California Health Notes: Murphy, Ohtani, Bellinger
Here’s the latest from out west, with a focus on the health situations of a trio of important players …
- Athletics catcher Sean Murphy is firmly on the mend after an offseason medical scare, Matt Kawahara writes for the San Francisco Chronicle. He discussed his recovery from a collapsed lung, noting that it was quite a bit more terrifying before medical professionals informed him that he could anticipate a relatively swift recovery. Murphy underwent an additional procedure to protect against a recurrence. Though he’s delayed to open spring camp, the top Oakland backstop says he’s “really optimistic” of being fully ramped up in time to get behind the dish on Opening Day. Murphy, 26, will look to establish himself as a first-tier MLB performer after mashing out a .237/.355/.491 slash through his first 200 plate appearances.
- Angels hurler/slugger Shohei Ohtani is under the microscope as he looks to get his pitching career back on track. As Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports on Twitter, Ohtani appears to be in a good place from a velocity perspective. The righty says he’s working comfortably in the mid-nineties in bullpen sessions and has touched 97 mph. When last we saw Ohtani in top form, during his brief but scintillating 2018 debut, he was averaging nearly 97 mph with his heater. The hopefully resurgent two-way player is also now toying with a changeup as he fine-tunes his arsenal.
- Dodgers superstar Cody Bellinger seems to be making a strong bounce back from offseason shoulder surgery, as Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register writes. Bellinger, who memorably dislocated the joint in an over-exuberant NLCS home run celebration, says he’s “way ahead” of the anticipated schedule for his recovery. Given his progress to this point, the 2019 MVP says he’s “100 percent” sure he’ll be ready to roll on Opening Day. That’s obviously quite welcome news for the Los Angeles powerhouse. While the Dodgers are perhaps baseball’s deepest team, there’s no replacing a player of Bellinger’s ability. And the club is facing its sternest intra-division test in some time in the form of a talent-laden Padres outfit.
Athletics’ Sean Murphy Undergoes Knee Surgery
Athletics catcher Sean Murphy underwent a lateral meniscal debridement procedure on his left knee today, as per a team announcement. The surgery addresses the meniscus problems that plagued Murphy this season (leading to a pair of stints on the Triple-A injured list), and the young backstop “is expected to be ready for Spring Training.”
Knee surgery isn’t exactly the best way to celebrate a birthday, as Murphy turns 25 years old today. But, given how the youngster performed in his first taste of MLB action even while not at 100 percent, a clean bill of health makes Murphy seem like an even more intriguing prospect going forward, and a strong candidate to assume the everyday catching duties for the Athletics for next season.
Murphy hit .245/.333/.566 with four home runs over his first 60 Major League plate appearances, all but one of which took place in September. With the A’s battling for a wild card berth, Murphy’s performance earned him an increasingly larger share of the playing time alongside veteran catcher Josh Phegley, and Murphy ended up getting the start in Oakland’s wild card game loss to the Rays.
After three impressive years at Wright State, Murphy was a third-round pick for the A’s in the 2016 draft and continued to impress as he worked his way up the minor league ladder. Murphy hit .267/.341/.456 over 966 career PA in the minors, showing up strong offensive potential to go along with his highly-touted defensive skills. Fangraphs ranks Murphy as the 29th-best prospect in baseball, with MLB.com (43rd) and Baseball America (52nd) also issuing strong placements on their top-100 prospects lists.
Athletics Select Sean Murphy
Sunday: The A’s have confirmed Murphy’s promotion.
Saturday: With the end of August ushering in the expansion of MLB rosters, the Athletics are set to promote catcher Sean Murphy to make his Major League debut when the calendar turns to September, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com.
Murphy, 24, is regarded as the Athletics’ best position-player prospect and is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 44 overall prospect in baseball. A 2016 third-round draft selection, Murphy has caught scouts’ attention with his refined defensive game behind the plate, drawing rave reviews for his arm strength to go along with developing game-calling, blocking, and receiving. His defensive-minded profile means that he has all the makings of a solid MLB regular, even if he never actualizes his full offensive potential.
