Colorado Rockies Top 25 Under 25: No. 8: Tom Murphy

 

Welcome to the BSN Denver Colorado Rockies Top 25 Under 25 where we will rank the organization’s best players who will be 25 years-old or younger on Opening Day 2017.

Our parameters for this list may be different than others it resembles so let us be clear about them:

1. The list was created entirely by the BSN Rockies staff and had no other input from any outside sources.
2. While giving credit for overall (or trade) value, we prioritized an ability to help the MLB club win immediately.
3. In accordance with this, we also prioritized players with fewer question marks but potentially lower ceilings.
4. Statistics were considered on equal level with scouting reports in addition to our own field reporting.

Our observations come through a combination of spending parts of each of the past four (going on five) seasons on the ground on the backfields at spring training and through our regular reporting from Rookie Level Grand Junction, talking to coaches, scouts, and journalists both on and off the record. Of course, countless hours are spent on MiLB.tv and combing over public reports from other credible sources.

No. 8: Tom Murphy, 25 (C)

Ranking Tom Murphy was especially difficult for the committee at BSN Denver. On the one hand, we aren’t projecting him to get the majority of the starts behind home plate in 2017, with Tony Wolters’ glove carving out space for him to be the rock behind the dish.

With the extra help Wolters can give on nearly every pitch to a young staff in an offensive environment, combined with Murphy’s potential value as a scary power threat of the bench late in games, the latter’s at-bats are likely to be limited to less than 375 which could keep his stats down.

However, backup catchers almost always get playing time. The Rockies gave 317 at-bats to Nick Hundley a year ago, 230 to Wolters, and 49 to Murphy. With Hundley out of the picture, Murphy is slated to slide into a similar role to what Wolters fulfilled last season but will almost certainly be used more as a pinch-hitter. Whether Murphy’s impact bat demands a few extra starts or not remains to be seen, but either way he should get more than the average at-bats for a backup and he has already shown an ability to do damage under those circumstances.

Catcher WAR can be a bit difficult since even the most ardent statheads will tell you that there are so many things that backstops do that is very difficult and maybe even impossible to measure. That being said, it is interesting to note that the five home runs, .659 slugging percentage, and 145 wRC+ Murphy put up last season meant he reached 0.8 fWAR, nearly matching Wolters’ 0.9 despite having a quarter of the playing time.

While that particular stat is inconclusive, it speaks to the general theme of this challenging question. Can Murphy’s at-times insane offensive output make up for his defensive shortcomings? It’s not that he is especially bad back there, he’s still just a bit raw defensively and represents a dramatic drop off from Wolters. Of course, injuries can also play a role in making these decisions for you.

Ultimately, the committee believes in Murphy’s bat enough to think he can make a dramatic impact no matter the role he ends up in. His 2017 could end up with him serving as the glue guy a la Seth Smith back in the day, getting plenty of high-leverage at-bats and a decent number of starts. But he also has the talent and ceiling to emerge as a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate. It just seems unlikely he will get quite enough run to get into that conversation. He’s got 30 home run power, though again, unlikely he gets enough time to get to that mark.

But the fact that his talent is on that level is why he is ranked No. 8 on our list. Every National League team could use a player like Tom Murphy, but not everybody has one. Being the go-to pinch-hitter is an important role and when you can combine that with starts at catcher you’ve got something special.