Avila was informed after the Diamondbacks' 7-4 loss to the Reds on Wednesday that he would be benched more frequently in favor of John Ryan Murphy, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic Arizona reports.

EDGE Analysis

As recently as Tuesday, manager Torey Lovullo suggested that he planned to stick with Avila as the club's primary catcher, but that changed after Murphy bolstered his case for more playing time by going 3-for-5 with a home run and a double. It's somewhat surprising that it took nearly two months for Lovullo to commit to Murphy, whose .908 OPS through 79 plate appearances this season nearly matches Avila's (.525) and fellow backstop Jeff Mathis' (.525) combined production. Given his career-long reputation as a light-hitting, defense-first catcher, Mathis' contributions aren't unexpected, but Avila has been a tremendous disappointment after posting an .834 OPS in 2017, which netted him a two-year, $8.25 million deal this offseason. With regular starts no longer headed his way, Avila looks like a reasonable drop even in most two-catcher mixed leagues or NL-only formats.