The Red Sox are planning to recall Chris Murphy during their upcoming series with the Guardians, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive (Twitter link). It’s not yet clear whether he’ll make a start or break in out of the bullpen but the Sox lost Chris Sale to the injured list last week.
In either case, Murphy is in position to make his major league debut. It’s a great birthday present for the left-hander, who turns 25 today. Murphy is already on the 40-man roster after the Sox added him to keep him out of last winter’s Rule 5 draft. They’ll only need to make an active roster move whenever he’s formally promoted.
A University of San Diego product, Murphy has spent the past few seasons in the middle ranks of the Boston farm system. Baseball America has slotted him between 12th and 15th among Sox prospects four years running. He checked in 13th at BA and 11th on Keith Law’s ranking at The Athletic last winter. Both outlets credit him with a solid four-pitch arsenal headlined by his changeup. BA and Law each suggest he has a back-of-the-rotation caliber repertoire but might be better suited for long relief thanks to inconsistent control.
Even a swing role would be strong value for a player who signed for $200K as a sixth round pick in 2019. Murphy has had a spotty showing through ten appearances with Triple-A Worcester this year. He’s allowed a 7.71 ERA in 39 2/3 innings. A .385 average on balls in play surely hasn’t helped matters, though he’s also walked nearly 13% of batters faced. He is coming off a scoreless three-inning outing last week in which he allowed only one baserunner with a trio of strikeouts.
Murphy is an upper minors pitcher who’s already on the 40-man roster and capable of covering multiple innings. He’s in his first of three option years and can bounce between Boston and Worcester without being placed on waivers. Even if his initial MLB stint is a spot start or relief appearance, he’s on the organizational radar as a depth option.
Well happy birthday young man
Good luck kid. Red Sox need to hand out life preserver jackets to the team as this boat is sinking fast in 2023. Bloom days on the payroll are dwindling.
The weaknesses and problems this team has are no surprise to anyone who honestly evaluated the offseason with their eyes wide open.
Any kids we can get a look at are the best thing to be watching this year.
Exactly. Play the kids, see what they got.
So take the Indians tmrw. Got it !
Default character name and underwhelming pedigree so far, gonna do great.
Not sure what is going on here. If they use him in the bullpen, maybe he will be better. He has not been good as a starter. Maybe they want to give him a couple of days in the big leagues before they DFA him.
23 games in 23 days is happening, explaining the cup of coffee.
As far as a release to open a 40 man spot? I’m sure more geriatrics can hit the IL to where they don’t NEED to do it. As far as will they want to do it? Different question entirely.
Murphy was called up because of a combination of 2 factors. 1, he’s already on the 40-man roster. 2, the limitation on the number of times a player can be optioned to the minors in one season. They’ve already bounced Sherriff between Boston and Worcester twice this year. My guess is they don’t want to add a 3rd time before the second half of the season if they can avoid it.
The Red Sox changed Murphy’s pitch mix as a reliever in AAA, and the results were increase 2 MPH on the fastball, and they changed usage on secondary pitches. He was effective. This will be a good trial for him. I think he will remain a reliever. If a spot start is needed in the MLB, it will go to Pivetta or Kluber!
So I looked up the stats on this guy and here is what I found.
Graduates college in 2019. Goes to Low A and starts 10 games.
Here is the strange thing about this. He pitched only 331/3 innings in the ten starts for an average of slightly over 3IP per game Normally that means he got bombed but instead he had a 1.08 ERA and 0.900 WHIP. Go figure? Does Cora have a clone managing in Low A in 2019?
Nothing in 2020 due to Covid then in 2021 he starts at Hi=A and has 14 starts with a mediocre 4.21 ERA and a decent WHIP of 1.244. He gets promoted for his mediocrity and goes to AA where he is over matched and puts up a 5.44 ERA and 1.303 WHIP.
At age 24, after an unimpressive 23 year old season, Bloom returns him to AA where he struggled in 2021. His numbers improve in 13 starts and he puts up a very good 2.58 ERA and 1.004 WHIP. This gets him a deserved promotion to AAA where he once again struggles at the new level. 5.50 ERA 1.5666 WHIP in 15 starts.
His 25 year old season in 2023 starts in AAA with a 7.71 ERA and 1.916 WHIP. Naturally, these numbers suggest to Bloom to promote him because? He can’t do any worse? He struck out the last batter he faced? Someone help me…
Why would you promote this guy? Didn’t want to hurt the AAA team record?
Maybe Bloom has his eye on another dumpster dive and is going to DFA him after one game or heck maybe before the game. Bloom is tricky like that!!
The team is in CLE then NY so bringing up a 7.71 ERA guy to face either team must be a new strategy for covering your rear end in the event there is a blowout game in either series. Rather than using position players they can use Murphy then DFA him.
OK, that is at least a justification for the promotion, but it doesn’t suggest much confidence in the team playing CLE and NY.
Good luck to Murphy. I wonder if his name will be velcrowed on the jersey?
@KD – They are not going to DFA Murphy. They need an extra arm for this series so they’ll bring Murphy up for 1-2 appearances out of the pen and send him back down since he has 3 options remaining. With both Blier and Rodriguez on the IL, they need a LH pitcher out of the pen, so enter Murphy. No need to cut bait on him yet; he is having an awful season at AAA but he has been better of late. Let’s see what he can do; he can’t be much worse than Joeley has been, that’s for sure!
KD wrong as usual. Murphy has upside in the bullpen and he is cheap, controllable, and LEFT HANDED which make him valuable…. These are characteristics Bloom values….so no way he is a DFA (plus the Red Sox are almost completely devoid of any mid to lower minor league left handed pitching)!
Last night’s success was probably a combination of not having much of a scouting report on Murphy and the fact that KD is usually wrong. Maybe KD can supply us with another 30-line analysis for tonight’s spot starter.
Smh, what the hell has happening to this organization? Every move they make has question marks attached.
They will likely put Sale on the IL and use this guy for long relief. Season is beginning to unravel as they don’t have anybody in the rotation who is reliable.
Murphy will dominate the Guardians …. They don’t hit anybody
He sucks he will fit in with half the roster….
Ibu… – your comment sucks like over half the comments
Sad that comment you don’t agree with suck…. Find a nice safe place ok.