Atlanta Braves acquire depth at catcher with John Ryan Murphy

In the midst of adding to their bullpen, the Atlanta Braves also increased their catching depth before the trade deadline.

Roughly 30 minutes before the trade deadline, the Atlanta Braves made a minor trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks, acquiring catcher John Ryan Murphy in exchange for cash considerations.

Murphy has appeared in 25 games for the Diamondbacks this season and has hit four home runs and three doubles in 69 plate appearances.

In 36 Triple-A games, Murphy has a .250/.316/.524 line, with nine home runs and 26 RBI.

But Murphy is more known for his defensive prowess than what he can do at the plate.

Murphy is 28 years old and was drafted in the second round in 2009 by the Yankees and played three seasons with New York before being traded to Minnesota in 2015.

He has played in 60 games or more just twice in his career and that was in 2015 for the Yankees, where he had a .277/.327/.406 line in 172 plate appearances and last season with Arizona, where he had a .202/.244/.375 line in 223 plate appearances.

This deal was nothing more than to protect the Atlanta Braves from an injury to Brian McCann or Tyler Flowers and it would also seem possible that Murphy will join the Braves when roster expand in September.

Add in Alex Jackson and the Braves now have four catchers on their 40-man roster and have plenty of depth in the event of a significant injury to either part of their platoon.

Remember, there is only one trade deadline this year. This is a move that in the past probably would have happened in August.

Flowers has been under scrutiny lately for the amount of passed balls he has allowed, but this move does not appear to signal that the Atlanta Braves are looking to replace Flowers, but to have the security blanket at Triple-A.