John Ryan Murphy had another disaster of a game Sunday. The Twins' No. 2 catcher was 1-for-6 at the plate, was unable to stop a bounced curve in a key situation (Trevor May's eighth-inning wild pitch) and, of course, committed the two-out throwing error in the bottom of the 15th that allowed Washington to extend the game to the 16th, when they won.
I predicted at the start of the season that Murphy would eventually supplant Kurt Suzuki as the regular catcher. Off what we've seen so far, it's incredible that he made it through the entire 2015 season with the Yankees. He's got to be a better player than this, but we aren't seeing it.
Murphy's hitting .094 with a .246 OPS -- that's on-base plus slugging, not his on-base percentage. In 79.2 innings caught, he has been victimized for seven wild pitches and one passed ball. Suzuki has 90.2 innings with no passed balls and four wild pitches.
Suzuki hasn't hit much either, but he's in no danger of losing his job to Murphy.
Assuming that Murphy has an option left, it might seem logical to move him to Rochester, but earlier in the weekend the Twins inexplicably waived John Hicks, the third catcher on the 40-man roster. He was snatched up by Detroit.
The Twins presumably wanted the 40-man spot for a non-roster guy they want to call up, but they didn't make an immediate move. I find it difficult to believe they thought they could slip a decent defensive catcher with options through waivers. I also doubt that they'll try to create another 40-man opening so they can add Juan Centeno or some other catcher. Murphy is staying.
But there certainly will be roster moves today after that disaster of a weekend in Washington.
It did seem to be a strange move?
ReplyDeleteEssentially they have created a situation where a position of need now becomes a more critical need?