Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images 2018 rating: 3.89
2017 rating: 3.11
2018 salary: league minimum
2018 performance: 87 games, 1 PA, .202/.244/.375 = .619 OPS
2019 status: 1st-year arbitration
The 2018 Diamondbacks had a roller-coaster season. But of all the players, few had a more roller-coaster season than John Ryan Murphy. On June 1, he had a .950 OPS, having hit eight home-run in just 83 plate-appearances. With Alex Avila’s OPS on the same date being less than half that (.453), the fanbase were increasingly vociferous for Murphy’s playing-time to replace that of Avila. But then the script flipped: Murphy batted only .155 the rest of the way, with an even lower OPS of just .418. At one…
