Red Sox sign David Murphy to minor league deal

The Boston Red Sox have signed veteran outfielder David Murphy to a minor league deal.

David Murphy’s career has come full circle.

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports that the Boston Red Sox have signed Murphy to a minor league contract, bringing the 34-year old outfielder back to the organization that drafted him with the 17th overall pick in the 2003 amateur draft.

Murphy hit .283/.318/.421 with 10 home runs over 391 plate appearances split between stints with the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels last season. Those are solid overall numbers, but his production plummeted after being traded to the Angels, where he hit only .265 and saw his OPS drop 100 points.

The lasting impression of his late season slump convinced the Angels to let him go, but the Red Sox are willing to take a flier on him. Murphy will provide the organization with additional outfield depth in the event that one of their young outfielders doesn’t pan out or is sidelined by injury.

We know that Mookie Betts is a lock to be in the team’s outfield plans for the foreseeable future, ideally joined by Jackie Bradley in center field and Rusney Castillo in left. Murphy provides a contingency plan in case either of the latter two fail to live up to expectations. Bradley is a defensive wizard that provides enough value with his glove to warrant a roster spot so long as he recaptures at least a portion of the potential at the plate that he showed last August, but he’s yet to show that those flashes of brilliance are sustainable. There are even more questions surrounding Castillo, who still needs to prove that he’s worthy of an everyday role at the major league level.

The Red Sox also have Chris Young in the mix, but he’s best served in a platoon role deployed exclusively against lefty pitchers. Murphy’s left-handed swing would be a perfect complement to split time with Young given that his career .278 average against right-handed pitching dwarfs Young’s .224 mark.

Red Sox fans may remember Murphy from his time as a prospect rising through their minor league system or the brief 23 game sample we saw of him in Boston when he was first called up to the big leagues. He collected 6 hits in 28 at-bats in parts of two seasons before the Red Sox traded him to the Texas Rangers in 2007.

Now he’s back with the Red Sox, looking to compete for a spot on the roster. He’ll earn a cool $2 million if he makes it on to the big league roster, a potential bargain if he plays to the potential he showed earlier in his career.

Familiarity with the organization would typically stand to work in a player’s favor, but this is a much different looking front office from when Murphy was here last. Also consider that Murphy’s competition includes Brennan Boesch, also signed by the Red Sox to a minor league deal by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who knows Boesch well from their time together in Detroit.

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Murphy would appear to be a long shot to break camp with the Red Sox, but keeping him on standby in Pawtucket as an insurance policy seems to be a wise move given the uncertainty of Boston’s outfield depth chart. A lot would need to go wrong for Murphy to become a fixture in the Red Sox lineup, but if he performs well at the Triple-A level then he may be rewarded with some time in Boston later this season.