The Angels announced that they’ve acquired outfielder David Murphy from the Indians in exchange for infield prospect Eric Stamets. Initial news of the swap came just minutes before the Angels announced the acquisition of fellow lefty-swinging outfielder David DeJesus.
Murphy, 33, is making $6MM this season and has a $500K buyout on his $7MM 2016 team option. He has slashed .296/.344/.437 with five homers in 229 plate appearances this season for the Indians, serving primarily as a platoon option in the corner outfield.
The Angels already have lefty hitters (Matt Joyce and Kole Calhoun) in the outfield corners, although Joyce has struggled this season. It stands to reason, then, that Murphy and DeJesus will provide the Angels with a pair of lefty bats to deploy in left field and at DH. Either would make a fine platoon partner for the recently acquired Shane Victorino, and they could both find themselves in the lineup versus tough righties, perhaps at the expense of young first baseman/designated hitter C.J. Cron. Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported on Monday that Murphy was on the Halos’ radar.
When faced with the possibility that he could lose playing time back in January, Murphy said that he would be open to a trade. Many months later, Murphy has been moved out of Cleveland, though his playing time didn’t dip much in 2015.
Stamets, a 23-year-old shorstop, was a sixth-round pick of the Halos in 2012. In Double-A this year, the defensive-minded Stamets has hit .248/.306/.360 with three homers in 241 plate appearances. The youngster has also swiped five bases.
Baseball America ranked Stamets as the No. 23 prospect in the Angels’ system following the 2014 season. “Stamets would be one of the top prospects in baseball if he could hit as well as he plays defense,” BA writes.
Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times first reported (via Twitter) that the Angels were about to acquire Murphy. Joel Sherman of the New York Post added that an agreement was in place (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweeted Stamets’ inclusion.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
One of their younger MiLB pitchers would probably go back.
deal is done – heyman
Good move by the Angels they can platoon Murphy and Victorino in LF.
he’s a good platoon player, but I hope we didn’t give up anything too valuable.
Wrong, Alex. Murphy is a ‘great’ platoon player & better yet, is one of the classiest pro’s in the game today, as well.
They got David DeJesus too. 3 outfielders acquired in 2 days.
how did they get the other David?
Traded Eduar Lopez for him
Nice work by the Angels here to get a viable LF platoon now. We don’t know what they are giving up, so I’ll take my shot in the dark and say Cam Bedrosian.
Eric Stamets.
Stamets and Lopez are all we gave up. Awesome job by Stoneman.
Eric Samets for Murphy
Eduar Lopez for DeJesus
a Murphy/Victorino platoon makes sense. As much as I wanted Cespedes, Bruce, Gomez or someone else, it is widely documented how thing our system is. Also, with tons of money still being paid to Hamilton, this seems like the budget-wise solution to Matt Joyce’s failures this year
Now they just got DeJesus. I wonder if the Trout injury is more serious.
Joel Sherman @Joelsherman1 1m1 minute ago
#Angels person told me Victorino/Murphy/DeJesus are for LF/depth and not because of Trout injury.
Oh good. A slap hitting SS that bats under .250 in AA ball. Excellent work once again Chris Antonetti. Couldn’t you have at least got 300,000 hot dogs and a couple boxes of Fireworks for Friday nights?
His defense is elite and he has some impressive speed. He’s a great bench piece at worst, ok starter at best.
We don’t have a need for a SS…especially one who can’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag.
Murphy is a good pickup. He’s a guy who knows how to be a role player and make the most out of his contribution.
Solid pickups by the Angels – no scrubby minor leaguers will have to sub in if Trout has to miss any time. They can just DFA Joyce, he’s toast as a big leaguer.
Great day for the Angels. All three outfielders will be contributors and an improvement over what is there today. And they were all acquired with very little cost (just a few million in salary and a couple of low ceiling prospects). Would be nice to land a bigger impact player but keeping the best talent we have in the farm system is more important.
Joyce can now be DFA’d. We can platoon in LF and spell Cron when a platoon split would be in our advantage.
As for Joyce … what a bummer that didn’t work out. I was real excited to see Joyce as Angel. Historically he was a complete masher of RH pitching. Have no idea what happened to him this year. He was just totally lost. Fun fact, his OPS against LH pitching this season … 262. That’s a triple slash of .048/.167/.095. Granted that’s over just 24 PA’s but still. The guy is a major league baseball player that is known for being a bat first contributor. I’m fairly certain that with 6 months of training I could hit that well against LH pitching.
I understand the Tribe is throwing in the towel on this season, as they should. But I would have expected to at least get a player we could eventually use in the future for Murphy. Stamets will never see a single day in a Tribe uniform as long as Lindor is here. Not to mention he doesn’t have a bat, which is the Tribe’s biggest concern as a whole. Seems like a really dumb trade by the Indians…a fleecing by the Angels.