The Angels informed reporters that infielder Daniel Murphy has again retired (relayed by Sam Blum of the Athletic). The three-time All-Star had been in Triple-A with Los Angeles after signing a minor league deal a couple months ago.
Murphy had been out of professional baseball for more than two years. He’d first announced his retirement in January 2021. The 38-year-old began a comeback attempt in March, signing with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. After teeing off on independent ball pitching at a .331/.410/.451 clip, he got another affiliated look with the Halos.
The two-time Silver Slugger award winner played 38 games with the Angels’ top affiliate in Salt Lake. He hit .295 with a strong .379 on-base percentage, walking more often than he struck out. That’s no small feat for a player who’d only recently begun to face professional pitching, but Murphy only connected on one home run in 169 plate appearances in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
While Murphy’s comeback attempt didn’t get him back to the majors, he had a decent showing at the top minor league level. Of course, he had an excellent MLB run before his first retirement. A 12-year big league veteran, Murphy hit .296/.341/.455 with 138 homers in a little under 1500 career games. A high-contact but low-power second baseman early in his career with the Mets, Murphy had a barrage during the 2015 postseason. He homered in seven straight games and won NLCS MVP honors as New York played its way to the Fall Classic.
Murphy would lead the National League in slugging and OPS two years later, raking at a .347/.390/.595 clip in the first season of a three-year free agent contract with the Nationals. He earned his second All-Star nod and a runner-up finish in NL MVP balloting that season. Murphy made it back to the All-Star Game and some MVP ballots the following year, when he hit .322/.384/.543 with an NL-best 43 doubles.
The Jacksonville product had a quality 2018 campaign split between Washington and the Cubs. He inked a two-year, $24MM deal with the Rockies but didn’t make much of a power impact, hitting .269/.316/.429 in Denver to close out his MLB career. Best wishes to Murphy in his return to post-playing days.
It’s ironic that he played for Colorado, and yet, his best 2 offensive seasons were in Washington instead. Those were quite something, though.
I believe Colorado doesn’t benefit every hitter
Especially at the end of their careers. Wouldn’t be ironic even if it was.
I remember him with the Mets.
It was like this dude took steroids and never got caught? Killed it with Washington Nationals too?
2017 and 2016 were his best years? Oh back to the future again…
Don’t try to sling steroids around if you have no proof that he ever took any. It’s such a rookie troll level sort of thing to do on a baseball forum.
Yep, turn the blind eye to seasons out of the norm that gets you paid. Sounds very Bud Selig of you
Seasons out of the norm? Dude was a .296 career hitter and was always a doubles machine. The only real spike in production was 10 HRs which he went to a new ballpark and joined a much more potent lineup. Those w factors seem much more plausible than going to the extreme and making PED accusations.
It’s like when Wade Boggs suddenly hit 24 home runs one year. The most he hit before was 8. No one thought he took steroids, because he explained it himself that he was capable of hitting home runs but preferred using the green monster for doubles and focusing on contact.
Yes and didn’t Boggs hit the 24 in 1987 ? That particular season the ball was juiced. I remember at the time it being talked about quite often. Not juiced like in 2019, but enough that it made a difference for many.
Everybody hit homers in 1987.
I can’t rule out that he took steroids but I think the biggest change he did was becoming a big time fly ball hitter.
There even were articles about a swing change he did, he always was an elite contact hitters who hit the ball decently hard but he was more line drive oriented but in his peak years he really reduced his GB rate to low 30s percent.
He still wasn’t an elite slugger but he went from an 8-12 Homer guy to a low to mid 20s Homer guy, that is not super unreasonable.
After those good years unfortunately he got injured a lot and wasn’t really the same anymore.
Switching to hitting more fly balls would definitely help. He also as I’d mentioned switched home ballparks. Also joined a loaded Nats lineup. And still we re talking about a jump of 14 HRs. The notion that he took PEDs seems an absolute stretch.
Awful on the Angels for not calling him up. Hes a better hitter than half the guys on their roster. Billy Eppler has been using Vogelfat, Ortega, Stewart, etc. Why can’t we sign Murphy for the Mets and give him a look? He’d be the fourth/fifth best hitter on the team
Adding fuel to your Eppler dumpster fire… Why didn’t he call the Angels to trade for him? It doesn’t appear to be an Angels’ problem.
Why do the angels need to trot out a 38 year old has been? And how is this a shame to angels fans??
@kmk1986 Are you gonna sit here and tell that Daniel Murphy is a worse hitter than guys like Andrew Velasquez, Luis Rengifo, Chad Wallack, and Matt Thaiss? Murphy has always had the ability to hit. The problem is that these advance analytic morons think his last season, in which was only 60 games, was so bad because he played in Coors. Hes not a Colorado guy. Hes better than 50% of the leagues hitters. His defense is bad but can you honestly tell me with a straight face that he wouldnt be better than say, Daniel Vogelbach? Its common sense. This Coors affect nonsense is so overblown. Just look at DJ Lemehiu or Nolan Arenado, both have done the same as they did in Coors once leaving and yet the stats said that they were amazing compared to their Coors numbers. Park adjusted stats are nonsense
At 38 and a few years out of the league, there is no way Murphy is better than half the hitters on the Angels roster. Especially when some nights all nine hitters in their lineup are above .700 OPS.
No one cares
For a few years with the Mets and especially the Nats he was quite a force at the plate. Happy retirement Murphy!
Disappointed for him because he can still hit. Not saying he would have made a giant impact on some team but I am so impressed with his journey back to AAA after playing in the independents. Great stuff.
He would have made a giant impact on the Giants. Our infield is offensively atrocious.
Shut up dude Murphy is not better than one guy on that active roster. U say something like that with nothing to back it up
Something tells me Country Murph has a very successful coaching career ahead of him. He along with JD Martinez and Ben Zobrist are the poster boys for overcoming the odds with an obessive dedication to perfecting their swing. I’d love to have one of these guys around teaching my prospects the game.
Beat of luck Murph! Loved watching your run.
I will always remember he stood up for Christian convictions which I think woke MLB is opposed to.
His Christian convictions of not approving of gay people? Yeah real brave of a stand to take. MLB and baseball in general is conservative as heck, and full of players who share those bigoted religious beliefs.
@Palebro……conservative as heck where? I’m serious. Not the leadership.
Ah, thank you! I hadn’t heard the term “woke” in so long and I was going into withdrawal.
totally, the straight white male christian never gets a break in this country….. whatever dude.
I could only hope your brand of Christian Fascism is rejected everywhere under whatever label is necessary.
Is rejected so we can follow your way of thinking? Not everyone agrees with you. Don’t be a fascist. You aren’t right about everything.
I expressed hope that his terrible views would be rejected by people everywhere because people are free to do that. Denying groups of people rights because you disagree with their life style despite that it has no effect on your life is not the same thing. That is an example of fascism. You just need a government behind it.
Sad that Murphy has been out of MLB so long and worse hitters are on rosters on every team. Even though he was a Met I admired him as a great hitter.
good hitters don’t stay good forever. if he didn’t get the call there is a reason for that. You can try to hold on to nostalgia but everyone declines eventually.
An excellent breakout season for Murphy in 2016. He had an incredible career, but he fell apart in 2020—best of luck in retirement.
Good luck to Murph.
Daniel Hits Murphy. Shout out FP. Great career. One of my all time favs
So good to hear. Now my day is complete. He was a good player though.