Colorado Rockies: Analyzing and Grading the 2016 Catchers

TOM MURPHY: 2016 GRADE C+, fWAR 0.8

Pending any offseason moves, the Rockies number 10 prospect is expected to win the starting job for the 2017 season. As a September call-up in 2016, Murphy demonstrated his most exciting tool … he can rake. The issue way he hasn’t gotten to the Bigs before his year 25 season is his lack of defense, which brings back nightmares of the Wilin Rosario experiment … and now Hundley’s inability to play above average defense. This coming Spring, expect the Opening Day catcher slot to be Murphy’s to lose.

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In 2016, Murphy only played 21 games at the big league level. Obviously, his playing time is not a great indicator of how consistently Murphy will perform but two major things occurred. First, he proved that his hitting and power tools are legit. In 49 plate appearances, Murphy hit 5 dingers to accompany a .273 average. In comparison, Wolters hit 3 home runs in 230 plate appearances.

As a native of New York, Murphy grew up as a Yankee fan and attended Buffalo, where he would be named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year in 2011. Subsequently, Murphy was drafted in the third round of the 2012 draft and appears poised to lead the Rockies catching corps into the future.