best among all MLB players. Even more surprising was the fact that he started the day seventh with 159 weighted runs plus (WRC+), a statistic that accounts for baseball factors.
With the A’s pitcher-friendly stadium no longer his home ground, there was an expectation that Murphy’s performance numbers would improve this year. But few could have predicted he would have eight homers by the end of the day on May 1st. He hit 17 homers in 2021 and then set a career high at 18 last year.
While the performance potential was there, few could have predicted that, more than a month into the season, Murphy would share the team home run lead with Matt Olson. Certainly some weren’t expecting this, as Murphy opened the season 3-for-20 with just one extra base hit. He produced and drew eight walks in that short span of time.
But those upset about losing William Contreras on the same three-team trade in December have been silenced as Murphy has since gone 21-to-65 with six doubles and eight homers. That surge in performance began with the walk-off homer he hit to complete a 10-inning win over the Reds on April 10.
Murphy extended that surge of power with the three runs he hit in the first and seventh innings of Game 1 on Monday. The veteran catcher hit twice in the nightcap and pulled a walk in the seventh inning that put him in position to score Eddie Rosario’s three-pointer from day one.
With his prolific doubleheader, Murphy now leads all MLB catchers in home runs and OPS (1,060). It’s safe to say that Braves fans accepted the fact that their team was upgraded when they acquired him at the cost of losing Contreras, who has one homer and .779 OPS in his first 22 games with the Brewers.
“[Murphy] is a great guy,” said Braves starting pitcher Charlie Morton. “Man, he hits the ball hard. It’s fun to throw and be around. We are lucky to have him.”