SWING OF THINGS
A’s rookie Murphy has made big impact both behind and at the plate
OAKLAND >> The baseball world might’ve learned Sean Murphy’s name as his tworun home run went sailing into the Oakland Coliseum’s left-field bleachers.
It was a knock that jump-started the A’s come-from- behind, wild- card clinching Game 3 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday and put the rookie catcher squarely in the spotlight.
That booming swing aside, Murphy isn’t a loud baseball player.
As a catcher, he keeps a low profile behind the plate, poring over copious notes on every hitter he squats behind with a budding ability to frame within the strike zone with the best of them. In spite of his limited experience, Murphy has been a fountain of knowledge and stability for a wide-ranging group of pitchers. He takes the responsibility seriously.
“I’m only one-ninth of the offense,” Murphy once said, “but I’m one-half of the
battery.”
Even with his quiet focus behind the dish, Murphy is at his loudest while swinging over it. Yes, as we saw Thursday, Murphy talks with his bat. Through this short season, the 25-yearold has demonstrated a keen eye and ability to consistently hit for both eyepopping power and finesse.
Murphy has become the A’s best hitter this year. How?
Let’s start with the fun stuff; Murphy has perhaps the most potent swing on the team, rivaling Matt Olson and Matt Chapman.
“It’s really impressive honestly,” A’s assistant hitting coach Eric Martins said. “Him and Chapman are neck-and-neck in terms of power on the team. It’s an aggressive swing. He lets his bat fly through the zone. He’s got that sound. He’s up there. I don’t know who I would pick over him and Chapman. That’s saying something.”
It’s in the numbers. Murphy is averaging a 92.2 mph exit velocity on the contact he makes. Before his season- ending hip surgery — an injury that could have altered his swing a bit — Chapman led the team with 93.6 average exit velocity.
Olson and Chad Pinder are up there with 92.3 mph exit velocity averages each. Chapman’s hard-hit rate sat at 51.7 percent, with Murphy coming in at 49.4 percent. Murphy’s power has resulted in some of the A’s longest home runs of the year, including a 464-foot solo shot in Arlington that nearly took out a cameraman in center field of the new Globe Life Park. He’s hit eight of them, including Thursday’s game- changer, that have all traveled far.
“He has bad intentions every time he swings it,” Martins said.
But Murphy’s bad intentions are measured. While Chapman and Olson can barrel up baseballs with the best of them, they struggled with their plate discipline this year in particular, striking out at clips well above league average. For many of the game’s better hitters this odd season, Martins says, the broken routine can cause uncharacteristic extremes at the plate.
Murphy, though, has the eye of a catcher who aids his own at-bats. His study habits come into play on both ends.
“As a catcher, he knows what the umpire is gonna call. So that’s at his advantage,” Martins said. “All those things factor into it. He does a good job studying pitchers seeing how they’re attacking us.”
Murphy has a middling 26.4 percent strikeout rate but ranks in the league’s top 10 in walk rate — he’s walking in 17.1 percent of his at-bats. He’s batting a yawn-worthy .233 but has a .364 on- base percentage. His .821 OPS is second only to Robbie Grossman’s .826.
“He knows his swing, he controls his own. He stays in the zone,” Martins said. “He had good OBP this year, rarely swings out of the zone. That’s what low maintenance is. You look at swing and set up and you think it would be high maintenance.”
Murphy’s setup is unique for a 6-foot- 3, 225-pound catcher. He’s closed off with a full swing.
Because most of spring training is spent getting on the same page with a pitching staff, catchers can get off to a flying stop at the plate once the regular season begins. With a truncated second camp this year, Murphy fell victim to a cold start that had him toiling in the bottom of the lineup — where he still stands. Through the season’s first 13 games, Murphy was batting .167 with 13 strikeouts and six walks.
But he isn’t one to show outward frustration. He’ll simply make a few comments under his breath after a tough at-bat.
“He’s as cool, calm and collected as you see on TV,” Martins said. “He gets frustrated but rarely shows it.”
Murphy hasn’t changed much in his professional career. If anyone knows it as well as him, it’s Martins. The hitting coach worked with Murphy throughout his minor league career and saw him grow into his own with the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators before his call-up in August 2019.
Mar tins knows that Murphy tries to swing himself out of his frustrations in the cage. It amounts to a few extra angry hacks as he tries to find something through a bit of trial and error.
“He’s not gonna yell, he’s not gonna scream,” Martins said.
Martins saw a way to nudge the young slugger, though. One day, mid-skid, Martins showed Murphy side- by- side video of his at-bats this year and a successful at-bat with the Aviators. They saw that Murphy, who’s already close off, was not getting enough separation and over-rotating to a point that he was cutting himself off. A small, but key, adjustment to making sure Murphy was getting his most powerful and timely swings off.
In September, Murphy slashed .277/.424/.638 with a 1.062 OPS, hitting five of his seven regular- season home runs.
“Nothing too major with Sean over years I’ve had him,” Martins said. “Been a touch up here and there.”
Touches are just that — discrete. Enough built up to shape Murphy into the A’s most dangerous hitter — timely and powerful — as Oakland prepares for its first ALDS since 2013 against its AL West rival, the Houston Astros.
Murphy’s three- walk night in a September win over the Astros caught their veteran manager, Dusty Baker, off guard.
“We’re pitching Murphy like he’s Johnny Bench or something,” Baker said after that game.
Murphy wasn’t offended by the comment, wondering if it was even a slight at all. His teammates, including the game’s starter, Mike Fiers, thought maybe the Astros pitchers saw what the league is now seeing.
“Maybe he could be (Bench) if you throw him strikes,” Fiers said.