West Notes: Murphy, Chavez, Duffy, Seager

The Angels haven’t made a decision on David Murphy’s $7MM club for the 2016 season, writes MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez, in part due to uncertainty surrounding the luxury tax (a threshold which owner Arte Moreno has previously been reluctant to cross). Murphy, however, hopes to be back with the Halos even though that would delay his chance at securing another multi-year contract. “I’m at the point in my career where I just want to win,” Murphy said “I don’t care about free agency; I don’t care about contracts and money. I’m fortunate to have gotten where I’ve gotten in my career, have made the money that I’ve made. … I don’t really look at the rest of my career in terms of contracts or money. I want to win. I’ve been to two World Series, I’ve lost them both.” Murphy entered play Tuesday batting .264/.283/.391 with the Angels, though his three-run bomb off Felix Hernandez couldn’t have hurt his chances of seeing that option picked up.

Here’s more from the game’s Western divisions…

• Jesse Chavez’s season is over, writes MLB.com’s Jane Lee. The Athletics right-hander is suffering from a non-displaced fracture in his ribcage, but he expressed both frustration and bewilderment due to the fact that the cause of the injury is an unknown. Chavez believes it’s possible that the injury happened when he was bracing himself for a comeback line-drive that struck his hip over the weekend, as he began feeling discomfort the following day. Nonetheless, it’s a disappointing way to end a season that has seen the righty work to a 4.18 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 157 innings. The 32-year-old Chavez is up for arbitration this winter and will receive a nice boost from his 2015 salary of $2.15MM.
• In a piece for The Players’ Tribune, Giants third baseman Matt Duffy gives readers an excellent behind-the-scenes look at his arrival in the Major Leagues and the immediate encouragement he received from the likes of Hunter Pence, Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. However, Duffy maintains that the biggest influence on his blossoming young career came from the man he replaced — Casey McGehee. Duffy writes that McGehee took him under his wing from day one, and when McGehee asked to speak to him in private on May 26, he thought nothing of it until he saw tears in his mentor’s eyes. McGehee emotionally explained to Duffy that he’d done exactly what he was supposed to do — force the issue. McGehee recalled feeling guilty in his own rookie season for taking Bill Hall’s spot, and he urged Duffy not to feel any guilt. Duffy’s entire column is well worth a read, regardless of your team of choice.
• Corey Seager’s extraordinary production since being promoted has forced manager Don Mattingly to soften his stance on who will play shortstop once Jimmy Rollins is healthy enough to return to the lineup. as Steve Bourbon of MLB.com writes. “Everything is always evolving. Right now we’ve got to get guys back healthy. There’s plenty of playing time right now for Corey,” said Mattingly. “He doesn’t need to worry about what’s going forward, he just needs to play today. We don’t need to worry about what’s going forward, we need to win today.” Rollins, of course, is a free agent at season’s end, so an injury and a reduced role in September and possibly October will further damage his stock after a disappointing season in L.A.