The San Francisco Giants are still deciding who their backup catcher is going to be. One of the players under consideration for the job has just received some tough injury news.
Tom Murphy signed a two-year contract with the Giants before the 2024 season. However, he played in just 13 games last year because of injury problems. In those 13 games, the veteran catcher was not great. He slashed .118/.211/.235 with only one home run, two RBI and four total hits.
Even with the poor play during his first season with San Francisco, Murphy was in line to backup Patrick Bailey behind the plate to begin 2025.
Per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, the backstop has been dealing with back spasms and will undergo an MRI to find out what the problem is.
Tom Murphy has had some back spasms and is getting an MRI today. The thinking is it isn’t major but with Murphy coming off a season in which he played only 12 games because of a knee injury, that’s going to be frustrating.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) February 16, 2025
The belief is the injury is not a serious one. The MRI is just a precaution considering his history and age. Still, the injury is going to hold him out for the time being, which will put a damper on his hopes to win the backup job out of Spring Training.
This is not the first time Murphy has been injured. He has faced setbacks in the last couple seasons.
In his final two seasons with the Seattle Mariners, the former third round pick appeared in just 61 total games. His play was much better than what he showed in 2024, though. In those 61 games, Murphy hit .292 with an OPS of .879. His strikeout rate was high, but he was worth 1.7 Wins Above Replacement. These numbers gave San Francisco enough reason to give him that two-year deal.
The Giants were hoping he could return to be a solid bench bat and backup catcher, but that was clearly not the case. San Francisco was planning on hosting an open competition for the backup catching job anyways, so this injury news is not the biggest deal.
For now, Sam Huff, Max Stassi and Logan Porter will all be fighitng to take Murphy’s place when Spring Training games start next week.
The 33-year-old is hoping this injury will not set him back multiple weeks. However, if it does, he could be put on the IL when the season starts. But if it is a lingering issue, and the New York native struggles to play through it, he could be released before Spring Training ends without the Giants having to pay too much money.
Murphy is hoping it does not come to that. In the meantime, he will be out as he recovers from these back spasms.
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