John Ryan Murphy 'excited' to step into backup catcher role for Pirates

Until a few days ago, John Ryan Murphy didn’t know whether he would start the season on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 30-man roster, their taxi squad or be sent to their alternate training site in Altoona.

That was nothing new to a 29-year-old catcher on his fifth team in eight seasons, so Murphy did the only thing he could and prepared for every possibility.

“Honestly, it’s been kind of my life going into spring training the last handful of years, so I would say I’m kind of comfortable,” Murphy said. “I’ve known I’ve had to earn a spot, regardless of the situation in last handful of seasons, so I took this season as the same. I had the same idea as soon as I signed with these guys in the offseason.”

Murphy’s role with the Pirates became more prominent when they announced Saturday that backup catcher Luke Maile would miss 10-12 weeks after undergoing surgery on his right index finger Friday, effectively ending his season.

That news came a day after Maile was hit by a pitch in an intrasquad game, and it moves Murphy into the spot behind Jacob Stallings on the catching depth chart. Andrew Susac is likely the third catcher.

“I’m excited, personally, to step into that role,” Murphy said. “That’s obviously a good thing for me moving forward. But you never want to see anything like that happen to anybody, regardless of who they are or what position they play. I went into spring knowing that it would probably be a competitive situation — and it was, all the way up until a couple of days ago. Moving forward is the only thing we can do, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Like Maile, the 5-foot-11, 205-pound Murphy is known more for his defense than his bat. Murphy has a career .219/.265/.357 slash line with 18 home runs and 59 RBIs. After breaking in with the New York Yankees — he caught in Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera’s final appearance — Murphy has played for Minnesota, Arizona and Atlanta the past four seasons.

While Murphy batted only .158 (3 for 19) with the Pirates in spring training, all three hits were home runs, including a grand slam against Baltimore. Murphy spent the three-plus months of the sport’s shutdown studying the pitching staff, especially their second-half games. Right-hander Joe Musgrove has confidence in Murphy, calling him “one of my favorite guys on the team” and noting they get along well.

“I’ve gotten to throw to him three times during the summer camp, so he’s got a good feel for what I like to do and how my pitches move and stuff,” Musgrove said, “so it was something about him behind the dish and a calmness about him and a certain presence that just fires me up, man.”

So, as much as losing Maile is hard to swallow, manager Derek Shelton took comfort in knowing the Pirates brought extra catchers to spring training and that he wasn’t having to break in a new backstop just days before they open the season Friday night at St. Louis.

“We still have Murph here, which is good. We feel really strongly about that,” Shelton said. “Anytime you lose catching depth, it dings you a little bit, but I’m really happy that we have Murph here to be able to catch. It would be different if it was someone we were bringing in from the outside, but both guys were with us in spring training. Both of them have knowledge of our pitchers.”