Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe had an interesting tidbit at the bottom of his column today. He says the Red Sox and Marlins haven’t discussed center fielder David Murphy in a while, but Murphy is drawing interest from various clubs and talks could be renewed with Florida. Cafardo notes that the Fish might part with lower-ceiling guys like Ricky Nolasco or Yusmeiro Petit but want to keep Taylor Tankersley.
The Red Sox passed on Conor Jackson to take Murphy in the 2003 draft. Baseball America doesn’t place him among Boston’s top ten prospects, but considers his center field defense respectable. Murphy improved his production upon a promotion to Triple A in 2006. Translating his work at Pawtucket to a Major League Equivalent nets a .238/.311/.376 result. PECOTA sees something similar for ’07. Remarkably, that’d be an improvement upon Marlins center fielders last season. By ’08 Murphy could develop a little more power and become a solid regular.