That’s not to say that there isn’t some offensive talent here, though. Spending the 2019 season at Triple-A, Murphy has enjoyed the best offensive season of his career. With a .293/.384/.580 batting line, Murphy has posted a 135 wRC+ this season—meaning that he grades out 35% better than average—an impressive mark even when considering the boosted offensive environment in Triple-A. Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs project Murphy to be “a high-contact bat with doubles power” as a Major Leaguer, no doubt an acceptable profile by catcher standards.
In Oakland, Murphy will join the current combination of Josh Phegley and Chris Herrmann behind the plate, the only other catchers on the 40-man roster. On the whole, that duo has provided lackluster offensive production from the catcher position, so Murphy could step into semi-regular playing time in his first taste of the big leagues. With the A’s promoting another highly-regarded prospect, Murphy could represent a sort of late-season reinforcement for a team in position to return to the postseason. Having recently promoted top prospect A.J. Puk and in position to welcome back Sean Manaea, Oakland looks to have strengthened its roster for the season’s final month without having to make any transactions.
West Notes: Athletics, Giants, Rangers
Let’s take a look around the majors’ West divisions…
- With the Athletics looking to add a third catcher when rosters expand, they’re set to choose between minor leaguers Sean Murphy and Dustin Garneau, manager Bob Melvin told Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. “There will be a lot of talk leading up into Sunday on who that will be,” Melvin said. The more hyped option is certainly Murphy, one of the best prospects in baseball (MLB.com ranks him 44th). The 24-year-old has gotten his first extensive action at the Triple-A level this season and laid waste to enemy pitchers, whom he has teed off on for a .337/.415/.702 line (158 wRC+) with 10 home runs in 123 plate appearances. However, injuries have led to an abbreviated campaign for Murphy, and the A’s might not promote him yet if they don’t expect him to garner much playing time. In that case, the edge would go to the veteran Garneau, who was with Oakland earlier in the season before it outrighted him to Triple-A on Aug. 19.
- The Giants are shutting down right-handed reliever Trevor Gott for two weeks because of a Grade 1 UCL sprain and a flexor strain, according to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. Surgery’s not an option at the moment, fortunately, and manager Bruce Bochy’s hopeful Gott will pitch again this season. If not, this will go down as an encouraging year for Gott, whom the Giants acquired from the Nationals for cash considerations in February. While Gott has put up an unappealing 4.44 ERA in 52 2/3 frames, he has also notched a 3.12 FIP with 9.74 K/9 against 2.91 BB/9 and almost doubled his swinging-strike rate since last year (from 5.6 percent to 10.8).
- More from Baggarly, who tweets that righty Johnny Cueto‘s another Triple-A start away from rejoining the Giants. The 2018 Tommy John patient’s scheduled to take the ball Saturday, after which the Giants hope to activate him. That would seem to align with Bochy’s Sept. 8 projection for Cueto. The Giants’ playoff hopes are all but dead at this point, but they’ll nonetheless be glad to welcome Cueto back in advance of 2020. Next season will be the second-last guaranteed campaign of the six-year, $130MM contract San Francisco handed the then-ace prior to 2016.
- The Rangers are contemplating September promotions for hard-throwing minor league relievers Joe Barlow and Demarcus Evans, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Neither pitcher is on the Rangers’ 40-man roster, which is full, but the team plans to add the soon-to-be Rule 5-eligible pair in the coming months anyhow, as Grant notes. The 23-year-old Barlow has largely mowed down pro hitters since he joined the Rangers as an 11th-round pick in 2016, though he has struggled over his first 15 1/3 Triple-A innings this season. Evans, 22, was a 25th-rounder in 2015 who has risen to Double-A ball for the first time this season. He has overcome a high walk rate there (5.4 per nine) to post a microscopic 1.08 ERA with 14.58 K/9 in 33 1/3 innings.
