Ranking The Rockies: 31 Tom Murphy

We at BSN Denver are running a series where we rank how valuable each of the Colorado Rockies’ 51 players was to the team in 2015. Value was calculated by statistics, viewing, and how memorable each player’s contributions were. The rankings will be from last to first, you may view the full rankings (here)

Player: Tom Murphy

Stats: 11 G, 39 PA, .257 AVG, .333 OBP, .543 SLG, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 116 wRC+, -0.2  WAR

Big Moment: Sep 19, Sep 21, Sep 23, In back to back to back starts Murphy hit a long ball. The latter two of the three were both three-run home runs. Although the Rockies were 1 and 2 in those games Murphy showed his power potential very early in his young career.

Season Recap: My colleague Seth Klusmire wrote about Murphy not too long ago. He discussed the injuries that plagued Murphy most of the 2014 season, but in 2015 the fully healthy backstop’s potential was realized. He started the year with the Double-A New Britan Rock Cats, playing 72 games before making an appearance for Team USA in the Pan-Am games. Murphy got the call up to Triple-A in late July playing in 33 games for the Isotopes. Later he made his big league debut for the Rockies as a September call-up after both Nick Hundley and Michael McKenry ended the year on the DL.

What’s Ahead: Murphy and/or Dom Nunez are the catchers of the Rockies future. Nunez, a left-handed batter played the 2015 season at Single-A Ashville and is still a few years from playing at Coors Field. Murphy, however, could start the 2015 season as the Rockies backup catcher. The 24-year old is in the mix with Dustin Garneau to spell Nick Hundley. Murphy has a bright future and if the Rockies are lucky they could have a future great platoon in the form of Murphy and Nunez. At the very least Murphy will get his shot sometime in the 2016 season to show if he can be an everyday catcher.