Rockies first baseman Daniel Murphy is officially a free agent, as per the MLB Players Association’s list of 147 players who entered free agency today now that the World Series is complete. Murphy and the Rockies shared a $12MM mutual option for Murphy’s services in 2021, though it can probably be assumed that the Rox declined their side of the option, instead paying Murphy a $6MM buyout.
It was widely expected that Murphy wouldn’t be back for a third season in Colorado. After signing a two-year deal worth $24MM in guaranteed money in December 2018, Murphy underwhelmed, hitting .269/.316/.426 with 16 homers over 610 plate appearances in 2019-20. An early-season finger injury may have contributed to his problems in 2019, but Murphy simply hit poorly this season, finishing in the bottom five percentile of all batters in exit velocity, wOBA, and hard-hit ball rate.
Beyond Murphy’s own lack of production, his signing ranks as a particular miss for the Rockies considering that DJ LeMahieu (the player Murphy essentially replaced) immediately went on to deliver a pair of outstanding seasons with the Yankees. While Josh Fuentes played well in an increasingly larger role at first base in 2020, it seems likely that Colorado will look for a more proven bat to fill the position this winter.
It wasn’t long ago that Murphy was a feared bat, finishing second in NL MVP voting in 2016 and delivering another All-Star season in 2017 (both years as a member of the Nationals). Murphy will turn 36 on Opening Day 2021, however, and given his age and his decline over the last two seasons, he might be hard-pressed to find a Major League contract on the open market.
Jays are a great fit for Murphy
Anywhere but Colorado! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jays have two young and controllable players around first already. They need a 3rd base more.
Vlad Jr. or Tellez will likely be at 1B with the other at DH though Teoscar Hernandez should be the DH. Jays could sign a SS and move Bichette to 3B or a 2B and move Biggio to either 3B or LF and move Gurriel to 3B (lots of moving parts on that roster). One thing that is likely certain is Travis Shaw won’t be back
A $6M buyout??? Great work by his agent! Even if he has to settle for a minor league deal, he’s going to make a lot more than most of his peers in free agency this year due to this huge buyout clause. That has to be a painful check to cut for the Rockies!
The buyout counts against his 2020 salary and is factored into the $24M in guaranteed money referenced paid out for his 2019/20 services. The six million is not additional. He was due to be paid $8M in 2020, but of course that was prorated to 2.96M, so he’ll take home a little under $9M. Unlike the regular season salary, the bonus isn’t prorated, so in that way he does benefit. Well, outside he’ll now likely have to sign a minor league deal and fight for a job on a MLB roster. His career could be over.
Yeah, I saw that when I was looking at Rockies salary commitments for 2021 on Roster Resource. They were only paying him $12M AAV, so that buyout is half his salary. Painful. The Rox are also on the hook for a combined $5M for the buyouts for Shaw, Davis, and McGee. Not quite as bloated as Murphy’s buyout, but still a lot of money committed to players no longer suiting up for Colorado.
Orioles bounce back
Feeling good until “it seems likely that Colorado will look for a more proven bat to fill the position this winter”
I don’t like the sound of this. Knowing what the Rockies consider “proven bats”.
Agree, a few years back Desmond was the long term answer at first. Leave Fuentes there, get a catcher or OF who can hit and is not under 33 years old.
Desmond was supposed to be the long term answer at first, leave Fuentes alone there. Sign a catcher who can hit and also a stud OF that is not past their prime.
I know this season was a small sample size and Murphy could be streaky, but the -0.9 fWAR/-1.3 bWAR he put up in only 40 games is crazy bad. If he kept that up over the whole season, it would be one of the worst seasons of all time.
Murphy magic appears to be over, that was a great couple year run from the Postseason 2015 – 2017.
He was also solid in his short stint with the Cubs in 2018, but his run with the Rockies is a forgettable one.
The NPB would be an excellent fit for Murphy at this rate
Trade Arenado for P/1B help. The Rockies always need more pitching. Slide McMahon over to third. He handles himself very well there. Fuentes/Desmond or a new acquisition could handle 1B.
Fuentes is a better third baseman than McMahon. I watched plenty of both in AAA.
If they somehow could trade Arenado this offseason, they have to get pitching.
Doubt we’ll see him in MLB ever again.
I’d like to see the Mets give him one more shot. We have the DH spot now. Murph is tailor made for that role & my gut tells me his down year was a fluke.
Please, no. The Mets already have too many 2B and potential DH players (Cano, McNeil, Davis, Guillorme) to take a chance on Murph. Plus, there’s no word on whether the NL will even have a DH, unless it missed it the past few days.
I like the Rockies, but they have been one of the most puzzling teams in baseball. They had two interesting first base prospects (Mundell and Ramos), lost them both while banking on Murphy. They have one of the best middle-infield prospects in Rodgers, but won’t play him (though injury played a role last season). They have an interesting outfielder in Daza, but won’t give him an opportunity. Even Fuentes was snubbed in 2019 after winning the MiLB batting title in 2018. It took an injury to his cousin to get him into the mix this year.
Then there’s Tom Murphy. Didn’t want to give him a legitimate opportunity, lost him, and he raked for Seattle. Michael Tauchman, same situation; ended up producing for NY.
This is a team that should have rebuilt; Sold high (as possible) on Arenado, Story, and Blackmon if possible for pitching prospects. They had enough promising prospects to fill virtually every hole on the field, so a quick turnaround was very much a possibility.
They could still commit to a rebuild, but they seem more likely to keep stubbornly trying to compete with LA and now SD with an underwhelming roster.
Just my two cents.
Tauchman is meh, not a big loss
Could he be had for like 4mil? Maybe replace wong. How bad is his defense at second these days?
His last season where he logged a meaningful number of innings at 2B, he posted a -11.4 UZR with -14 DRS. Considering that he’s been a butcher at 1B in more recent years (-3.8 UZR, -3 DRS in only 233 innings in 2020), I find it unlikely that he’d even be able to play 2B competently enough for the bigs anymore.