New news to affirm old news about the Giants’ backed up backup catcher.
We’re still in a transitional phase as beat writers shift social media platforms, so it’s not often that I see a bona fide update about the San Francisco Giants on Bluesky from Alex Pavlovic, but thank goodness I did, because this was a big one:
Giants say Casey Schmitt and Tyler Fitzgerald could begin rehab assignments tomorrow. Also Tom Murphy will be reevaluated in six weeks.
Schmitt’s oblique strain and Tyler Fitzgerald’s rib fracture are both injuries that could linger making “could begin rehab” quite the load-bearing phrase with no guarantee that a rehab assignment would proceed smoothly. Both would seem to be setup for a return towards the end of that 20-day rehab window even if all goes well. I omitted both from my lineup assessment earlier today, but Fitzgerald in particular could provide a much needed punch.
That leaves the seldom mentioned, often forgotten backup catcher and would-be fill-in DH Tom Murphy. The 34-year old celebrated that birthday on the 60-day IL, about six weeks after the team had diagnosed him with a mid-back disc herniation. We’re now a little more than six weeks out from that 60-day IL assignment and here we have the Giants announcing that it’s going to be another six weeks before he’s even looked at again. So, July; and, if all goes well, he’s back on the major league roster after the All-Star break.
Do we expect it to go well with Tom Murphy?
Rather than write in such a way that it seems like I’m dumping on the guy, let’s work backwards from the obvious: a catcher with back troubles doesn’t seem like a catcher with an easy problem to solve. All of our joints and muscles are connected, and I cannot imagine a crouch to catch a pitch or the torque on a swing to hit a ball are forces conducive to healing an injured spinal disc. I imagine he’s been in a lot of pain for most of 2025 and that really, truly stinks.
About two months ago, Brady wondered if he’d already played his last game for the Giants. I guess we can never say never — especially with Sam Huff not really providing Tom Murphy’s expected pop and Max Stassi not hitting at all in Triple-A — but this feels about as slam dunk as it gets when it comes to predicting baseball. Tom Murphy is Tommy La Stella who was Mark DeRosa who was John Johnstone and was signed hurt, basically. I guess passing a physical is twice as valuable as an injury history or maybe there’s a difference between signing a guy to a low-value deal versus a 13-year megadeal. The Giants gambled on a power-hitting backup catcher and lost. Why are we still talking about his chances of landing on the Giants’ roster?
They’re paying him $4 million in 2025 whether he plays an inning or not and they’re on the hook for $250,000 as a buyout regardless. That’s literally it, and I think it’s funny to watch the team contend with that. They’re not in a position to eat the money, but as long as he is really injured like this, they can keep him on the IL and a 40-man spot free or simply maintain options in case he comes back and is good enough to use or move. His 60-day stint began March 27th (Opening Day), so they’re preempting his earliest possible reactivation date of May 27th by a couple of weeks with this announcement.