The Chicago White Sox are a team looking to improve on a very mediocre 81-81 season. It is a subpar year because of the things they were expected to do coming in. There are a lot of things that they can do to help their team in the offseason.
One thing that won't really help them much is making a trade for another catcher that may or may not be an upgrade. Sean Murphy seems to be on the trade block but he is not someone that should be a top priority for the White Sox.
He had a good year in 2022 playing with the Oakland Athletics who were one of the worst teams in the American League. If the White Sox are actually in on him, they might want to reconsider it but it's not because he isn't a good player.
It is simply because he is a catcher and the White Sox aren't desperate at that position as much as they are others. Yes, right field, second base, and more pitching should be the priority over replacing Yasmani Grandal right now.
There are bigger problems for the Chicago White Sox to solve right now.
Adding someone like Murphy would help the White Sox in a few ways but enough to justify doing that over something else? If they make an upgrade at the other positions of note and still trade for Murphy, then you can say that it was a good move.
In 2022, he slashed .250/.332/.426 for an OPS of .759. He hit 18 home runs, had 66 RBIs, and 67 runs scored. Those are decent offensive numbers for a catcher playing on a very bad team. All of this helped him accumulate a WAR of 3.5.
Murphy is a great defensive catcher and he would be an upgrade over what the White Sox have had in Yasmani Grandal over the last year or so. With all that in mind, there are bigger priorities on the team.
Grandal was awesome in 2021 but terrible in 2022. Again, trading for Sean Murphy wouldn't be the worst thing in the world but banking on a bit of positive regression from Yasmani Grandal might be smarter as long as they upgrade the other positions.