Through three seasons and 115 games with the New York Yankees, catcher John Ryan Murphy hit exactly four home runs in 284 plate appearances. Nevermind that Yankees Stadium is a bonafide hitters’ park, the former 2nd-round pick had Hall-of-Fame bats all around him (not when they were over-the-hill either) and still couldn’t muscle them out of the park very often. Nope, he notched a round-tripper just once every 65.5 at-bats during his time in pinstripes.

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Despite an affordable contract and a .280 combined average during his 2014-2015 campaigns, the Yanks shipped him off to Minnesota for a guy that’s regularly in their lineup these days — Aaron Hicks. At Target Field, however, he didn’t hit homers or for average in 2016 (.146 BA and 1 HR in 82 ABs) and was relegated to Triple-A to start the 2017 season. A .222 average followed with just four homers (194 ABs), leading Murphy to get shipped off again to Arizona’s farm system. And this is where things started to shift for John Ryan Murphy.

At Triple-A Reno, Murphy hit .284 and earned a late-season call-up with the big club. He only received seven at-bats during the 2017 MLB season but obviously showed something to the new brass running the D-Backs’ ball club. I mean, he had enough upside that Torey Lovullo opened the 2018 season with three catchers on the Opening Day roster — Murphy being third on the depth chart.

And what a solid decision it was…

Because of serious struggles by No. 1 catcher Alex Avila and his back-up, Jeff Mathis, Murphy got a shot at legit playing time.

The former Princeton Tiger is now on pace for his first season with over 100 games played (42 so far) and already has more home runs this season than his entire five-year MLB career leading up to 2018. And before you say that it’s because Chase Field is a hitters’ park, half of JRM’s dingers have been on the road.

John Ryan Murphy Home Run Totals & AB per HR:

2013 : 0, N/A

: 0, N/A 2014: 1, 81.0

1, 81.0 2015: 3, 51.7

3, 51.7 2016: 1, 82.0

1, 82.0 2017: 0, N/A

0, N/A 2018: 8, 13.1

How unbelievable is that? Eight long-balls in 42 games after hitting just five in his first 146 games.

It should be also be noted that Murphy has more hits, home runs, runs scored, and total bases than Avila and Mathis COMBINED. Most impressively? The two guys who were ahead of JRM on Arizona’s Opening Day depth chart have had 49 more at-bats.

John Ryan Murphy 2018 Stats vs. Alex Avila/Jeff Mathis Combined:

Hits: Murphy, 27 — Avila/Mathis, 22

Murphy, 27 — Avila/Mathis, 22 HR: Murphy, 8 — Avila/Mathis, 2

Murphy, 8 — Avila/Mathis, 2 Runs: Murphy, 16 — Avila/Mathis, 11

Murphy, 16 — Avila/Mathis, 11 TB: Murphy, 56 — Avila/Mathis, 31

Avila, of course, is a former All-Star and Mathis has had a long MLB career spanning more than a decade. Murphy, currently on a modest $558k salary, is making 12-times less than the two veterans (combined $6 million).

Per ESPN, Murphy is on pace for 19 home runs this season.

As for Yankees’ fans, they’re happy with Gary Sanchez behind the dish for them. And for that matter, they’re happy with Aaron Hicks (the guy they gave up for John Ryan Murphy). But if nothing else, they must be super surprised that the 5-foot-11 backstop is putting together such a good season.

Below: John Ryan Murphy (#36) going deep against the Miami Marlins

You can see JRM’s career stats here on Baseball Reference.

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