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  • Twins Sign Veteran OF David Murphy To Minor League Deal

    Seth Stohs

    By Seth Stohs

    The Minnesota Twins announced that they have signed veteran outfielder David Murphy to a minor league deal. The Red Wings announced he will be there on Friday. It is likely he will not spend much time in Rochester before joining the Twins.

    Image courtesy of Kim Klement, USA Today

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    The 34-year-old Murphy is best known for his years in Texas where he hit .275/.337/.440 (.777) over seven seasons. He spent 2014 and the first half of 2015 with Cleveland before being traded to the Angels in the second half last year. He went to spring training this year with the Red Sox.

    Of course, this starts an interesting debate about a couple of things.

    First, when he is called up to the Twins, whose spot on the 25-man roster will he take?

    • Max Kepler would be a likely candidate as he is already not playing a lot.
    • Byron Buxton could be sent down, allowing Murphy to play in left field with Eddie Rosario moving over to center (or Kepler).
    • Could Murphy be a bench bat and replace Oswaldo Arcia?

    That brings us to the second part of the question. When the Twins call him up, he will have to be added to the 40-man roster? Who would come off of it?

    There are several candidates, of course, but if it is Arcia, that would kill two stones with one bird (as our friend Domingo Ayala might say).

    When I initially heard this news this morning, I thought maybe he would just get some time in the Rochester outfield as Adam Brett Walker has missed several days already with a strained oblique, but Murphy will be brought up quickly.

    What do you think will happen with this over the next few days?

    Seth Stohs has been blogging about the Minnesota Twins since May 2003. A founder and owner of Twins Daily, Seth has been a Twins fan for 40 years and has a passion for covering the minor leagues and prospects.
    Follow Seth Stohs on Twitter: sethtweets

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    Featured Comments

    Hosken Bombo Disco

    Hosken Bombo Disco 15,870

  • Community Leader

    • Posted

    Arcia has 5 PA on a team sliding to 0-9 with just 14 runs in those 9 games. 5. I just don't get it. And now this? Crazy

    He clearly has done or said something offensive or personal against Molitor or Ryan. That's what I'm going with. Because the excuse in the past for not playing him was he struck out too much. His defense isn't great but it's not as bad as people portray it to be. I wish someone would explain it to the rest of us rubes.
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    nicksaviking

    nicksaviking 26,755

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

     

     

    Per Wolfson he gets a pro-rated $1.15M if he makes the MLB club.

     

    I hope that's incentive enough for him not to make the club. I'm worried he won't be riding pine allowing young players to develop if he makes the team.

     

    I think I'm mostly frustrated because there doesn't seem to be a plan for developing the young guys and building the team. Maybe they're not, but it really seems like they're just winging it at this point and they've been winging it since last year. It worked for awhile, but hasn't since about last June.

     

    Edit: well I can't copy the link for some reason, but it's probably not even worth figuring out why.

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    Brandon

    Brandon 2,195

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    While the Twins have been bad the combined records of the teams they played so far is 19-5 or 10-5 when not playing the Twins.  The Twins could have won 1 or 2 of those games and most of the games they were in.  I think the Twins aren't as bad as their record but any hopes of competing and being above .500 this year are becoming less likely by the day. 

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    nicksaviking

    nicksaviking 26,755

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

     

    While the Twins have been bad the combined records of the teams they played so far is 19-5 or 10-5 when not playing the Twins.  The Twins could have won 1 or 2 of those games and most of the games they were in.  I think the Twins aren't as bad as their record but any hopes of competing and being above .500 this year are becoming less likely by the day. 

     

    The Twins losses may be able to be explained away, but their lack of hitting and making contact really can't. They haven't been facing elite pitching. Pretty sub-elite in fact. If they were losing games 10-9, that would be one thing.

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    Jgcarew

    Jgcarew 8

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    7 games back b4 tax day. Where's my refund? Too late to wish upon Aaron hicks or Carlos Quentin. Can't send the whole outfield down. Can't teach top prospect to protect his hands. Kid's a loser.