Athletics Sign Cameron Rupp To Minor League Deal
The Athletics have inked Cameron Rupp to a minor league deal, as was first noted on MLB.com’s transactions page. It doesn’t appear that there was a formal announcement from the organization, but Rupp has already logged a pair of games with Triple-A Las Vegas. He was released from a minor league pact with the Tigers last week.
Rupp, 30, hit .254/.329/.366 in 79 plate appearances with Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate but is best known for a five-season stretch with the Phillies from 2013-17. Rupp hit a combined .234/.298/.407 with 39 home runs, 57 doubles and a pair of triples through 1127 plate appearances in his time with the Phils, serving as their primary backstop for the final two seasons of his tenure there.
While Rupp has some pop in his bat, as evidenced by a career .173 ISO (slugging minus batting average), he’s been too strikeout prone at the dish (28.7 percent). Behind the plate, he’s thwarted 31 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in his career, which is slightly above the league average, while drawing questionable framing marks — particularly in 2017.
The Athletics have received perhaps surprising production from 31-year-old Josh Phegley behind the plate this season (.282/.313/.491), which has led to Phegley receiving considerably more playing time than veteran Nick Hundley. The 35-year-old Hundley inked a minor league contract this winter and broke camp with the A’s this season, but he’s hitting just .200/.228/.327 through his first 57 plate appearances.
The signing of Rupp comes not long after the A’s received some unwelcome news on top catching prospect Sean Murphy, who suffered a torn meniscus that required surgical repair (as initially reported by The Atheltic’s Melissa Lockard, on Twitter). That procedure should sideline Murphy into mid-June, if not longer, so Rupp will team up with Beau Taylor to hand catching duty in Vegas for the time being. Offseason signee Chris Herrmann is also recovering from knee surgery — his coming back in March — thus further depleting the organization’s depth at catcher.
Athletics’ Chris Herrmann Undergoes Successful Knee Surgery
TODAY: Herrmann’s surgery was a success. Per a team release, “The surgery was performed by Dr. Douglas Freedberg and involved a chondroplasty procedure to Herrmann’s central trochlea of his right knee as well as cleaning up loose bodies in the knee.” He is set to be reevaluated sometime in the coming couple of weeks.
March 6: Athletics catcher Chris Herrmann is headed for arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, manager Bob Melvin and trainer Nick Paparesta revealed to reporters Wednesday (Twitter links via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). There’s no timetable for Herrmann’s return at present, as the extent of the damage won’t be fully clear until doctors are performing the operation. What’s currently known is that Herrmann requires a cartilage cleanup, the removal of some bone spurs and the repair of a fissure in the problematic knee.
The Herrmann injury likely ensures that non-roster invitee Nick Hundley will make the Opening Day roster alongside holdover Josh Phegley. Top prospect Sean Murphy could conceivably have been an option, though Slusser tweets that the organization doesn’t want to rush him at this point. The 24-year-old Murphy has logged just one full season in Double-A and only three games of Triple-A ball to this point in his career, so it’s not a surprise that the organization feels he’s in need of continued development. If the A’s choose to look outside the organization, defensive standout Martin Maldonado remains unsigned and could certainly give the Oakland organization an experienced, glove-first option behind the dish.
Herrmann, 31, signed a one-year, $1MM contract with the Athletics back in early December after being non-tendered by the division-rival Astros, who’d previously claimed him off waivers from the Mariners. Last season was a productive one for Herrmann with Seattle — albeit in a small sample at the MLB level. In 87 trips to the plate as a Mariner, he slashed .237/.322/.421 with two homers, four doubles and a pair of triples. While he’s had some brief flashes of success in the Majors — most notably with the D-backs in 2016 — Herrmann’s career .205/.282/.351 batting line in 898 PAs between Minnesota, Arizona and Seattle doesn’t exactly stand out.
Both Herrmann and Phegley are out of minor league options, so once Herrmann is healthy, the A’s will need to make a decision as to how to proceed with their catching corps, as it’s highly unlikely that Oakland would look to carry that pairing and Hundley for a significant period of time. Beyond that, Murphy may well force his way onto the big league roster in 2019, which will only add another layer to the decision.