Red Sox starting pitching prospect Chris Murphy
Chris Murphy and Brayan Bello followed each other around in 2021. Both started the season in High-A, before being moved up to Double-A to end the year.
Murphy’s numbers don’t tell the full story here. In 101 1/3 innings between the two levels, he had a fantastic 128 strikeouts. However he also had a 4.62 ERA, .241 BAA, and 1.26 WHIP. Those aren’t the best numbers, but Murph is sort of the perfect example of stats not being the only indicator of a prospect.
The left-handed pitcher ran into two problems on the year. He gave up 36 walks, which isn’t terrible at all. But it felt like whenever he did run into an issue in that department, it led to runs. It was some bad luck there.
Meanwhile, he also had a problem with the longball. Murphy gave up 21 home runs, and that certainly can run you into some trouble quickly.
We also got to see the elite side of the pitcher though. There were a lot of starts where it looked like no batter could find the ball against him. It led to some absolutely dominant outings where he racked up the strikeouts and limited baserunners to bare minimums.
It’s no secret that I’m all-in on Murph. To put it in wrestling terms, he’s sort of like Jeff Hardy. You’re going to get something really exciting anytime he steps in the ring and he’ll win the crowd over immediately. Murphy does that on the mound thanks to some insanely nasty pitches. If he can get command over them it’s hard to touch his fastball/curveball/slider/changeup combo. All three breaking balls are unfair when he has it going.
Oh, and they both have phenomenal hair. All I ask is for Murph to walk to the mound with Jeff Hardy’s “No More Words” playing and do the arm swings that he does. He does that, guaranteed perfect game incoming.
The 23-year-old (will be 24 in the 2022 season) has all the tools to be a superstar. And with his College experience, he could move up the ladder quickly. However, he still has just 134 2/3 innings pitched in the minors. Boston will want to start him in Double-A and let him go from there.
Murphy faces an uphill battle when it comes to making his MLB debut in 2022. He isn’t on the 40-man roster and a few other top pitching prospects are. It’s not impossible though thanks to that College experience. He could fly up quickly if he comes out of the gates strong. Still though, for now I think we’re going to sadly go with “cool” on the temperature meter.
When he does make it to the show, he’ll be ready though.