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    h2oface

    h2oface 7,066

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    7 games back b4 tax day. Where's my refund? Too late to wish upon Aaron hicks or Carlos Quentin. Can't send the whole outfield down. Can't teach top prospect to protect his hands. Kid's a loser.

     

    In Hicks' small sample of this year... he was 1/11 so far just now when I checked. He would have fit right in!

     

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    diehardtwinsfan

    diehardtwinsfan 14,830

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

     

    Good god. I mean, really?

     

    Just. Go. With. Youth. Now. And. Take. The. Bumps.

    Two years two late, but it still needs to happen. This is a silly signing (in that they clearly want him to do well quickly in AAA to join the Twins). What a joke.

    Don't trade your CF for a backup catcher.

     

    That CF is hitting worse than the Twins right now:

     

    .091 .167 .091 .258

     

    Now that's impressive... 

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    Darius

    Darius 2,741

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    All you can do is laugh at this point. TR is just an awful GM (I'm sure this will be censored...because heaven forbid you talk straight about TR around here).

     

    Do people honestly think the Twins still have a chance to win anything this year? Then, if so, honestly think that Murphy will contribute to that in any way? I'm sorry, but he's not fixing a darn thing.

     

    They're 7 games out for the division, and the season isn't even two weeks old yet. It'll likely be 9 by the time the Angels leave town. Three teams in the division look pretty darn good (Royals, Sox, Indians). Let's get real here, folks. It's over.

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    Deduno Abides

    Deduno Abides 2,674

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

    Way too early to give up on 2016.. 

     

    Murphy is better than Quentin or Sweeney.

     

     

    That's like saying Pelfrey is better than Correia.

     

    No team plays the 2015-16 version of David Murphy unless it has given up on 2016 AND thinks it's younger players would be better off in the minors instead of learning and auditioning in the majors. There's no future with David Murphy and it's unlikely there's more than a replacement level present.

     

    (Thinking about my last comment - we should call him the "Candlestick;" he's what you get when you can't think of anything else.)

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    jorgenswest

    jorgenswest 5,941

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Murphy doesn't shake up the roster. Trading Plouffe or Dozier would shake up the roster. Trading top young players or prospects for an established player with some years of team control would shake up the roster. Firing Molitor would shake up the roster. I am not advocating for a shake up but those moves would do it.

     

    Signing a replacement level aging outfielder to a AAA contract is a meaningless move. If management thinks otherwise, they are clueless. If they compound it by exposing a young player to waivers they are beyond clueless.

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    Seth Stohs

    Seth Stohs 23,732

  • Owner

    • Posted

     

    That's like saying Pelfrey is better than Correia.

    No team plays the 2015-16 version of David Murphy unless it has given up on 2016 AND thinks it's younger players would be better off in the minors instead of learning and auditioning in the majors. There's no future with David Murphy and it's unlikely there's more than a replacement level present.

    (Thinking about my last comment - we should call him the "Candlestick;" he's what you get when you can't think of anything else.)

     

    I'll stand by them not giving up on this year, but I will say that they absolutely should care about what is best for the young players' development. 

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    curt1965

    curt1965 717

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Seriously, when I saw this, I had to check the date to see if it was April 1.

    I'd much rather have the Twins finish 0-162 than have something like this happen. It sends a terrible message to the fan base, who right now are more than a little frustrated!

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    USAFChief

    USAFChief 58,010

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

    I'll stand by them not giving up on this year, but I will say that they absolutely should care about what is best for the young players' development.

     

    I hate giving up on seasons. I fully endorse not giving up on this year, but I think the time to strengthen the team was over the winter. And the way to do that wasn't and isn't by giving a starting job to this type of player.

     

    Now that we're in April, and the plan was to go with the OF they have, I'd prefer they just have the courage to let it play out, at least for longer than April.

     

    It would be hard to read major changes now as anything other than an admission they didnt really have faith in their opening day plan on opening day. That's not an encouraging thought.

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