The offseason is officially here. Teams will start the winter by doing a lot of roster landscaping, including acting on options. For the SF Giants, they hold a club option on veteran backstop Tom Murphy that they will almost certainly decline.
Some other roster decisions teams need to make include activitating players from the 60-day injured list and weighing whether to issue a pending free agent a qualifying offer. Eligible players will also elect free agency.
The Giants have Randy Rodríguez and Erik Miller on the 60-day injured list. They will need to be activated from it, as that lever disappears in the offseason.
Pending free agents for the Giants include Justin Verlander, Dominic Smith, and Wilmer Flores. Verlander is not eligible for a qualifying offer, given that he has received one previously. Smith and Flores are not candidates for it either.
Later in the month, the Giants will need to protect players from the Rule 5 draft by adding them to the 40-man roster, and they also have the non-tender deadline.
Before they get to that point, they have to act on the club option they hold on Tom Murphy. Murphy originally signed a two-year, $8.25 million deal before the 2024 season. This includes a $4 million club option for 2026, with a $250,000 buyout.
The Giants added the veteran bat to give Patrick Bailey a platoon complement from the right side. Murphy has put up an .822 OPS in his career against left-handed pitching, so the idea was that he would be in the lineup against those matchups.
In theory that made a lot of sense. Bailey is a switch-hitter, with the left side being his more natural swing. This gave that position more balance and a good hitter against southpaw pitchers.
Murphy also has an extensive injury history, so missing some time was well within the range of outcomes. Of course, the 34-year-old backstop collected just 38 plate appearances with the Giants before finishing the rest of his stint on the injured list.
Last spring, Murphy suffered a disk herniation in his back that kept him on the shelf for the remainder of the year. There were very few updates on him after the injury. That is usually a sign that a player is not close to returning. In an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle late in the season, Murphy claimed malpractice over the Giants’ handling of his injury. There has been no update on that claim since then, but it will likely be handled privately, if it is handled at all.
Murphy is currently listed on the 60-day injured list. Unlike Randy Rodríguez and Erik Miller, he does not need to be activated from it, as his option decision will occur before that lever disappears for the offseason. Once the Giants decline it, he will become a free agent.
