New Pirates catcher John Ryan Murphy seeks bounce-back year

It seems only fitting John Ryan Murphy will be in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ spring training camp next month.

The veteran catcher, who signed a minor league contract Jan. 10 as a free agent, was born and raised in Bradenton, Fla. He attended many Pirates Grapefruit League games at what was called McKechnie Field (now LECOM Park) while he was growing up.

“I guess my career has come full circle,” Murphy said with a laugh.

Of course, it would be an even cooler story if Murphy grew up a Pirates fan. Alas, he was a Boston Red Sox devotee, understandable because the Pirates have been a sub-.500 team throughout most of the 28-year-old’s life.

Murphy has a vested interest in the Pirates now, though. While he will be at camp as a nonroster player, he seemingly has a shot to make the opening-day roster as he will compete with Luke Maile to be Jacob Stallings’ backup.

“I wanted to try to find a place where I had an opportunity to make an impact, and Pittsburgh looks that way,” said Murphy, who became a free agent for the first time in his career after being removed from the 40-man roster by the Atlanta Braves at the end of last season.

Murphy also is impressed with the new regime of general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton. Their task is to get the franchise back on track after the Pirates went 69-93 and finished last in the National League Central last season.

“I like being around good people,” Murphy said in a phone interview. “I think it might be a good fit for me. It’s kind of a transition phase for this organization, and it’s an opportunity to be a part of building something. So that’s all exciting for me.”

Murphy played in just 26 major league games last season: 25 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and one with the Braves. He spent most of the year in the minor leagues. That came after he played a career-high 87 games for the Diamondbacks in 2018.

Murphy is not bitter about last season’s turn of events. He’s a realist.

“People always say it’s hard to get to the big leagues and even harder to stay, and that’s definitely true,” Murphy said. “The game is better and faster than it’s ever been. Once you get exposed to the big league life, you never want to be back at Triple-A. Knowing how the game works, how much better players are now, it forces you to have to get better, though.”

Murphy’s strength is defense as he has hit just .219/.265/.357 with 18 home runs in 259 games over seven seasons with the New York Yankees (2013-15), Minnesota Twins (2016), Diamondbacks (2017-19) and Braves (2019).

However, Murphy has thrown out 29% of runners attempting to steal, slightly better than the 28% major league average, during his career.

Statcast ranked Murphy sixth among major league catchers in pitch framing in 2018, and he was 11th in Baseball Prospectus’ metric.

“Defense was ingrained for me coming through the Yankees farm system. That’s what they preach,” said Murphy, New York’s second-round draft pick in 2009. “They made it a priority from the day I signed — partially because I wasn’t very good. That is definitely something I pride myself on.”

Murphy graduated from The Pendleton School in Bradenton, which is part of the IMG Academy, a training center for professional and amateur athletes. The forerunner to IMG was the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, and Murphy’s mother was one of the original employees in 1978.

Murphy had the opportunity to observe many major leaguers train at IMG, including former Red Sox star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra.

“Nomar was my favorite player on my favorite team, so naturally I’d always watch him hit,” Murphy said.

“One day he took the time to talk with me, play catch with me and just spent about a half-hour talking with me about baseball. That made a pretty big impact on me. It’s something I’ll never forget.”